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Here is a statistic that you won't hear quoted often: more Irishmen died in British uniform during the first two days of the Somme offensive than participated in the Easter Rising. The reason it is rarely cited is that it doesn't really suit anyone.

The Republic of Ireland, like every country, has a foundation myth. The image of a people rising as one against their old oppressors doesn't fit terribly well with the fact that, in 1914, the Irish Volunteers enlisted almost en masse to fight for the Crown.

Meanwhile, Northern Irish politicians, keen to portray the republic as alien, tend to remember the Somme as an exclusively Ulster affair. It is true that some of the bravest deeds of the whole war were done by the 36th (Ulster) Division, whose soldiers won four Victoria Crosses at the Somme.

But Ulstermen were a minority of the 140,000 volunteers who enlisted in Irish regiments - not counting the many Irish units raised in Great Britain, such as the 1st/8th (Irish) Kings Liverpool and the Tyneside (Irish) Battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers.

It was precisely this rallying of Irish patriots to the British cause that catalysed the 1916 rising. Republican leaders could see that war against a common foe would weld the two islands together, and needed to act at once. It worked: the British authorities dealt so brutally with the rebels that Irish opinion swung decisively behind the separatists.

Only now, 90 years later, has Dublin officially honoured the volunteers who had thought, by their sacrifices on Britain's behalf, to win the right to constitutional autonomy. The ceremony marks the final regularisation of relations between two nations commingled in their blood, culture and outlook.

"God save Ireland!" called an MP when John Redmond, the Nationalist leader, urged the Volunteers to fight for Britain. "God save England, too!" replied Redmond.