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Researcher Conor Garrett

I’ve found my involvement in the People's War project to be a really enlightening and often very moving experience so far. As I was born some thirty years after the end of World War II, my understanding of what actually happened and how it so dramatically affected such a diverse range of people living in Northern Ireland, was far from complete. I was aware of the well documented circumstances surrounding the Belfast Blitz and I grew up to stories of war time evacuation and rations told by my Grandmother, however, it is the extent to which the war impacted upon so many different people from so many different backgrounds here that’s been the greatest revelation.

Perhaps most humbling of all was meeting and hearing from the many WWII veterans living in Northern Ireland - whether it was RAF Officer Noel Corry recalling his contribution to the Battle of Britain, Bill McConnell outlining his war-time memories of life in the 2nd airborne division of the Royal Ulster Rifles or Richard Keegan explaining just how it felt to be involved in the D-Day landings at Normandy, all have allowed me to gain a very real insight into their experiences and in doing so, helped me to document their incredible stories on the People’s War site.

As part of the project, I was able to bring some fascinating recollections and personal memories to a wide audience via the appearance of guests and individuals on a variety of programmes across the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster schedule. On the Just Jones show we were joined by Gibraltarian Albert Baw, who was evacuated from Gibraltar to Broughshane here in NI and who has lived here ever since. On our ‘Saturday Magazine’ programme, Lisburn residents Joyce Wilson and Mabelle Anderson came on to impart their amazing memories of war-time recipes and the canny ways in which they made do with their weekly rations….not that parsnip cake will ever sound too appetising! On our Love 40 programme, Walter Love made his way to the Royal Ulster Rifles Museum in central Belfast, to hear how a blanket that had belonged to a local prisoner of war and which had been kept as a momento of his time as a prisoner in Colditz castle, was recently donated to the museum by his family.

Along the way I’ve met everyone from: those who remember being evacuated to the Castlereagh Hills outside Belfast, those who served in the air-raid patrol, men and women who could tell me all about their reminiscences of air-raid shelters, gas masks, the nightly black out, as well as those who played a vital role working on the home-front in Shorts and Mackies industrial works.

All of my meetings, interviews and time spent with these people have highlighted just what a worthwhile and meaningful project the People’s War really is and what an honour it is to be involved