Ten Soldiers of the Great War

Tomorrow marks 100 years to the day since the start of the Battle of the Somme. Everyone's heard of it, but it's significance is lost to many.

Representing how futile trench warfare was, there were 60,000 casualties on the first day alone, with 20,000 dead - and that's just on the Allied side. Well over a million people became casualties of this battle. Over a million. It's hard to even comprehend that many deaths.

It was a humbling experience visiting the Somme last week. History is written by the victors, and this is irregular for me, but I'd like to honour those who put their lives on the line so far from home all the way back then. Especially those from home, without whom we wouldn't even have been in France following the Northern Irish football team, for there'd have been no Northern Ireland; no Our Wee Country.

"I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday, the 1st. July, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world." (Cpt Wilfred Spender, 2 July 1916)

Lest we forget.

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