Northern Ireland was described as being ‘half in the war’. While in Britain everyday life changed, with the closure of cinemas, theatres and football matches cancelled, Northern Ireland carried on seemingly unaffected.

Edward Warnock, a parliamentary secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, cancelled orders for fire-fighting equipment recommended by the Home Office as he was so certain that Northern Ireland lay beyond the range of German bombers. Gas masks were not distributed to everyone, and Northern Irelands shelter programme was far behind Britain.

Steps taken to evacuate women and children were also half-hearted. Belfast had a total school population of seventy thousand but only eighteen thousand were registered for evacuation. On the 7th July, the day appointed for evacuation from Belfast, only seven thousand turned up

Renee Green, from the Shankill, recalls getting out of school to collect her gas mask when she was six years old. Caught up in the first blitz on the 8th of April Renee was taken by her parents to their cottage in Helen’s Bay. Renee watched the blitz on the 15th April from Helen’s Bay train station, sheltering under the arches. She says that when she left Belfast there were not many shelters but when she got back shelters were outside her door and the children used them as novelty play areas. For Renee the time spent away from Belfast was an adventure

Peggy McDermott also lived on the Shankill. Peggy was fourteen and was working in Broadway. She remembers her workmate crying at the news of the war starting. Peggy also remembers the incident on Percy Street. Peggy’s boyfriend at the time wanted to go into the Percy Street air-raid shelter but then decided not to. Instead, they went into the house of Peggy’s boyfriend’s sister and her kids, a decision that was to save their lives.

Kenneth Taylor, an Auxiliary Fire Service worker, was standing on the flat roof of a mill on North Howard Street when he seen a parachute mine land within fifteen feet of the crowded shelter in Percy Street. The shelter could not withstand the blast, the huge concrete roof was lifted of killing some people and pinning others beneath the wreckage. People became confused and dazed, they came out of their damaged homes exposing themselves to more danger.

Peggy remembers the sadness she felt knowing that her friends and neighbours had been killed. She also explains the worry her mother felt when her brother Artie, an Air Raid Protection volunteer, went missing on the night of the raid. Peggy’s mother travelled the next day around the city morgues to try and find Artie’s body. Fortunately Artie was alive and well.

Peggy recalls that her brother pulled limbs from the debris; hands with wedding rings were found. Bodies were strewn around the bomb site; whole streets (such as Westland and Eastland Street) had collapsed. Rescue attempts started straight away while bombs continued to rain down on Belfast.

After the raids Peggy and hundreds of other Belfast citizens headed for the hills around Belfast rather than take their chance in the city.

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