Northern Ireland

Smuggling and GIs: The War in Warrenpoint

American troops built special huts at Roger Hall's castle in Warrenpoint. The government was short of...

From York Road to Ballinamallard

Christopher Johnston spoke to Eileen Wells about her thoughts on life in Belfast and as an evacuee in...

Home Guard Weaponry

The one at Portstewart was up at Cromore House, where Cromore Halt is just outside Portstewart. I'm...

Tales from the Bilges: As Seen from Coastal Command Flying Boat, Lough Ern

Once upon a time long, long ago, there was I sitting in the port blister of Catalina MN-M, 600 miles...

A Child's View: Evacuated from Belfast

In primary school on the Falls Road, Belfast, it meant little to me, until the bombs began to fall... This...

My WAAF Career

I made some good friends at Aldergrove and I have kept in touch with one — albeit only by lengthy...

The Sinking of the SS Isolda

On the morning of 19 December 1940 the ‘Isolda’ left Rosslare Harbour, County Wexford, to carry...

Countryside Wartime Memories

Another of my memories happened early in the war, when the Grange family were coming from their bungalow at...

A Soldiers Story

In this connection I quote an extract from a letter I received from my senior — then the Divisional...

Carved on a Tree for 56 Years.

Their new homes were the Nissan huts erected around the perimeter of the Moyola Park Estate, Castledawson,...

Miriam Taylor's Portadown War Memories

I went to talk with Miriam Taylor who was a young girl of thirteen when the Second World War started, she...

Memories of a 7 Year Old Boy

My father was immediately sent to the Middle East with the Royal Artillery and my brother Bertie was posted...

Victory Party, Our Street, Belfast

Just across the border in the Republic of Ireland there was of course no rationing and people from Belfast...

Son of a Lighthouse Keeper

The pilot boat came up to the lifeboat and diverted it from heading into the lighthouse landing and led it...

Childhood Memories of the bombing At Pennyburn, 1941

We lived at 20 Collon Terrace in the Pennyburn district of Derry. Earlier that evening some children called...

June Martin's Childhood Memories of Belfast during WW2

We usually had a turkey, but once we had a goose and another time my father killed a white Aylesbury duck...

Liverpool to Derry to Belfast Mabelle Anderson

My name is Mabelle Anderson and at the beginning of the war I married and my husband was working in...

Tom Hewson's Soldier's Story - Part 4

During my stay in Northern Ireland with the 53rd Infantry Division, we carried out many military exercises...

Belfast During the Blitz

During the ‘Blitz’ on Belfast I was studying at the College of Technology and had accommodation...

The Evacuees

Our father was working in England, as at this time there was no work for Catholics in Northern Ireland......

Castledawson Boy(1939-1945)

I was 8 years old when WW2 commenced and lived in a quiet little village in South Derry called...

Plane Crashes near Ballymena

Another instance comes to mind when an American Flying Fortress coming in from the Irish Sea crashed on...

Evacuee in Gortin, Co. Tyrone

I was evacuated to Gortin: we were collected at Mountcollyer School and travelled by train to Omagh - a...

“DON’T MENTION THE WAR!”

We can all associate the famous phrase with TV funnyman John Cleese as Basil Fawlty but for the people and...

You Have Got to Laugh,Or Otherwise You Would Have to Cry

My father was English , and my mother was Irish; so this is how when the war broke out in September 1939...

Friends and Neighbours in the Belfast Blitz

When we came back to the house the warden came and told us to take any small valuables with us as there...