Jim Shannon

It is a privilege to rise in this House today to speak on behalf of the good, decent, salt-of-the-earth people of my constituency of Strangford, and indeed for the loyal people right across Northern Ireland. When we look at the history of our Province, there is a golden thread of loyalty, duty and unyielding resolve that runs from the fields of France in 1916 right through to the present day. Over a century ago, when King and country called, the men of Ulster did not hesitate. They stepped forward in their thousands—from the shipyards of Belfast, the farms of the Ards peninsula and the towns and villages across Ulster—and on 1 July 1916, at the battle of the Somme, the 36th (Ulster) Division paid the ultimate price. They charged into the teeth of the German guns at Thiepval wood and the Schwaben redoubt. Over 5,000 men were killed, wounded or missing in the first 48 hours alone. They shed their blood so that tyranny would not prevail, and so that this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland might remain free. To truly understand the soul of Ulster, one does not need to read a history book; one only needs to walk through the towns and villages of the constituency of Strangford and look at the names carved into the stones of the war memorials. Every name tells a story of a young life laid down on the altar of freedom. Picture, as other Members have done, 1 July 1916 in the damp, chalky trenches of Thiepval wood. Imagine a young lad from Newtownards—let us call him Lance Corporal David John Thompson.