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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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War — Conflict, hostility, fear, hate, death by Molly Clare

by Belfast Central Library

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by
Belfast Central Library
People in story:
Molly Clare
Location of story:
Belfast
Article ID:
A5323286
Contributed on:
25 August 2005

Why do we have wars? Is it because we don’t agree about something and are unable to resolve the problem? It is never the ordinary people of the land who start wars. It is the elected leaders that we choose to run the country who believe it is the right thing to do.

I have lived through war which affected my homeland. The fear of my father having to go away to a foreign land, maybe never coming home again. The shame of having to wear cast-off clothes and second hand shoes. Measuring out our food for the day. The worried look on my mother’s face, wondering how she was going to cope tomorrow. There was one good thing, we could share things with our neighbours, they were just as hard up as us and we all pulled together.

There were nights when we would hide in the dark, afraid a glimmer of light would shine out into the night. There was fear that the bombers might think, as the planes passed overhead, that we might be a target. There was always the possibility of gas and that was why we had to carry our gasmasks to school and anywhere we would go.

I remember a soldier in our house one cold frosty night. He had fallen off his motorbike; he wasn’t used to our narrow country roads, especially as there were no lights, not even from the houses. My aunt who lived with us, fell in love with him as she bandaged his leg. He came to see her a few times before he was sent away to Germany. He never came back again.

The pain of that war is still remembered even to this day. Our children only think of it as something they have to learn about in history class, but for some, they will never forget, their scars are too deep.

We have another war now. It is far away. Young men and women still go to fight and die. “We are sorry” I heard the President say. It’s not his life that has to pay.

Young lives are lost

And mothers weep.

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