‌On Monday 29 June (2pm – 4:30pm) Professor Richard Grayson (Professor of Twentieth-century History at Goldsmiths, University of London, and author of Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in the First World War) will speak about “Researching First World War Ancestors”. There is no charge to attend either genealogy workshop, but pre-booking is required. Light refreshments will be provided.

To get further information or to book a place at one or more of the events please email Dr Robert Whan: Robert.Whan@newryandmourne.gov.uk or Telephone: 028 3031 3173 / 028 3031 3182.

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IMAGINE THE WORLD
SAMHLAIGH AN DOMHAN

Hay Festival Kells, in County Meath, will return for a third edition in 2015, from 25 to 28 June.

We're delighted to launch the full programme for Hay Festival Kells 2015 – you can book now for screenwriter Lynda La Plante, YA novelist Derek Landy, poet Paul Durcan, Booker-Prize winning Roddy Doyle and best-selling novelist Marian Keyes.

Further headliners at this year's festival in June include Booker-Prize winners Anne Enright and Ben Okri, the musician and innovator Brian Eno.

Event 54 • Saturday 27 June 2015, 8 pm • Venue: Kells Theatre – Eirgrid Stage

Medal in the Drawer

Four young men from Belfast experience the horrors of WW1. A shortened version of the drama by Brenda Winter-Palmer, followed by a discussion led by the author and cast. As the author puts it: 'Medal in the Drawer is not only an act of commemoration for all those Belfast men who died in the First World War. It is a reflection on which parts of history a divided society chooses to remember and which parts it chooses to forget.'

Supported by The School of Creative Arts, Queen's University Belfast, and Living Legacies 1914-18.

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‌

Music and Memories

Remembering the First World War with music and objects

1pm Thursday 25th June

Inniskillings Museum
Enniskillen Castle Museums, The Castle, Enniskillen BT74 7HL

In this unique event Tracey McRory, an all-Ireland fiddle player and noted harpist, will introduce and play music she has composed inspired by the First World War.

Tracey will also share her experiences of performing her music on the Battlefields of the Somme and Flanders and tell the story of her granduncle Father James McRory (Connaught Rangers).

After her performance you are invited on a tour of the First World War collection, lead by the Inniskillings Museum, and to participate in a short discussion with Prof Elizabeth Crooke (Ulster University and Living Legacies 1914-18) about the legacy of the period.

This event will run from 1-3pm and, if there is demand, a 2nd workshop will start at 3.30pm. 

Refreshments will be provided. This event has no charge and is funded by Living Legacies 1914-18.

Places are limited. To book your place contact: 028 6632 3142

Please click the poster for more info

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AHRC Connected Communities Festival 2015  

Arts for All - Launch of new Mural exploring the years 1914-18
Duncairn Community Centre
206 Duncairn Gardens, Tiger’s Bay, Belfast

Thursday 25th June, 2015

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‌This event involves both the launch of a new FWW mural and a piece of interactive drama/performance from ‘Medal in the Draw’ by Dr. Brenda Winter-Palmer. This mural shows images from the years 1912-1918.

The images show what was happening at home and on the battlefield during the First World War and the years leading up to the war.

It is estimated over 16 million people died and 20 million were wounded during World War One, making it one of the bloodiest wars in history. Two million horses were also used during this war. Many died.

This mural reflects the different ways in which peoples’ lives changed - from being part of a battle to keeping communities going. http://www.arts-for-all.co.uk/.‌

The mural reflects a range of perspectives on the war, including women’s role on the Home Front, shipyard strikes and soldiers employed to make crosses to mark the graves of the men who died. The plays script is used as a stimulus for the audience’s questions and the actors then engage with the audience in character. The venue was dictated by the mural location, which is of itself the product of one year’s community research.

• Opening ceremony 6.30 pm ‘proceed to wall opposite community centre to unveil mural
• Excerpt from ‘Medal in the Drawer’ http://medalinthedrawer.com/

Wounded soldiers included 80,000 cases of shell shock which affected the poet Siegfried Sassoon quoted below.

‘But the past is just the same, – and War’s a bloody game… Have you forgotten yet? Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget’.
Siegfried Sassoon
Aftermath

This is a cross community event is open to the public free of charge. All Welcome.

Please click the poster for more information

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AHRC Connected Communities Festival 2015

National Museum Northern Ireland – First World War tour and workshop
At Ulster Museum

Tuesday 23rd June, 2015 12:00 am - 3:00 pm

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‌As part of the AHRC Connected Communities Festival and supported by the Living Legacies Centre a rural group from Upperlands Community Development Group http://upperlands.net/ will be visiting the Ulster Museum on Tuesday 23^rd June to discover more about the First World War and its legacies. This Community group is based in the small rural village of Upperlands in South Derry.  The principal activity of the group is to facilitate the improvement and development of social and economic conditions for the people living in the area, also to facilitate cross community reconciliation and cultural understanding.

They will be bringing with them their own objects, photographs and telling their family’s First World War stories.   After a morning of digitisation and sharing their oral histories, managed by http://www.qub.ac.uk/cdda/, they will then have the opportunity to explore the Ulster Museum’s new Modern History gallery (http://www.nmni.com/um) and receive a tour of the Home Rule to Partition section.

The group will participate in the First World War handling session where themes of Home Front, Soldier’s life abroad and medical developments will be examined.

If you wish to attend this event please contact LivingLegacies@qub.ac.uk

Please click the poster for more information

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‌‌On Monday 22 June (2pm – 4:30pm) leading Irish genealogist, John Grenham, author of Tracing Your Irish Ancestry, will speak about “Irish Genealogy: The Major Online and Offline Sources”. 

To get further information or to book a place at one or more of the events please email Dr Robert Whan: Robert.Whan@newryandmourne.gov.uk or Telephone: 028 3031 3173 / 028 3031 3182.

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AHRC Connected Communities Festival 2015  

'From the Falls to the Shankill - a walking tour on the history of UVF members from 1913-14 who served in the Great War'.

An Chulturlann, 216 Falls Road, Belfast

Saturday 20th June, 2015 10:30 am - 3:00 pm

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‌As part of the AHRC Connected Communities Festival this event involves both a walking tour and workshop. The event will incorporate a talk, given by Professor Richard Grayson (author of ‘Belfast Boys’), followed by an interactive walking tour of West Belfast, using digital technologies, to plot out and visit the addresses of around a dozen men who served in the British army in WWI and who were members of the pre-war UVF, some from the Shankill and some from the Falls. The talk and tour will cover the personal and shared history of the soldiers and what happened to them during the Great War.

West Belfast is an area rich in contested cultural heritage and with strong community interest in WW1. An Chulturlann has been chosen as the venue given its immediate proximity to the initial calling points on the walking tour. The tour is built around original data gathered by Prof. Richard Grayson (Goldsmiths, University of London) on the origins of the local men that served in the UVF, and a new digital resource created in collaboration with Paul Ell and Conor Graham (Queen’s University Belfast) through the Living Legacies 1914-18 public engagement centre.

This event is open to the public and is a cross-community event. The event will include lunch and shall conclude with tea/coffee and closing remarks at 2.30 pm.

As there are a limited number of spaces, we are asking that interested parties pre-register by emailing LivingLegacies@qub.ac.uk

Please click the poster for more information

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On Wednesday 17 June, beginning at 7:30 pm, Newry and Mourne Museum will host a lecture on “Motorcars and Transport in Ulster, 1896-1918”, given by Leanne Blaney from University College, Dublin. There is no charge to attend the talk but booking is essential.

Leanne’s talk will cover changes in transport at the turn of the twentieth century and the role of motorcars, for instance, in the 1914 gun-runnings, when the Ulster Volunteers and Irish Volunteers covertly armed themselves with weapons brought in from Germany. The lecture will also tie in with Newry and Mourne Museum’s new temporary exhibition, “The World has Become Smaller: Transport Through the Ages in Newry and Mourne” which will open on 29 May.

To get further information or to book a place at one or more of the events please email Dr Robert Whan: Robert.Whan@newryandmourne.gov.uk or Telephone: 028 3031 3173 / 028 3031 3182.

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‌‌‌


Antrim and Down
Western Front Association Branch
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Subject : 16th Irish Division

Speaker : Denis McCarthy

Venue : The Branch meets from 7pm to 8.45pm at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), 2 Titanic Boulevard, BELFAST, BT3 9HQ

Donation: We ask for £4 to help support our activities as we have no other source of income

Please click the poster for further details

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AHRC Connected Communities Festival 2015  

East Belfast Network Centre,
Templemore Avenue School,

Saturday 6th June, 2015 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

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• Did a member of your family serve in the First World War?  
• Were they from East Belfast?
• Do you have any artefacts that belonged to them of their family members?

Then we're asking you to bring them along and help us to capture the story of East Belfast & The Great War!

Living Legacies 1914-18 digitisation team (Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis) will be on hand to record your items and stories, as well as to provide some advice on to preserve your artefacts.

Throughout the day, join us also for a series of free events exploring East Belfast's Great War heritage:

10:30 am
Launch of Row on Row: East Belfast Remembers 2015

11:00 am
'The Shipyard and the Home Front during the First World War' – a talk by Philip Orr, historian and author

1:30 pm
'Researching East Belfast and the Great War' – a talk by Jason Burke, East Belfast & The Great War co-ordinator

2:45 pm
Playing of the Last Post by The Hounds of Ulster

Nigel Henderson from HistoryHub Ulster will be available all day to provide tips and pointers on conducting your own First World War family research.

 

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‌On Thursday 4 June there will be a day trip to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast and the Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra. The bus will depart from Newry and Mourne Museum, Bagenal’s Castle, Castle Street, Newry at 10 am and return at 5 pm.

At PRONI, there will be an opportunity to obtain information on the records that it holds. Attendees will also be able to view letters written by Lord Newry while he was on active service during the First World War; papers about the sinking of Kilkeel fishing vessels by a German submarine in 1918; letters and documents giving an insight into the personal impact of the war on a Warrenpoint lady whose husband, a German citizen, was interned; the initial minutes of the Newry Branch of the British Legion;  and documents from the Department of Home Affairs relating to the prohibition of the erection, by the Newry Branch of the Northern Old I.R.A. Remembrance Association, of an Irish Patriot Memorial in Newry in 1938.

After time for lunch at PRONI, the group will travel to the Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra to get an insight into life in Ireland 100 years ago and the impact of the war on those who remained at home. The guided tour will tell the story of what everyday life was like for the people of Ulster during the war and the many significant changes it caused, some of which resonate today. The cost for the day trip is £10 (or £7.50 for concessions).

To get further information or to book a place at one or more of the events please email Dr Robert Whan: Robert.Whan@newryandmourne.gov.uk or Telephone: 028 3031 3173 / 028 3031 3182.

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