The Somme Heritage Centre is a tourist attraction and education centre in
Newtownards
Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtownard ...
,
County Down
County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...
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Northern Ireland. Opened in 1994 the centre promotes
Ireland's role in the
First World War, and especially the role of both
Protestant and
Catholic,
unionist and
nationalist in the war. It focuses on three of the volunteer divisions in Ireland;
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10th (Irish) Division
The 10th (Irish) Division, was one of the first of Kitchener's New Army K1 Army Group divisions (formed from Kitchener's 'first hundred thousand' new volunteers), authorized on 21 August 1914, after the outbreak of the Great War. It included b ...
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16th (Irish) Division
The 16th (Irish) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised for service during World War I. The division was a voluntary 'Service' formation of Lord Kitchener's New Armies, created in Ireland from the 'National Volunteers', i ...
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36th (Ulster) Division
The 36th (Ulster) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, part of Lord Kitchener's New Army, formed in September 1914. Originally called the ''Ulster Division'', it was made up of mainly members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, wh ...
See also
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Northern Ireland War Memorial
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The Cenotaph, Belfast
The Belfast Cenotaph is a war memorial in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in Donegall Square West, to the west of Belfast City Hall. Like the City Hall, it was designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas. The cenotaph was unveiled in 1929. It became a ...
External links
The Somme Heritage CentreHomepage
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ttp://www.secondworldwarni.org Second World War online resource for NI
Buildings and structures in County Down
World War I museums in the United Kingdom
Museums established in 1994
Military and war museums in Northern Ireland
Museums in County Down
Military history of County Down
1994 establishments in Northern Ireland
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