On Thursday the 31^st August next, a ceremony will be held at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, in honour of the unknown soldier and also remembering the many unknown Irish soldiers who died for France in the heroic Légion Irlandaise of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Also unknown are the burial sites of the soldiers of the Brigade Irlandaise of earlier French armies, before the Napoleonic era.

On the 31^st August in 1803, Napoleon created his Irish Legion which he later decorated with the coveted Golden Eagle for valour. It was not the custom in those times to establish war cemeteries for the fallen. So many locations of battles in Europe before the 20^th century are also unmarked burial sites, save perhaps by a battlefield monument erected many years later.

The ceremony next August, conducted by the French military, will culminate in a flaring of the eternal flame under the Arc, which this year, celebrates 100 years since the flame was first lit. Each evening since 1923, the flame is first lessened before ceremonially renewed again in memory of an unknown soldier and all who died fighting for France.

It is believed to be the first time that the role of the unknown Irish who died in French armies over the centuries since the flight of the Wild Geese has been marked in this way, by special permission of the Comité de la Flamme Sous L’ Arc de Triomphe, in conjunction with Cremona Heritage Ireland. This Irish organisation promotes the history of Irish participation principally in the armies of France and also in some other foreign armies with an Irish diaspora, from the 16^th to the 19^th centuries.

The hour long ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, in what is hoped will become an annual event, will be led by guests of honour yet to be announced. More information about the public event will be available at www.cremonaheritage.ie