June is here and the second MY ADOPTED SOLDIER project is about to take place. This time the project involves a partnership between the Irish College in Belgium, the History Teachers Association of Ireland, the Donegal Education Centre and Eileen Magnier of RTE. On June 20th a group of students from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will join students from Liebigschule, Frankfurt am Main, Germany in a project to remember soldiers from both sides who died in the Ypres region of Belgium during the horrors of World War One.
Both the Irish and German students will visit the graves of their individual soldiers in the Flanders battlefield region or they will visit the monuments in memory of soldiers who have no known grave. Students will share their stories and also work in pairs to produce learning resources that can then be used by other students in their study of World War One. All the stories of the soldiers will be uploaded onto the website.
One of the students has captured the essence of the trip when she wrote:
"It will help us realise that win or lose, it doesn't matter, the dreadful human cost of war is suffered by everyone”
This trip would not be possible without the EU funding from Marian Harkin MEP and German MEP Gesine Meissner as well as funding from Minister Heather Humphreys at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. As well as visiting the cemeteries and memorials of both the Irish and the German soldiers the students will also have a special visit to the European Parliament in Brussels.
For all the latest news on the project and trip - stay tuned to our blog