Belfast OutReach

“No Greater Love than This” The words which you have just read, though originally the words of ]esus Christ, became the key text for a memorial service in Newtownhreda on the outskirts of Belfast on Sunday 1st ]uly 1917. Let me tell you the very moving and interesting story which lay behind that occasion. Being remembered with great affection and admiration was the valour of a young Ulsterman, Private Williain McFadzean, who exactly one year earlier had heroically given his life for others on the first day of the battle of the Somme. That single day, ]uly lst 1916, has become distinguished as one of the worst in modern military history, registering over 19,000 fatalities and 57,000 casualties with William McFadzean one of the first to die just before 7 o’clock that morning. Billy, as he was known to his friends, was born on October 9th 1895 in the town of Lurgan where a plaque to his memory can still be seen on the external wall of the Old Town Hall in Union Street. In