Sir, - We can confirm from first-hand experience Kevin Myers's description of the park and round tower at Messines/Messen (An Irishman's Diary, April 2nd).
In February, we spent a weekend in Belgium locating the grave of an uncle who died while serving in the British Army in 1940 (we shouldn't confine these discussions solely to the Great War). Having successfully completed that task, we drove on to Messines.
Our impression, like that of Kevin's Belgian informant, was that someone had shut the gate after the ceremony last November and walked away. The wreaths laid at that time lay withered on the ground. There were no signposts of any kind in the town or on the road, and anyone who did not know the origin or purpose of the park or the tower would have been baffled.
On the day of our visit, the fields of Flanders were wreathed in thick mist - eerie and not inappropriate. The charitable assumption was that work had been suspended for the winter and would resume with renewed vigour. The people we set out to remember, of all faiths and cultures, deserve no less. - Yours, etc., David and Carol Reynolds,
Victoria Avenue, Bray, Co Wicklow.