WW1 Tour (Belgium / France)

This IRISH tour is for anybody who wishes to learn about The Great War and the IRISH participation and anybody who wishes to visit the graves or memorials to their fallen relatives.
If you wish to visit a grave or a memorial and do not know where it is, give me as much detail as possible i.e. Name, Regiment, DOB etc. and I will attempt to locate it for you. We will then do our best to bring you to the spot where your relative is remembered.

The trip will be an enjoyable and emotional experience. You will enjoy it. Military, serving and retired, civilians, old and young will be on this tour and it will be a very sociable trip. The tour guide will be Colonel Heaslip (Retd). An Irish WW1 expert.

This tour should be a pilgrimage for people from all parts of Ireland and for Irish all over the world. This historic area, where ten’s of thousands of Irish Soldiers met their death is one of the few areas where troops from the 16 (Irish) Division and the 36th (Ulster) Division fought together against a common enemy.

On 07 June at 0310 the attack was announced by the detonation of 1,000,000 pounds of high explosives. It is said that the sound of the explosion was heard in Dublin. When the battle was over the two Divisions celebrated together. In First World War terms the casualty figures were low. 16 Division had 748 KIA and WIA and 36 Division had 700 killed or wounded!
Some famous men are buried here including Major Willie Redmond M.P and Cpl Frances Ledwidge and Pte John Condon.

Our tour is a special one. In addition to looking at the strategies and tactics of the Irish units in combat, we will also hear stories of individual soldiers and visit their final resting places.

We will fly Dublin-Charleroi. The following day we will visit the Mons area to include the area where the opening and closing shots of the war were fired. We will also visit museums and cemeteries in the area. The next day will include a visit to the Ieper (Ypres) area and visit the Tyne Cot Cemetery, Langemark German Cemetery, the graves of Pte John Condon and L/Cpl Francis Ledwidge. Sanctuary Wood and Hooge Crater and the Flanders Field interpretative centre will also be visited. The evening will see us participating in the Menin Gate ceremony where we will lay a wreath in remembrance of all the Irish fallen. If you are entitled to wear head gear and medals/decorations, please bring as it will add so much to the ceremony.

We will also visit the area where the 16th (Irish) Division and the 36th (Ulster) Division were in action together, the Irish Peace Park and John Redmond's grave.

The next day we will visit more Irish cemeteries at Mount Kemmel and Irish Farm. Also, Redmond’s grave, the Island of Ireland Peace Park, 16 Division memorial and much more. The final day we will see Passchendale and Tyne Cot and have time for some shopping/free time etc. before heading for the airport.
See programme for full details.

Find out more about the programme