Leading Article: We must never forget how we are shaped by the past

MUCH OF Britain will fall silent at 11 o'clock this morning. If only for a couple of minutes, we will mark the hour of Armistice in 1918 with silence. We will remember all those who died in so many places, the names of which evoke shudders like half-forgotten nightmares: the Somme, Gallipoli, Ypres. And although Armistice Day is especially associated with the First World War, those who have died in other, more recent conflicts - the Second World War, Korea, Malaysia, the Falklands - will not be far from the thoughts of many.

Nor will such thoughts be idle matters, for there is another conflict, as yet unresolved, which demands attention: that in Northern Ireland. It is not fashionable in these ironic and cynical days to draw lessons from history. Fascinated with the latest scandal, natural disaster or war, we forget that our world has a history; everything around us has been shaped by the past.

This is apparent in the relations of a secularised and consumerist Britain with an Ireland much closer to its memories. British politicians have, in the past, adopted the pose of exasperated schoolmasters talking to squabbling children: they have not been helped by that subconscious claim on superiority.

There are signs that this is changing. Tony Blair will soon become the first British Prime Minister to address the Irish Parliament. Yesterday, the symbolism of Prince Philip's visit to Dublin was encouraging. He walked, perhaps, where the Queen will soon follow - and on ground lost to Britain in 1921. Such gestures are not meaningless. They are a vital part of establishing normal relations between neighbours, just as much as the removal of the Republic's constitutional claim on the North or the prospective cross- border bodies.

Irish and British history has been shared: those Irish volunteers from the South, who died in Belgium and France, died alongside their British comrades. Only once, on the Messines Ridge at Ypres, did they fight alongside their Northern, Protestant neighbours. But that is just as important historically as all the atrocities the two communities have inflicted on one another. The graves at Ypres are a symbol that Ireland can be shared by two traditions, who have sacrificed so much to a mutual hatred that need never have taken hold.

A similar symbol will be the presence of the Irish President and the British Monarch on the Messines Ridge. There, they will inaugurate a peace tower built by people from both sides of the border, and from both traditions. This will be another step towards reconciliation.

Today, we will remember. But the memories can be applied to our world of arms decommissioning and "confidence building". Remembering Messines should help to make sure that fewer brave young men die in the future.