THE Remembrance Service in St. Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen was one of the main commemorations in Northern Ireland on Remembrance Sunday.

The Archbishop of Armagh and five Government representatives were among attendees at the cathedral as part of a socially-distanced Remembrance Sunday service.

The Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of All Ireland, The Most Revd. John McDowell preached the sermon at the service.

In his sermon, Archbishop McDowell spoke on the topic of Remembrance.

He said: “There is no-one alive today who actually knew someone who died in the First World War, so we’re not remembering them in the sense of 'Do you mind the time...'.

"We are calling to mind what their sacrifices achieved, and reminding ourselves that a good deal of what we enjoy today is not of our own making – we have inherited it from others.

"It is not a time for boasting, but for humility and gratitude.”

He also spoke about the Enniskillen Bombing, and said it was “33 years ago to the day when 11 people – everyone involved intimately in the life of their church, and of this community – were murdered, as though they counted for nothing".

He continued: "[There were] dozens of people injured. Hundreds left weeping with sorrow, [with] many still to this day with a hollowness in their lives which might be worked around but will never be absent.

"The legacy of our past [is] apparently a weary maze of such complexity that we have yet to find the path out towards healing and justice.

“It is easy to call it a political failure but, in truth, it is as a whole society that we have somehow not been able to rise to the challenges which events like Enniskillen have required us to face. Please God, some day we will.”

The service was arranged by the Parish of Enniskillen in conjunction with the Royal British Legion’s Enniskillen Branch, and was conducted by the Dean of Clogher, the Very Revd. Kenneth Hall.

The Government attendees, and other dignitaries, had laid wreaths earlier on Sunday morning at the nearby cenotaph.

The lessons were read by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for Fermanagh, The Rt. Hon Viscount Brookeborough, KG, and Mr. Scott Elliott, BTh.

The Act of Remembrance was led by Lt. Col. Mark Scott (Ret’d), DL Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and The Last Post and Reveille were sounded by bugler, Mr. Warren Kerr, a member of Ballyreagh Silver Band.

The Piper’s Lament was played by Pipe Major Gordon McKeown, 4 UDR Association.

The prayers were led by The Rt. Hon. Revd. Monsignor Peter O’Reilly, from St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church.