October 2016

You are welcome to join us in the Main Library of the Lit and Phil in Newcastle on the 21st October for the launch of our project exhibition, "Women and Leisure during the First World War". This exhibition has been produced in collaboration with our community researchers who have worked with us in a selection of local archive collections to create a fascinating snapshot of how women created and pursued leisure opportunities during the war years.

You can learn more about our project from our (still under construction) website by clicking here

This event is free and all are welcome, but capacity is limited so we will require you to register by completing steps 1-3 of the form below.

We will be providing drinks (alcoholic and soft), and eats courtesy of the Pink Lane Bakery (formerly the Sugar Down Bakery, see by clicking here.

Click here for more information

With over 20 period costumes, funny sketches and entertaining historical insights, this event will show how women’s fashion changed from the late 19th century through to the end of the First World War. A colourful cast of characters will be brought to life and will give a glimpse into the lives of men and women from the era.

Tickets can be obtained online here.

Admission is free but please register at belfastsommelOO.com

Dr Johanne Devlin Trew will reveal stories of local nurses, doctors, and volunteers whose work during the First World War did much to improve healthcare.

The talk is inspired by objects, documents and diaries contributed from the community to the Living Legacies 1914-18 Engagement Centre digitisation workshops during 2014-15.

In association with Living Legacies -www.livinglegaciesl914-18.ac.uk.

More writers and poets fought at the Somme than in any other battle in history. Taken together with the visual artists and musicians who developed work in response to the Somme, the battle has a crucial significance for art in the 20th century. In this special event at the Ulster Museum, the creative work of these artists will be used to see the Somme in a new light.

More information can be found by clicking here‌‌‌‌‌

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Subject : The Clogherney Boys in World War 1: A mid-Tyrone story

Speaker : Robert Corbett

Venue : The Branch meets from 6.30pm 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 more information

‌Antrim and Down Branch of the Western Front Association and Belfast Somme 100 present a one day conference. The year of the Somme: 1916 in perspective Saturday 8 October 2016 at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 2 Titanic Boulevard, Belfast and HMS Caroline, Alexandra Dock, Queen’s Road, Belfast

Attendance is free but to book refreshments and lunch on the day there is a registration fee of £10. This is advised as there are few catering outlets open in the local area on a Saturday. Tickets can be booked by clicking here or viewing the full programme by click the image

Click here or on the image to view full flyer

Subject : Somme Conference

Speaker : TBC – details to follow

Venue : The Branch meets from 6.30pm 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 more information

Free Lunchtime Lecture: Professor Mary Daly, “Commemoration and Public Memory: the 1916 Rising”

Wednesday 5 October

Time 1pm – 2pm

Lecture Theatre, Ulster Museum

Free (Booking essential)

This lecture will explore how the 1916 Rising has been commemorated, including consideration of the message of the 1966 anniversary celebrations in the Republic of Ireland, the organisation of various unofficial commemorations in Northern Ireland, and the significance of these for nationalist and unionist politics in the mid- to late 1960s.

Professor of History at University College Dublin, Mary E. Daly is one of Ireland’s most prominent senior historians. She is President of the Royal Irish Academy and is a member of the Irish government’s Expert Advisory Group on Commemorations.

Book tickets online at:www.nmni.com/1916.  

‘No News is Good News: World War at Home’ takes you back 100 years so you can meet your ancestors in the villages, on the city streets and in the countryside where they lived to see how they fared during the First World War. Overhear the residents of Ballycultra share their fear of German spies, visit the village post office where letters from the Somme bring tragic news of deaths on the front and hear from a woman working long hours in a Belfast munitions factory. Presented by Kabosh Theatre Company, written by Philip Orr and directed by Paula McFetridge ‘World War at Home’ is not to be missed.

Normal Entry fees apply tickets can be obtained online by clicking here

Literature of Irish Exile 17th Annual Autumn School : The Great War in Memory, Writing and Drama, Saturday October 15, 2016, 10:30 am - 4:30 pm at the Mellon Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster American Folk Park, featuring lecture by Dr Breandán Mac Suibhne on History, Memory, Commemoration; and poetry and prose readings and drama performances from the Fermanagh Writers Group, the Omagh Robins WW1 Drama Group (MARRI project), and others.

Click here for more information