Perhaps ironically, the time from which attitudes relating to those who served in WW 1 began to change could be attributed to the successful efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland. The Third IRA Cease Fire in July 1997, followed by the Belfast Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, coincided with the extraordinary achievements of Mr Glen Barr, a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the then Senator Paddy Harte, to concieve and have built, the Island of Ireland Peace Park near Messines, Belgium to highlight the role played by both catholics and protestans in WW1. The Peace Park, dominated by an Irish Round tower was opened on 11th November 1998 (attended by elected members from every County Coucil in Ireland) by President Mary McAleese, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth 11 and King Albert 11 of Belgium. In her speech the President said; “Today’s ceremony at the Peace Park was not just another journey down a well-travelled path. For much of the past eighty years, the very idea of such a ceremony would probably have been unthinkable. Those whom we commemorate here were doubly tragic. They fell victim to a war against oppression in Europe. Their memory too fell victim to a war for independence at home in Ireland.” The relief at the end of the violence in Northern Ireland encouraged and allowed a general desire throughout the whole island, for reconciliation. This has been accompanied by various acts of local recognition of the role Irishmen played in WW1 in particular but also in WW2. Historians Myles Dungan, Keith Jefferys, and Terence Denman amongst others wrote a number of books relating to Ireland and Irish Regiments in WW 1 in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. And then Irish Times Correspondent Kevin Myers conducted an almost lone battle to encourage official recognition that so many Irish had participated and been killed in that war. In 1992 President Mary Robinson attended the Remembrance Service in St Patrick’s Cathedral, the first time a President had done so, and she continued to attend each year until she retired. Her successor Mary McAleese has done so each year she has been in office and a Government Minister also now attends. In many locations in Ireland, individuals and groups began initiatives to remember those from local areas who had given their lives. Some of these initiatives attracted official attendance. An early instance was the rededication in August 2004 of a headstone of a Connaught Ranger at Westport Co Mayo, who had been awarded the Victoria Cross and whose headstone had not been so inscribed. On local initiative a new headstone was inscribed and the then Minister of Defence, Michael Smith T.D. officiated at the dedication and the British Ambassador was amongst a large number who attended.
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