Belfast in the 1940's
BOOK REVIEW: Belfast in the 1940's
Compiled by Joe Baker Glenravel History Project,Belfast 2008. £5.00 ISBN 978 0 955916500 2
Watching a parade of the Royal Irish Rangers OCA passing by the other day, a friend remarked to me that now veterans of the Falklands conflict in 1981 are approaching retirement age. Few of the veterans on parade were under sixty. To me the Falklands conflict was only a while ago so I find this astonishing. Thinking about this though, I now realise that my parents’ memories of the Second World War were as fresh to them when I left school in 1974 as the Falklands are to me today.
Few folk of my parents’ generation remain. Their personal reminiscences of the war will mostly die with them. My own mother who died in 1980 was an ARP warden in Belfast. My father who died in 2006 lost his home to the Luftwaffe while he spent a long night trying to extinguish parachute incendiary bombs on the roof of Ewart’s mill in Bedford Street during the fire raid of May 5th 1941. Those who remain of this generation are now well over eighty.
When the personal memories die out in the next few years or so, we will be left with written records, photographs, films and sound recordings. In this respect, Joe Baker from Glenravel Publications has done sterling work in compiling this short booklet, Belfast in the 1940’s.
I was impressed by the mixture of narrative, contemporary photographs, newspaper advertisements and propaganda items. You’ll find something here for everyone.
My mother had told me of the horrors of the blitz on Easter Tuesday 1941 when the largely unprotected city was devastated by hundreds of bombs. The Falls swimming pool was drained and used as a makeshift mortuary for over fifty bodies. This booklet tells the full horrific story as an attendant recalled, “One coffin contained ñ all open ñ a young woman with her two dead children, one in each arm. One lovely girl of sixteen lay in a coffin in her white confirmation robe with blue silk ribbon and black hair.”
This booklet carries many superb pictures of wartime Belfast: cheery female ARP wardens, children awaiting evacuation to the countryside, sobering images of the extensive damage caused to homes, workplaces and places of worship. Some of the public notices are priceless! One calls for builders ìfree to undertake First Aid Repairs and make Dwelling Houses reasonably habitable to get in touch with the Corporation. Another invites lorry owners to make their vehicles available to help clear large amounts of rubble. More tellingly, an advertisement from the Belfast Civil Defence Authority advised “The bodies of unidentified victims of the recent air raid may be seen by relatives in St George’s Market on Friday 18th April, from 3 p.m. Until 7 p.m. Unidentified and unclaimed bodies will be buried by the above authority in the reserved ground at the City Cemetery on Monday, 21st instant, leaving the above market at 12 noon.”
The booklet then looks at the birth of the National Health Service after the war with contemporary pictures from the Ava Hospital and the RVH. The section of post-war pictures are all optimistic: the launch of new ships at Harland and Wolff, busy scenes at Queen’s Bridge, the rebuilding of the York Street Mill and St James’ Church on the Antrim Road and adverts for new cars, fashions and even new-fangled refrigerators.
This booklet will probably delight many of the surviving members of my parents’ generation: those who still recall Belfast during the Second World War although for some, the memories are still bound to be painful. For some younger folk the accounts may be as remote as those of the Victorian era. Nevertheless, all will find endless items in this booklet to fascinate them. At only a fiver it’s money well spent.
Compiled by Joe Baker Glenravel History Project,Belfast 2008. £5.00 ISBN 978 0 955916500 2
Watching a parade of the Royal Irish Rangers OCA passing by the other day, a friend remarked to me that now veterans of the Falklands conflict in 1981 are approaching retirement age. Few of the veterans on parade were under sixty. To me the Falklands conflict was only a while ago so I find this astonishing. Thinking about this though, I now realise that my parents’ memories of the Second World War were as fresh to them when I left school in 1974 as the Falklands are to me today.
Few folk of my parents’ generation remain. Their personal reminiscences of the war will mostly die with them. My own mother who died in 1980 was an ARP warden in Belfast. My father who died in 2006 lost his home to the Luftwaffe while he spent a long night trying to extinguish parachute incendiary bombs on the roof of Ewart’s mill in Bedford Street during the fire raid of May 5th 1941. Those who remain of this generation are now well over eighty.
When the personal memories die out in the next few years or so, we will be left with written records, photographs, films and sound recordings. In this respect, Joe Baker from Glenravel Publications has done sterling work in compiling this short booklet, Belfast in the 1940’s.
I was impressed by the mixture of narrative, contemporary photographs, newspaper advertisements and propaganda items. You’ll find something here for everyone.
My mother had told me of the horrors of the blitz on Easter Tuesday 1941 when the largely unprotected city was devastated by hundreds of bombs. The Falls swimming pool was drained and used as a makeshift mortuary for over fifty bodies. This booklet tells the full horrific story as an attendant recalled, “One coffin contained ñ all open ñ a young woman with her two dead children, one in each arm. One lovely girl of sixteen lay in a coffin in her white confirmation robe with blue silk ribbon and black hair.”
This booklet carries many superb pictures of wartime Belfast: cheery female ARP wardens, children awaiting evacuation to the countryside, sobering images of the extensive damage caused to homes, workplaces and places of worship. Some of the public notices are priceless! One calls for builders ìfree to undertake First Aid Repairs and make Dwelling Houses reasonably habitable to get in touch with the Corporation. Another invites lorry owners to make their vehicles available to help clear large amounts of rubble. More tellingly, an advertisement from the Belfast Civil Defence Authority advised “The bodies of unidentified victims of the recent air raid may be seen by relatives in St George’s Market on Friday 18th April, from 3 p.m. Until 7 p.m. Unidentified and unclaimed bodies will be buried by the above authority in the reserved ground at the City Cemetery on Monday, 21st instant, leaving the above market at 12 noon.”
The booklet then looks at the birth of the National Health Service after the war with contemporary pictures from the Ava Hospital and the RVH. The section of post-war pictures are all optimistic: the launch of new ships at Harland and Wolff, busy scenes at Queen’s Bridge, the rebuilding of the York Street Mill and St James’ Church on the Antrim Road and adverts for new cars, fashions and even new-fangled refrigerators.
This booklet will probably delight many of the surviving members of my parents’ generation: those who still recall Belfast during the Second World War although for some, the memories are still bound to be painful. For some younger folk the accounts may be as remote as those of the Victorian era. Nevertheless, all will find endless items in this booklet to fascinate them. At only a fiver it’s money well spent.
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