Sprightly 76-year-old William Girvan from Dundonald near Belfast was a mere 11-year-old boy when the Second World War commenced in September 1939.

For William, the memories are initially tainted with sadness when he recollects about how his family felt at hearing the news of the impending war when they lived in east Belfast. And to make matters worse, William’s 18-year-old brother had enlisted in the Royal Air Force and was immediately relocated to a base in England, causing the family much consternation.

The remaining Girvan family unit consisted of William, his sister and his mother and father, residing in the eastern environs of Belfast. At what time Belfast was targeted in the devastating ill-famed 1941 attacks by the Germans, causing a massive bomb being dropped near the family home, it was inevitable that William and his sister would be evacuated to the rural hinterland of Ulster.

As it happened, William and his sister were indeed dispatched to the countryside, but not within the province of Ulster whose jurisdiction fell under British rule and at war with Germany.

Instead, the youngsters were sent to the tranquil neutral territory of the emerging Republic of Ireland, just over the border to County Monaghan, to live with his uncle and his offspring, which consisted of four children, at their remote farmstead.

The journey to County Monaghan was by train, which William remembers fondly given that he had a surge of excitement running through him as he had never journeyed out of Northern Ireland’s first city a great deal.

During his time in the border region, both children absolutely loved their stretch spent there. They even attended the local elementary school, a trek that took 1½ miles every day to walk from their uncle’s abode.

However, at the conclusion of the conflict in 1945, the now teenagers were reunited with their parents in Belfast. Yet, even to this day, William looks back with sheer delight at the period in the course of his exodus from the terraced back streets of east Belfast to the more pleasant terrain of County Monaghan.

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Your Responses...

Nick Girvan - May '08
Kai.
My Name is Nick Girvan and my father Thomas was fron Monaghan.
I wondered if there was a connection?

Stephen - Dec '05
Hi Kai, just read your artical about the war, fantastic! Also seen the programe on Monday 19/12/06, always knew you were a women of many talants. Well, just saying hello, glad to see you are keeping and looking so well
Stephen x