Armistice Day 2025 in Dromore, Co Down: Remembering husbands, friends and fathers who made the ultimate sacrifice
Around fifty people stood in the rain at the war memorial in Dromore Co Down to observe the Armistice Day silence and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Among those present were Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood as well as a range of unionist councillors and several army veterans wearing berets.
Mary Moreland told the News Letter why it was important for her to attend and lay a wreath on behalf of the War Widows Association.
"For me personally, it's important to be here as a war widow, to remember those left behind, but also to remember all those that went to war and sacrificed their lives,” she said.
"It's really important to be with the Dromore Royal British Legion to remember those that have sacrificed everything so that I have the freedom to stand here and do this."
Mary served as a Greenfinch in the UDR and was awarded an MBE in 2020 for services to war widows, as serving as Chair of the War Widows association at the time.
Her husband John, 36, was delivering coal in Downpatrick in 1988 when he was gunned down by two IRA men.
She was made a single mother to her two young children, 12 and 10, nine days before Christmas.
"There are so many in Northern Ireland in the same boat that have suffered at the hands of terrorism," she added. "But as I always say, my legacy to John is that he would be so proud of his children, how they have grown up and continue to live - so that the IRA don't win."
During the silence, she said, those on her mind were her husband, her father, who served in the Royal Engineers in WWII, cousins who were also killed and policemen she went to school with lost their lives.
Her daughter Julie said she was there in memory of her father and her grandfather.
"I wear my dad's medal with pride, and that's why I devote some time to the Royal British Legion as well, to help others in keeping memories of their loved ones alive," she added.