Who We're Remembering

Map courtesy of the BBC

Earlier Lib Dem Voice pointed us towards the above map on the BBC website, it reminds us that not just in the two World Wars but many other conflicts there are those that we are remembering.

It lists the conflicts and the casualties:

• Palestine 1922-48 233 fatalities
• Malaya 1948-60 340 fatalities
• Yangtze River Incident 1949 46 fatalities
• Korean War 1950-53 765 fatalities
• The Canal Zone Emergency: Egypt 1951-3 54 fatalities
• Kenya 1952-60 12 fatalities
• Cyprus 1955-59 105 fatalities
• Suez Crisis 1956 22 fatalities
• Oman and Dhofar 1962-75 24 fatalities
• Borneo 1962-66 126 fatalities
• Aden Emergency 1963-67 68 fatalities
• Northern Ireland 1969-98 763 fatalities
• Falkland Islands 1982 255 fatalities
• Gulf War I 1990-91 47 fatalities
• The Balkans 1992-2001 48 fatalities
• Sierra Leonne 2000 1 fatality
• Afghanistan 2001-present 343 fatalities
• Iraq 2003-09 179 fatalities

Not a year has gone by that our forces haven't been engaged in active duty in a conflict that some have lost their lifes since the end of the second world war. There are memorials to some of these other conflicts around Northern Ireland, or specific to Northern Ireland, that will have held services at or near them today.

Such as this on to the Royal Ulster Rifles Korean War dead, now outside Belfast City Hall.

There is also the iconic Ulster Tower at Thiepval remembering the 5,000 men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who feel on 1 July 1916 in the Battle of the Somme. Almost a half of the strength of the Division.

The memorial to the police and soldiers who gave their lives right here in Northern Ireland, during my own lifetime.

Our War Dead are just a generation that are dying they are my generation and indeed the one after me. Those who are suffering the effects of war are alive and around us today.

We will remember them, because they are still here, as well as those that have gone before.