Libraries NI

Towards 2016

Catherine Morrow

Heritage Services Manager

LOCATIONS

CENTENARY COMMEMORATIONS

• Neutral venues• Open to all• Events, including talks, workshops and

exhibitions• In all libraries, not just Heritage

locations

PARTNERS

• Community Relations Council• PRONI• QUB Living Legacies• East Belfast Great War Project• 6th Connaught Rangers Research

Project

DECADE SO FAR

• 1912 Ulster Covenant• 1912 Titanic• 1913 Suffragettes• 1914 start of The Great War• Moving on to commemorate 1916• Program is evolving

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Great War 1914 - newspaper headlines posted on Facebook and Twitter in 2014

• Easter Rising and the Somme 1916 headlines will be posted in 2016

• Use of our regional newspapers gives a local perspective

LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR

• Letters sent by staff in Belfast libraries from the Front

• Being digitised now

• Will be on our website

LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR

Coulson to Elliott 22 January 1916

“I don’t know whether a letter from the trenches is a novelty to you, but this one is being written in a dug out in the front line, written little more than 100 yards of the enemy, which in itself will explain the dirt on the paper by the time the letter is written.”

Fitzsimons to Elliott 13 October 1916

“Like huge stars they rise to a great height, illuminating no mans land and the country side around.”

LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR

LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR

Fitzsimons to Goldsborough 6 June 1919

“All the terrible scars of war have been camouflaged by nature. The shell holes and trenches are ablaze with poppies and other coloured flowers.”

CONCLUSION

Thank you for listening

Watch this website

www.librariesni.org.uk

To read the WWI letters

To find out about our events