The event was organised by Glenn Barr as part of efforts to use the history of the Great War to show that nationalists and unionists can find common cause.

During the First World War the unionist 36th Ulster Division and the nationalist 16th Irish Division first served beside each other at the Battle of Messines in 1917.

On June 7, 1917, the 36th Ulster Division were serving alongside the 16th Irish Division, near Loker in Belgium when Major Willie Redmond, an Irish Nationalist MP at Westminster, was injured during an intense period of bombardment.

John Meeke was a stretcher bearer in the 36th Ulster Division and his orders were to rescue wounded soldiers from the battlefield, and to bring them back to the field dressing station for medical treatment.

The story of Private Meeke's rescue of Major Redmond has inspired the establishment of a peace initiative in Belgium by Mr Barr, through the Maydown Ebrington Group. It hosts visits from many sections of the community, including former paramilitaries, politicians and schoolchildren.

A 128-bed peace village has opened in Messines, where the Maydown Ebrington Group had previously established the International School for Peace Studies.

Mr Barr hopes the Messines Peace Village "can promote mutual understanding and respectful tolerance of difference by remembering the soldiers from both sides of the community who lost their lives during the war ".

He has said he hopes the example of the soldiers from the 36th Ulster Division and 16th Irish Division, whose respect for each other grew as they fought side by side in the trenches, will help bring modern generations closer together.

He said: "John Meeke, the unionist, treated the wounds of nationalist MP Willie Redmond, a man from a different tradition. When he went out to treat him he didn't see somebody from a different tradition he saw a fellow human being.

"There was a window of opportunity that was lost 90 years ago and we want to reopen it. We won't change who we are but we can treat each other with respect."