History has an uncanny way of folding in on itself. Visitors to Robben Island - Nelson Mandela's former prison home - sail there on the Susan Kruger, named after the wife of Paul Kruger who was South Africa's prime minister at the time of the Boer War. Among the Irish voices raised against the British army's role in fighting the Boers was that of Member of Parliament Willie Redmond. When Redmond was killed in the first World War - ironically as a major in the British army - his seat in west Clare was won by Eamon de Valera.

Tomorrow, when the Royal Dublin Fusiliers' Association holds its annual Christmas dinner, members will raise their glasses not only to the memory of those Irishmen who fought and died in the uniform of the British army but also to the women left behind to rear their children single-handed. This year, especially, they will remember those who died in the Anglo-Boer War for, just 100 years ago, the Dubs were in the thick of it when the Boers launched the attack that was to start the war, near the South African town of Dundee.

And because one of the association's aims is to promote reconciliation and understanding between Irishmen, they will remember also those who died fighting alongside the Boers. These included John MacBride whose grandson, Robert MacBride - then living on Death Row - was one of the first people Mandela visited on his release from prison. The Royal Dublin Fusiliers' Association has been growing steadily since it was founded in 1995. Not all its members, however, are from Dublin. Indeed, not all are from the Republic: "We have members in the North," says founder Tom Burke, "people - some of them unionists - who had fathers or grandfathers or brothers in the Dubs. After all, the poppy was not discriminatory: it grew over all graves in Flanders fields." Two years ago, at Ypres, he found himself laying a wreath with the former deputy Mayor of Enniskillen, Unionist Sam Foster, now a Northern Ireland government minister.

Tom Burke has collected some of the letters of young Fusiliers including one from Willie Redmond of Land League Cottages, Ballyfermot, and another from Jimmy Walsh from Dublin's inner city, who travelled the long road to South Africa: "Dear Chriso . . . I know I was a bad character but I hope yous all will forgive me now . . . Remembrance to Eliz, Mrs Buckley, Paddy and all the neighbours." Remembrance was all they had, for James never came home - which is why his name is to be found on the granite arch at the entrance to Dublin's St Stephen's Green. The arch, sometimes known as Traitors' Gate, was erected in memory of the officers and men of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who died in the Anglo-Boer War.

And, with a further turn in history, tomorrow night's dinner will be held in the Masonic Hall in Molesworth Street - Dublin's only purpose-built Freemasons' meeting place. But then, in these strange times, everything is changing.

When caretaker Paddy Fennell showed me round the sumptuous ceremonial rooms with their thick carpets, thrones, enormous bibles, Egyptian sphinxes - each topped by seven red, electric candles - and with the motto Sit Lux et Fuit Lux (Let There be Light, and There was Light) inscribed everywhere, the dining-room was still recovering from a 21st birthday party thrown the previous night for a young woman in the FCA.

The Royal Dublin Fusiliers' Association's event is likely to be more of the same, for its members are not known for their reluctance to come forward with songs and stories of the first World War - some more barrack room than others. They will find themselves musically challenged, though, by their guest speaker, Peter Simkins, former senior research historian at London's Imperial War Museum and himself something of a jazz pianist. And overseeing the whole cheerful event will be the oil paintings of a few GrandMasters in their mason's aprons, among them John Hely-Hutchinson (7th Earl of Donoughmore) who, with his wife, was held hostage by the IRA for four days in 1974 pending negotiations relating to the Price sisters - who came off their hunger strike soon afterwards. Strange days indeed.

Royal Dublin Fusiliers' Association tel: 01- 6794260. The Masonic Hall Museum, Molesworth Street, Dublin, is open to the public every day during office hours