One hundred years ago, as the First World War was continuing at its height, families all across the country were thinking of their loved ones on the front line. 
The Battles of Verdun, the Somme, Guillemont, Ypres and Passchendaele are all being remembered as their 100th anniversaries come round.
This Remembrance Sunday, families will be remembering their loved ones, some who fought and died and others who fought and returned home scarred with awful memories.
One family has every reason to be proud. The Lunny family from Aghalane were well represented in the First World War.
A total of nine first cousins served together at the same time during the First World War and notably during the Battle of the Somme. All returned home except one who was killed in action. 
It’s difficult for us to imagine the scene from that first day of the Somme. But Captain Gallaugher, of the 11th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers described that morning of July 1 in a letter to his mother; “We got up at about 4am. It was a lovely morning and everything looked very fresh and the men were in the best of form. We had a cup of cocoa and got busy seeing that the men had theirs. Half an hour before starting time we went to our various posts, the men were all smoking and joking. I went to the platoon that I was going along with and as there was no officer I went to the Platoon Sergeant. He says to me, ‘Are you coming with No. 13 Sir, and I said ‘Yes Sergeant I’m going with you,’ so he shook hands and said: ‘The best of luck Sir’ and I returned the compliment.”
On July 2, Major-General Oliver Nugent, who commanded the 36th(Ulster) Division, relayed his emotions to his wife; “My dearest, the Ulster Division has been too superb for words. The whole Army is talking of the incomparable gallantry shown by officers and men. They came out of the trenches, formed up as if on the barrack square and went forward with every line dressed as if for the King’s inspection, torn from end to end by shell and machine-gun fire. We are the only Division which succeeded in doing what it was given to do and we did it but at a fearful cost.”
In the comfort of the farmhouse that has been in the Lunny family since the 1800’s, Albert Lunny reflected on the service of his father, James who served with the 11th Battalion, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and James’ brother Robert and their cousins. James trained at Finner Camp in 1914 and was one of the fortunate soldiers who served at the Battle of the Somme and survived the onslaught that injured some 58,000 men, killing a third of them on the first day. James returned home but took a long time to settle back to farming life.
James Lunny never spoke much about his experience in the trenches or seeing destruction all around him, but he did return to the scene of the battle, during the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme in 1966 when he along with other veterans, was invited by Captain Terence O’Neill for a pilgrimage to the Ulster Tower at Thiepval for the anniversary event.
James lived a long life. Having been born in 1889, he was older than most soldiers at the Western Front and died in his 97th year in 1986 and saw all his grandchildren born.
Albert explained how his father was injured, suffering shell fragments to his arm. He was brought back to England where he recuperated in a military hospital in Nottingham but returned to the Front.
Albert’s uncle, John Robert Lunny was 91 when he died in 1974 and had emigrated to Canada. He served with the Winnipeg Grenadiers and was injured during the Battle of Passchendaele but returned to Canada, where he became the District Fire Chief.
Albert said his father was deeply upset for many years after as a result of losing a neighbour at the Front. He had been speaking to him on the battlefield and the next day, he was killed in action.
“My father was a broken man and it took many years for him to settle, and only got married when he was 45,” said Albert, who has made three visits to the battlefields and military cemeteries.
This Sunday, Albert and other family members will be reflecting at Remembrance ceremonies in Enniskillen and their own church at Crom, and remembering those who fought for their country at one of the bloodiest battles in the history of the First World War.