Taoiseach lays wreath at Remembrance Day ceremonies

Enda Kenny attends commemoration at Cenotaph in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh

Taoiseach Enda Kenny lays a wreath as crowds gather for Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Taoiseach Enda Kenny for the fourth year in succession has travelled to Enniskillen to participate in the Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Mr Kenny joined politicians such as the DUP's Arlene Foster and Ulster Unionist Party MP to lay a laurel wreath among the red poppy wreaths at the war memorial in the Co Fermanagh town.

Mr Kenny was remembering both the dead of the first World War and the 12 people who died and the scores who were injured when an IRA no-warning bomb exploded at the war memorial in Enniskillen in 1987.

Queen Elizabeth II attends the annual Remembrance Sunday Service at the Cenotaph in London. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, lays a wreath of poppies at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony at the Cenotaph in central London on Sunday. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan joined First Minister Peter Robinson and Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers to lay a laurel wreath at the cenotaph in Belfast.

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Speaking ahead of the ceremony, Mr Flanagan said: “I am pleased to represent the Irish Government for the second year at the Remembrance Sunday commemoration at Belfast City Hall. Men and women from across the island and from all traditions were involved in the First World War, and today’s ceremony is an important opportunity to reflect on their lives and to recognise the impact that this conflict had on countless thousands of families.”

In Britain Remembrance Sunday was being lead the Queen. The monarch was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh and members of the leading political parties at the Cenotaph in central London.

A two-minute silence took place at 11am and wreaths were laid at the foot of the Whitehall memorial, followed by a veterans’ march. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — whose anti-war stance is well known — attended and wore a red poppy.