大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with James Doherty, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was Anita Cochrane, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
====

[nurses]
There was people of all descriptions. Unless you met them 鈥�
Censorship was very high. Some of the stories that I鈥檓 telling you never came to light. Some of them did come to light, 60 years later, 50 years later. They came to light. But things died. If you had been interested in the subject of air raids, which I was, and I bought a lot of journals and things like that, and some books. Now, the most that you鈥檒l get in any of the papers or in even big war tomes, that they mention Belfast and they give them about 3-4 lines. The early numbers as they dug the bodies out was about 200 or 300 people killed. Now, as the bodies started crawling up the censorship stopped that, so people finished up with 鈥淭here was 300 killed鈥�. There was over a thousand killed. When I wrote my book it caused a bit of a sensation. Journalists of all descriptions came to see me. Now the figure is, normally speaking, about a thousand dead. But it was round about 2-300 was the censored figure, and they never let anything more. And then people stopped even talking about it. Books never mentioned it. So Belfast was a forgotten era in the annals of history.

[I know you took the bodies to St George鈥檚 Market]
The first place we brought them was, there was the different baths. The big one was the Falls Road baths. How I became involved in that, on duty we got a message from HQ, could we send any volunteers? Even though we were up to our eyes in what we had ourselves, they asked 鈥渃ould we have any volunteers?鈥� well, I think they knew some of our boys were mad or hardy, they鈥檇 been out all night. So 3 of us volunteered to go across. We over to the Falls Rd Baths. Montague, I鈥檝e mentioned his name before. Kelly, Cyril Kelly and myself, we went over to the Baths. Now, I had seen quite a lot that night. I鈥檇 handled bodies as I say myself. But all the text-books, all the experiences, in my opinion, couldn鈥檛 have prepared anybody for what we saw that night or that morning in the Falls Road baths. Bodies were just lying about. Parts of bodies, heaps of bodies, and our job was to sort them. Sort them out, leave them around about to try and, people were to come and identify them. But the job and the building was inadequate to do what was envisaged, because I suppose they thought 30 or 40 people would be killed here. There was hundreds of bodies. We drained the pool, and left the bodies there. And left them round the side, any place we could. It was decided that they wouldn鈥檛 bring any more bodies there. They brought them to St George鈥檚 Market. But I was there for about 6 hours, with that particular lot of bodies, and 鈥� gruesome, as they say. It鈥檚 something that you don鈥檛 just forget. Who could have imagined in this peaceful city of our own at the time, seeing in one place hundreds of mutilated bodies. It wasn鈥檛 just 鈥� you didn鈥檛 just think of it, so when you saw it there it was a shock. Again, as I say, the job was there. And as I often say to myself, 鈥渢hank god that I did join the Civil Defence [or ARP as it was known then] because there was something to do鈥�. When I saw big strong people, men who would have pulled a house down or fought bare knuckles, reduced to children in their mind, panic, one thing and another, I often said 鈥渨ell, at least, Jimmy, you鈥檇 a job to do. It was done 鈥︹�� and as I say, my own mind 鈥� in comparison with some of the people I was helping, definitely I was in better spirits than they were. So that was the, what we did. We worked about 6 hours. A lot of people couldn鈥檛 stick it any more, cause as the day went on the heat, the bodies were giving off the smells and stuff like that. And there was one thing I remember about it. There was a big urn of tea. I don鈥檛 know what it was, it just stewed all day there and you could have had a cuppa this tea. Well, it washed your throat because your throat was dry, and you were 鈥� well, it鈥檚 hard just to say how you felt, but the job was heavy, because you were lifting the dead bodies, bumping together. Cardboard coffins had been supplied. Now, the finish of the affair was that you, the bodies were all finished down at the, most of the identification was done down at St George鈥檚 Market. Now, they left the bodies there. If a person came along and claimed someone, they could take that body home and give it a private burial. At the end of the week, this went on for a week. We were getting, still picking up bodies. 7 terrible days, working, still finding bodies and stuff. And the bodies were being brought down to there. At the end of the time there was 150 bodies that were unclaimed. So, as we were going through the pockets or papers of anything, in anticipation of this, of something, trying to find identifications, we 鈥� if someone had a little religious medal or something like that, they considered they were Catholic. If they didn鈥檛, they considered they were Protestant. Now, these were people who were unidentified. People say to me, 鈥渉ow did you know one from the other if they were dead?鈥� well, that鈥檚 how we knew it. Now, I do know there was Protestant people, mixed marriages, maybe they had a pair of rosary beads belonging to their mother but they themselves 鈥� but if you had one of these little religious emblems you were considered a Catholic. So, to finish that story, there鈥檚 2 memorials. There鈥檚 one in the City Cemetery and there鈥檚 one in Milltown. Now, it could be mixed graves, so if anybody wants to say a prayer wherever they are, your body could be a friend in one could be their friend in one. Two graves, they boxed them up, they still kept the old divide, City Cemetery in the town was all Protestant and Milltown was Catholics.

Families, oh yes. Because while we were working there we actually put mother and 2 children into one. There was a little chap who worked at it, he just died recently. He was on a few years ago, a chap called Joe Collins, he worked in the baths, he was only a young man. He tells that story. I don鈥檛 just remember him, but I know he told a true story. He tells a story in one of his broadcasts about the Mill, about the baths, that he had been looking about, and he came over to the boss, his boss man, and he says 鈥渂oss, boss, there鈥檚 2 bodies over in that coffin there.鈥� And the chap, the superintendent who was in charge, he says 鈥渨ell, look, if you鈥檙e interested open that other coffin there, look in that other coffin, there鈥檚 3鈥�. Well I know that鈥檚 right because I put the 3 bodies into the one coffin. I can remember that, but some people mightn鈥檛 have believed him but I said later to people 鈥淛oe was telling the truth. There was a mother and 2 babies, 2 young children, buried in the one鈥�. Now, whether they separated them later 鈥� but we laid them out as a family.

As you asked me, complete families were wiped out. Others, there was miracles. Now, in Lincoln Avenue, half of the Duffy Family were killed. Now, some of them were saved. 2, a miracle, I don鈥檛 know how, they were blown out of the house down into a crater, and I took them out. Actually was able, light debris and stuff around them, dug them out and they were practically able to walk out. A mother and her son. The son was a lad about my own age, I went to school with him, and the mother. I think the father was killed. But there was some in the family still in the house, I think they were all right. These other 2 blown completely out of the house, knocked over, shocked, one thing and another, but we were able to actually walk them out, and I left them in the house. Further up in Lincoln Avenue.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.