The city was returning to ‘normal’. The front of the Belfast Newsletter for the 24 April shows how the city was ‘getting back to work’ after the shock of the 15/16 April raid. There were a large number of vacancies…

Belfast was still coping with the aftermath of the raid. Emergency food was provided to the population. On 16 April, 70,000 meals were produced and by 21 April this had fallen to 10,000.[1] Also, much of Belfast had been untouched…

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester toured severely damaged areas of Belfast. The Northern Whig believed some people had fled ‘more likely to selfishness than fear’ but thought that people should ‘press on, stimulated by our Royal visitors, to get…

On 21st April, unidentified bodies of those people killed during the 15/6 April raid were buried in mass graves in Belfast City Cemetery and Milltown Cemetery. Protestants were buried in the former and Catholics in the latter. The memorial in…

Emma Duffin was Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) commandant of the Stranmillis Military Hospital. The VAD was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire.[1] Duffin had been…

The Belfast Telegraph reported that ‘dangerous’ animals at the zoo had been destroyed to protect the public in the event of bomb damage to their enclosures that may permit their escape. In all 33 animals were put down including a…

The city continued to come to terms with the attack. The newspapers gave details of how people could get food, support and water.[1] The Northern Whig set out how people could unidentified dead at St Georges’ market in order to…

17 April 1941 (Thursday) – Belfast 1941 Blitz Diary The Irish Times editorial on 17 April reported that: ‘Humanity knows no borders, no politics, no differences of religious belief. Yesterday for once the people of Ireland were united under the shadow…

This morning I attended a ceremony to mark the 81st anniversary of the Belfast Blitz at mass grave to unidentified victims of the raids at Belfast City Cemetery. Between 7-8 April to 5-6 May 1941, the German air force launched…

The second raid on Belfast took place on Easter Tuesday, 15 April 1941. Around two hundred Luftwaffe bombers attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city of Belfast. It is estimated that some 900 people died and 1,500 were injured…