The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival

Dancing at The Arts Festival Event

These displays include an installation by Fashion Management student, Laurence Fay. Here you can view a Battle Dress Blouse; a common garment worn by armed forces both on field and on the home front, the detail of the inside of the garment has been re-created for display on a larger scale to show the level of detail included in a basic garment.

Materials used at the Arts Festival event

The respect shown through the construction of this individual garment serves as an important reminder that an individual man risked his life to give the freedom we have today. The Battle Dress Blouse is presented alongside a sample of pattern construction and, of course, Vera; made from Linen supplied by Ulster Weavers, she represents the skilled female workforce that supported both the Linen and the shirt manufacturing industries.

A Cecil Beaton image, courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, shows a sailor on board HMS Alcantara operating a sewing machine. This image not only emphasises a central make-do and mend theme which relates to the popular ‘Strictly Come Darning Workshop’ earlier this month as part of Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.

Wartime sewing basket

The workshop run by Education Officer, Jenny Haslett, was attended by 78 visitors, who experienced a lesson in darning while enjoying Jenny’s wartime music and home-made wartime carrot cake!

Education Officer Jenny Haslett demonstrates darning

Bronze statue of the International Sailor

The Northern Ireland War Memorial is the major funder of the bronze statue of the International Sailor, which was unveiled in Londonderry on May 11.

Present at the unveiling was the Chairman of the NIWM, Lieutenant Colonel C T Hogg, Speaking after the ceremony, he said “The War Memorial has a remit to remember the contribution made by all the people of Northern Ireland during the Second World War. Londonderry played an important role in the Battle of the Atlantic, which the War Memorial wished to acknowledge by contributing to this magnificent statue.”

The eight-foot statue is a replica of the sailor statue which stands on the sea front overlooking the great harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The statue is of a sailor carrying his hammock on his right shoulder and kit bag in his left hand. There are however no naval insignia, as the statue is intended to reflect the contribution of the seamen from the many Allied nations which protected the shipping convoys during the war.

The statue was built by the distinguished Canadian sculptor Peter Bustin. It was cast in the Tanat Foundry in Oswestry in Wales. It stands on a plinth of granite. The location of the statue in Ebrington reflects the vital role which the barracks played as a naval base as part of the HMS Ferret complex. The NIWM has also funded a large bookcase in Beech Hill Hotel to hold the archives of the US Marines who were based in Beech Hill during the war.

In addition the NIWM has published a pamphlet by the military historian, Richard Doherty. The Battle of the Atlantic and the River Foyle is graphic account of the Allied defeat of the German U-boat fleet. Richard concludes that ‘without the Londonderry Escort Base, the story might have been very different, and even more horrendous’.

 

Clipping from the Belfast Newsletter

Clipping from Belfast Newsletter

Clipping from the Belfast Telegraph

On Wednesday 8th May 2013, the 68th anniversary of VE Day in Belfast, Northern Ireland War Memorial will host a Strictly Come Darning event as part of the 14th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.

The public are invited to visit the gallery at 21 Talbot Street to view our Home Front exhibition with temporary showcases on Wartime Fashion- a Male Perspective, and to try various Wartime textile techniques in an open workshop with our Education Officer Jenny.

Why not drop in and visit our various craft tables at which you can practice a variety of austerity crafts. You could practice darning, make a knitted bow tie or learn how to use scraps of wool to make a Wartime woollen rug.

The focus throughout the day will be on rationing, fashion and austerity on the Home Front in Northern Ireland. The open workshop will be complemented by a running picture show and a display of some textiles from our collection.

This open textile workshop is part of a week of events at NI War Memorial as part of the 14th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. The launch of Wartime Fashion- a Male Perspective is on Thursday 2nd May at 8pm when Bellehopper dancers will perform in the gallery and an illustrated talk will be given by Tadhg Morgan, a collector of Wartime militaria and civilian costume.

Admission free

For further information about Strictly Come Darning please contact: Jenny Haslett, Education Officer, Northern Ireland War Memorial, 21 Talbot Street, Belfast BT1 2LD. Tel: 028 9032 0392 option 2. Email: education@niwarmemorial.org. Web: http://www.niwarmemorial.org

A male perspective on wartime fashion

The talk will be presented by Tadhg Morgan, who is a collector of wartime militaria and civilian costumes. He will examine the impact of age, social class, location, occupation and aspirations on wartime fashion and style by film stars such as Cary Grant and Clark Gable. His talk will be illustrated with clips from Pathé newsreels.

Tadhg Morgan in the War Memorial Gallery

There will be a special focus on military uniforms.

Window displays and show cases will contain period clothes, also two tone shoes, shaving brushes, Picture Post and much else.

Commenting on the talk, the Curator, Ciaran Elizabeth Doran said “The displays will demonstrate how, even before a soldier or a sailor had left home, the war effort was already influencing the clothing he wore.”

A Strictly Come Darning open workshop by our Education Officer and textile expert, Jenny Haslett, will be held on Wednesday May 8 at 11am. The public are invited to visit the gallery to practice darning, make a knitted bow tie or perhaps a wartime woollen rug. The workshop will be complemented by a running picture show and a display of some textiles from our collection.

The talk and workshop form part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. Admission free. All are welcome.

In an an excerpt of the Radio Ulster Good Morning Ulster programme  broadcast on 2nd May 2013 Helen Jones discusses the event with Tadhg Morgan and Curator Ciaran Elizabeth Doran.

A male perspective on wartime fashion in War Memorial Gallery

The Ordnance Survey map used by Luftwaffe for the blitz was discovered in a German airfield at the end of the Second World War.

A Northern Ireland company had a copy in its archives and loaned it to the War Memorial to mark the 72nd anniversary of the bombing.

Around 900 people died and 1,500 were injured in the attack by 180 Luftwaffe bombers on the night of Easter Tuesday April 15.

The planes dropped 203 tonnes of bombs and 800 firebomb canisters on the city over several hours.

Yesterday the tragedy was marked by the laying of a wreath of flowers on the Blitz War Memorial in Belfast’s Talbot Street.

The ceremonial gesture was made by Lieutenant Colonel C T Hogg, chairman of the NI War Memorial, in front of a small gathering.

The map, which measures 110cms by 70cms, shows the clinical approach to the bombing of what the Luftwaffe concluded was “the most poorly defended city in the UK”.

Marked in red and purple are a range of targets, all noted down and translated into German.

These include ‘parliament and ministries’, ‘law courts’, ‘City Hall’, ‘shipyard – Harland and Wolff’, ‘gasworks’, ‘ropeworks’ and docks.

Less obvious targets identified are ‘Royal Academic Institution’ (better known as the grammar school ‘Inst’), a reservoir and a sweet factory.

The map will be on display for a month.

War Memorial curator Ciaran Elizabeth Doran, who worked for 25 years in London’s Imperial War Museum, said it is an “ordinary Ordnance Survey map” which was available to anyone before the war and fell somehow in to German hands.

“The map was found in Gatow airfield in Berlin by the RAF when they arrived in 1945,” she said.

“Scenic NI had it in their collection and there is not a copyright on it so it fitted in very well with today’s commemoration.

“If you look at it you can see that it really exposes the vulnerability of Belfast from this map on which areas are highlighted.

“It could have been picked up by anyone who had been going to Belfast on holiday.
“They added their own information to it with areas and buildings highlighted. They also marked railways and bridges.

“following the bombing in 1941, the devastation that was visited on a lot of these areas meant this map was the last view of Belfast as it was before the blitz.”

Reproduced from The Irish News, Tuesday April 16 2013. By Bimpe Archer.

Article from the Irish News, 'Maps show how Nazis planned Belfast blitz'

During two major bombing raids and a third smaller attack, an estimated 1,000 people lost their lives as hundreds of tons of deadly explosives and countless thousands of incendiaries devastated the city’s streets, buildings and the shipyard quays.

Many homes, shops and manufacturing works around the Lagan were demolished and several ships were sunk. A copy of the original Ordnance Survey map used by Hitler’s air crews to target their lethal bombardment is on show in the gallery from April 15.
The Stadtplan von Belfast measures 110cm by 70cm and is overprinted with a German hit list of important targets. Outlined and highlighted in red marker pen on the faded, patched together document are the Luftwaffe’s principal objectives (Einzelobjekte) including the docks, railway stations, reservoirs and the Victoria Barracks.

German pilots and navigators, peering through their goggles at Stormont (Parlamentsgebäude undo Ministerien) and the City Hall (Stadthalle), must have wondered while they released their bombs on the shipyard (Werft von Harland and Wolff) how a German surname became associated with such a strategic enemy target! Did a finger pause momentarily on a bomb-release button?

Museum Curator Ciaran Elizabeth Doran told me: “The original map was found in Gatow airfield in Berlin by the RAF when they arrived there in 1945.”

From her wealth of local cartographical knowledge, Ciaran Elizabeth picked out a pickle factory near the Stranmillis roundabout.

The 72nd anniversary of the blitz will be marked by the laying of a wreath on the War Memorial in 21 Talbot Street (beside Belfast Cathedral) at 11am on Monday. Members of the public, and anyone with family memories of the blitz, are invited to attend the short ceremony, and to see the map which will be on view to the public for at least a month.

If readers have any memeories or passed-on accounts of the blitz that they’d like to share on Roamer’s page, please send them to the address below.

Reproduced from the Belfast Newsletter, Friday 12th of April 2013.

Belfast Newletter Article: Horrific hit-list marks the blitz

The large map (110cm by 70cm) is overprinted in German. Outlined in red are the principle targets, including the docks, railway stations, reservoirs and Victoria Barracks.

Luftwaffe map of Belfast 1941

Welcoming the latest acquisition, the Curator, Ciaran Elizabeth Doran, said:

‘‘The map was found in Gatow air field in Berlin by the RAF when they arrived in 1945.’’

The 72^nd anniversary of the blitz on Belfast will be marked by the laying of a wreath of flowers on the Blitz War Memorial in 21 Talbot Street (beside Belfast Cathedral) at 11.00 am on Monday April 15. The wreath will be laid by Lieutenant Colonel C T Hogg, chairman of the NI War Memorial.

Members of the public, and anyone with family memories of the Easter Tuesday blitz, are invited to attend the ceremony.

The Curator was interviewed by Seamus McKee on the subject as part of the Radio Ulster  Evening Extra programme on 9th April 2013.

An excerpt of the Radio Ulster Evening Extra programme broadcast on 9th April 2013 features an interview with the Curator and Seamus McKee on this topic.

The map has been made available through Scenicni.

The gallery will  re open on Tuesday 19th March at 10.30.