The Public Record of Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), in partnership with the Northern Ireland War Memorial (NIWM), invites you to a talk by historian Las Fallon exploring the Irish fire services’ response to the Belfast Blitz of April and May 1941.

When Belfast faced the heavy air raid of 15 April 1941, all local resources were stretched to breaking point. Faced with destruction and casualties on a massive scale, the Stormont Government reached out to the government in Dublin for help. This was a huge step between the two governments, which had both been born out of the Irish Revolution of 1916-1922 but which had largely ignored each other in the years since.

The request for help was immediately acted on, and the then Taoiseach requested that the Dublin Fire Brigade choose volunteers and resources to be sent north. The other full-time brigades on the east coast, Dún Laoghaire, Drogheda, and Dundalk, also sent men and equipment, and the large Irish fire services’ response helped fill gaps until heavy fire service reinforcements could be sent from Liverpool and Glasgow the following day.

On the next heavy raid on 5 May, the now-established request for help was again followed, and firefighters, first-aiders, fire engines, and ambulances were sent to Belfast's aid.

It was an event in which human needs replaced old rivalries and disputes, and aid to the stricken city was dispatched without question, despite Éire’s wartime neutrality.

This talk has been kindly supported by a grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Reconciliation Fund.

The lecture will take place on Thursday 16 April 2026 at PRONI (2 Titanic Boulevard, Titanic Quarter, Belfast, BT3 9HQ) starting at 1pm.

*Register for a FREE ticket via Eventbrite: 'Hands Across the Border - The Irish Fire Services' Response to the Belfast Blitz' by Las Fallon*

About the speaker:

Las Fallon is a retired Dublin Fire Brigade firefighter, and a writer and historian specialising in the history of the Irish fire service. He is the author of a number of books including 'Dublin Fire Brigade and the Irish Revolution', 'The Fireman’s Tale: the burning of the Custom House 1921' and 'The Great Liberties Whiskey Fire'. He has written for a number of newspapers and magazines and taken part in a number of radio and TV documentaries on the revolutionary years and the Irish fire service.

Photograph: Dan O`Dowd and Jackie Conroy - two of the DFB members who volunteered for service in Belfast .