Remembering those who sacrificed their lives and did not get to see our improved world

It was Armistice Day on Thursday and it will be Remembrance Sunday tomorrow.

There will be ceremonies across Northern Ireland after a much quieter set of remembrances last year amid the Covid restrictions.

The pandemic is ongoing and in some respects is spreading as rapidly as it has done since it emerged in the Province in the winter of last year.

But the success of the vaccine rollout has not only been a break on the spread but has been critical in keeping down hospital admissions at a time of high infections.

To acknowledge as much is not to be complacent but to recognise latter successes in controlling coronavirus that make a return to normality conceivable.

It is now more than a century since the Great War, which was followed by its own pandemic, Spanish flu, one that was far more deadly to younger people than is Covid.

Life 100 years ago was in almost every respect much more difficult than now – in terms of conflict, absolute poverty levels, educational standards, life expectancy, transport, overseas travel, working hours, leisure time, and the sort of gadgets that make daily life less arduous.

In 1921 the globe was not just emerging from a disastrous conflict, it was heading slowly into another one.

Tomorrow we remember those who gave their lives for a cause greater than themselves. They did not live to see any of the steadily improving world that we take for granted.

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