Gorey Fire Station gets the keys of a new Volvo B fire appliance for Gorey Fire Station in 2005. The Fire Station is Open to th public on Thursday evening. Archive Photo: John Walsh
Gorey Fire Station will be a participant and opening its doors to the public at 18.30 hours (6.30 p.m.) this Thursday, July 9, for the 30,000th Last Post event which can be followed live in the fire station from 18.50 hours.
This event is to commemorate the fallen soldiers of World War I at Gorey and worldwide.
The 30,000th Last Post will sound under the Menin Gate (The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing) in Ypres, Belgium, to commemorate the fallen soldiers of WW1.
Originally, the Last Post was the clarion call which announced the end of the working day in British and other armies.
Since 1928, The Last Post Association has organised a ceremony under the Menin Gate in Ypres, where this clarion call echoes (with the exception of the WW2 war years 1940-1944) every evening at 20.00 hours, day after day, the Last Post is the ultimate tribute to the fallen and missing of the First World War.
The Last Post Association aims to preserve this ode forever, in wind and rain, snow or sunshine, the Last Post buglers do not miss a day to bid farewell to the fallen at the Menin Gate.
The Menin Gate Memorial to the missing collects the names of 54,897 casualties of the former Commonwealth, whose bodies have never been recovered.
Traditionally, the buglers of the Last Post Association are recruited from the local fire station, hence that is why they wear the fire brigade uniform. Gone West, the cultural programme commemorating the First World War, would like to pay tribute to the worldwide solidarity among fire-fighters with an ‘Ode to Ode’.
