Collaborate, Evaluate, Evolve CILIP Ireland/ Library Association of Ireland Annual Joint Conference, 8-10 April 2015, Titanic Belfast

1. Libraries NI
Towards 2016
Catherine Morrow
Heritage Services Manager

2. LOCATIONS

3. CENTENARY
COMMEMORATIONS
• Neutral venues
• Open to all
• Events, including talks, workshops and
exhibitions
• In all libraries, not just Heritage
locations

4. PARTNERS
• Community Relations Council
• PRONI
• QUB Living Legacies
• East Belfast Great War Project
• 6th
Connaught Rangers Research
Project

5. DECADE SO FAR
• 1912 Ulster Covenant
• 1912 Titanic
• 1913 Suffragettes
• 1914 start of The Great War
• Moving on to commemorate 1916
• Program is evolving

6. SOCIAL MEDIA
• Great War 1914 - newspaper
headlines posted on Facebook and
Twitter in 2014
• Easter Rising and the Somme 1916
headlines will be posted in 2016
• Use of our regional newspapers gives
a local perspective

7. LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR
• Letters sent by staff in Belfast libraries
from the Front
• Being digitised now
• Will be on our website

8. LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR
Coulson to Elliott
22 January 1916
“I don’t know whether a letter from the
trenches is a novelty to you, but this one is
being written in a dug out in the front line,
written little more than 100 yards of the
enemy, which in itself will explain the dirt on
the paper by the time the letter is written.”

9. Fitzsimons to Elliott
13 October 1916
“Like huge stars they rise
to a great height,
illuminating no mans land
and the country side
around.”
LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR

10. LETTERS FROM THE GREAT WAR
Fitzsimons to Goldsborough
6 June 1919
“All the terrible scars of war have been
camouflaged by nature. The shell
holes and trenches are ablaze with
poppies and other coloured flowers.”

11. CONCLUSION
Thank you for listening
Watch this website
www.librariesni.org.uk
To read the WWI letters
To find out about our events