Friday 10/11/2006
Message from Colonel Mike McGovern
Ist Bn Royal Irish Regiment
I wanted to write and thank each and everyone of you for your continued
support during what has been a demanding year.
On Sunday we shall have a Remembrance Sunday of the standard that you would expect
and of which you would be proud. I have invited the families of the fallen and the
wounded to join us in a Service of Remembrance at Fort George.
We shall be remembering Ranger Stuart Shilliday, Ranger Anare Draiva,
Lance Corporal Paul Muirhead, Lance Corporal Luke McCulloch and the inimitable
Captain David Patton.
The setting is second to none and, after a ceremony in the Fort’s Chapel
led by Archbishop Eames, Primate of all Ireland, we shall move up onto the ramparts
for the Act of Remembrance and to lay the wreaths.
The view from the ramparts is truly beautiful and a most fitting location
to remember our lost brothers, not just those lost during 2006 but everyone over the years.
The Pipe Major and a Bugler will play, as they always have over the centuries.
It will certainly be a poignant day. Needless to say, and as you would wish,
the RSM has been “on fire” this week and no detail has been ignored.
The fact that we continue to receive such humbling support from past members of the Regiment
on a frequent basis has made this year much easier to bear. I am eternally grateful to you all.
The Band of Brothers lives on.
Lest we forget….
Faugh a Ballagh!