BBC Northern Ireland's Chris Capper reports for BBC News Online from Arromanche, Normandy

Beneath the balcony of my apartment building in Arromanche, the band of the Royal Irish Regiment led the second group of Normandy veterans to the Parc 6 Juin for the parade and commemoration in front of the Queen.

The crowd, already cheering the several hundred veterans, shouted louder as the pipes of the band started up.

Reflection and remembrance were never far away

It was not the most disciplined of marches.

As they are in their 80s, these veterans moved slowly, but they clearly enjoyed being on parade again, led and guided by the parade-ground yells of regular Army NCOs brought in for the day.

Many of the veterans were smiling in the hot sunshine that lit up the chests full of medals, many of them won for their part in this most successful of campaigns that led to the liberation of Normandy.

In the square, the French Mayor spoke of the gratitude of people there for what the British achieved in 1944 and how the bravery of the men before him, and all those who died, is, and always would be, remembered.

After the Queen expressed the gratitude of the people of Britain for their action, she moved among them with the Duke of Edinburgh, before departing to a Royal gun salute from a naval vessel sailing off the Arromanche shore.

The veterans dispersed. There were none of the distinctive hackles (the feathers worn on their headgear) of the Northern Ireland regiment, the Royal Ulster Rifles.

The Queen met Canadian veterans in Bayeux

Their two tour groups decided to take the opportunity to visit some of the locations of particular significance of them.

One of those places was visited by Prince Charles on Saturday.

Pegasus Bridge over the Caen canal was the first part of France to be liberated, an objective vital to the successful invasion.

Billy McConnell of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles pointed out the place where the gliders carrying them to France landed near the bridge.

The area had already been taken when they arrived, but on 7 June they were in action, and taking their first casualties.

Mr McConnell did not mind admitting that he was very scared.

He added: "Anyone who says they weren't is telling lies". He said it was difficult to move on when a comrade was wounded, but that was what they were trained to do.

French and British united for a parade at Pegasus Bridge

With him was another Northern Ireland veteran, John Jenkins from Carrickfergus, who landed on D-Day with the Royal Engineers.

Shells and rockets were being fired at the beach as he built a metal runaway for vehicles to use to cross the beach.

As the two men moved through the crowd which had gathered for the visit of Prince Charles to meet veterans (including Mr McConnell), they were frequently applauded.

Two elderly French women stopped, clapped their hands, saying "Bravo, bravo".

It happened to most of the veterans there and was a moving experience, even for someone with no connection to those events.

For the family members who were walking beside their proud and dignified fathers and grandfathers, the tears could not be resisted.

That respect and gratitude, to which they feel they are not exposed back home - except perhaps in their British Legion - was one of the reasons veterans enjoy coming back to Normandy.

The main reason, though, was to remember their comrades who will never return.

Veterans of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Ulster Rifles were at the Dedication of the Garden of Remembrance at the British Memorial, another event attended by the Prince of Wales.

D-Day veterans received anniversary medals from dignitaries

It had a feature in the shape of a Celtic cross to mark the Irish involvement in the campaign, and the RAF monument is made from Mourne granite.

The guard of honour for the event again included the band of the Royal Irish Regiment.

There was further Irish involvement, too, with the presence of the Republic of Ireland's ambassador to France.

Three of Padraic MacKernan's uncles served with the RAF - one of them, a rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber, was killed in action in 1945.

His maths teacher at school was chaplain to the Royal Ulster Rifles in the Normandy campaign.

He said it was important to remember that the soldiers from Ireland, north and south, who fought were all volunteers, who were prepared to die for a principle, and many of them did.

It was 60 years ago, and it was almost impossible for later generations - despite everything that was in the film Saving Private Ryan - to even imagine what bravery it took to land on D-Day and fight the ferocious Normandy campaign.

As the veterans marched through Arromanche, many of them probably for the last time, even normally detached reporters stood with everyone else and applauded them.

Before the British parade dispersed here, the band played For Auld Lang Syne.

One thing was certain: the surviving veterans of the Normandy campaign would never let old acquaintance be forgot.

The many crosses and wreaths left in the military cemeteries after the events were over would be a moving testament to that determination.