Early start tomorrow morning for Derry’s Battle of the Somme centenary celebrations

Derry’s celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme will begin early tomorrow morning.

A lone piper lead around 50 members of the Apprentice Boys to a wreath-laying ceremony at the War Memorial in the Diamond and minute’s silence at 7.28am, 100 years from the time the battle began on 1 July 1916.

The parade will leave the Apprentice Boys’ headquarters in Society Street at 7.15am, returning 30 minutes later.

Later in the day, church services, wreath-laying ceremonies and parades will be held on the cityside and in the Waterside areas of the city.