First Irish ceremony marking Somme battle sacrifice

France:Some 210 Irish people from North and South celebrated St Patrick's Day with an inter-denominational service on the windy hillside beside the Ulster Tower in Thiepval, the Somme, yesterday.

It was the first St Patrick's Day ceremony commemorating the shared sacrifice of thousands of young men from the 36th Ulster Division and 16th Irish Division in the 1916 Battle of the Somme.

Four pipe and brass bands, from Donegal, Tyrone and Strabane, accompanied the ceremony.

"In Ireland, they are called Protestant and Catholic," said Paddy Harte, the former Fine Gael TD whose Island of Ireland partnership organised events in Ypres, Belgium, on Saturday and at Thiepval in France yesterday. "Over here, they're all Irishmen." He added: "I suspect it was the same in the first World War."

A highlight of St Patrick's Day in Paris was the Mass in Irish at Saint-Étienne du Mont church, beside the Pantheon, yesterday. Fr Declan Hurley, chaplain of the Irish College, officiated.

Children laid Irish and French flags, two bowls of shamrock and a St Brigid's cross on the altar. Ambassador Anne Anderson read the first lesson, in Irish. The Irish College provided drinks and parishioners brought food for a reception afterwards.

The most unusual St Patrick's Day activity was doubtless the reburial in Narbonne Cathedral of the 18th century Archbishop Arthur-Richard Dillon. Dillon was of Irish origin and fled to France with the Stuarts. He left during the revolution, died in London and was buried in St Pancreas cemetery. His remains were discovered, intact, during work on the Eurostar station two years ago.

Bord Bia, the Crafts Council of Ireland, Eurodisney, the Centre Culturel des Portes de l'Essonne and the Festival Interceltique have all organised St Patrick's events, some of which continue until early April.