Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast Róis-Máire Donnelly to lead Remembrance Sunday at Belfast City Hall Cenotaph
The Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast, Róis-Máire Donnelly, will lead the Remembrance Sunday event in the city tomorrow when she lays a wreath at Belfast City Hall Cenotaph.
The national focus of Remembrance Sunday will be the Cenotaph Parade in London, led by King Charles, with the annual march past of 10,000 veterans and eligible participants, following the National Act of Remembrance.
Dozens of parades to war memorials are planned in towns and villages across Northern Ireland to mark the date.
The South Belfast Remembrance Committee Belfast parade begins at 10:30am at Monarch Street with six bands, 500 participants and 100 supporters parading to City Way.
According to the Royal British Legion (RBL), Remembrance Sunday is a national opportunity to “remember the service and sacrifice of all those that have defended our freedoms and protected our way of life".
The date sees the armed forces and their families from Britain and the Commonwealth to recall the vital role played by the emergency services and those who have lost their lives as a result of conflict or terrorism.
As usual there will be services of remembrance in towns and villages across Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, focusing on the many war memorials that honour the names of soldiers from local communities who never came home.
The Cenotaph at Belfast City Hall will be lit in red on Sunday to mark the date.
The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Róis-Máire Donnelly, will lay a wreath at the cenotaph in the Garden of Remembrance at City Hall, on behalf of the citizens of Belfast, after a short ceremony at 11am.
Other political representatives and VIPs will attend the service and members of the public are also welcome to attend.
The City Hall grounds are open until 1pm, via Donegall Square West entrance, for people to pay their own respects.
The Belfast Cathedral service will be led by the Dean, the Very Reverend Stephen Forde, with an address by Father Eugene O’Hagan, Chancellor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor and music led by the Cathedral Choir. The live Service of Remembrance will also be broadcast from 10.30am.
On Friday Northern Ireland Prison Service Director General, Beverley Wall, laid a wreath at the annual remembrance ceremony which honours 32 prison officers who lost their lives in the course of duty. Prison staff, widows, widowers and close relatives of deceased staff, retired officers, representatives of the staff associations and the Irish Prison Service also attended the service at Hydebank Wood.
This Wednesday The Royal British Legion will lead the official observance of remembrance on Armistice Day on Wednesday 11 November at 11am, in the Garden of Remembrance at Belfast City Hall.
The Lord Mayor will again attend and members of the public are welcome for the official observance and two minutes’ silence at 11am.
Ahead of Remembrance Sunday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham asserted that the armed forces covenant’s gold standard of employer commitment “should be the norm” and pledged to take it nationwide.