Belfast history buff Jason Burke goes from written word to walking tours to podcasts

The 33-year-old from east Belfast writes a history blog, takes historical walking tours, and has recently branched out into podcasts focusing on aspects of his city’s history.

He said his interest in history was inescapable: “I grew up in an area off the Cregagh Road where the streets were named after battle sites of the First World War. When I was out on the street on my bike or playing football I noticed the street names around me – Somme Drive, Hamel Drive, Thiepval Avenue.

“I always had a subconscious interest in the First World War and world war heritage because it was all around me. Looking back on it whenever we were playing football in the street we were using the war memorial as a goalpost.

“It was only later in life I discovered the area in which I lived was ex-servicemen’s houses who had come back from the First World War.

“Whenever it came to school I always tended to do well at history, then at university I could specialise. My first dissertation at undergraduate was on the role of east Belfast in the First World War.

“It just spiralled from there. Before I knew it I was being asked to come and do talks for community groups and societies. That led me back to doing a masters, and now I’m writing a book about east Belfast’s role in the First World War.”

It wasn’t until Jason was doing his dissertation that he discovered he had a more direct link to World War One than the street names around him.

He said: “For most people their interest in the war comes from a sepia photo on the mantelpiece. I grew up with no awareness of anybody in my family who had served in the war.

“It was later in life when I was doing the First World War research for the dissertation that I did discover a family member who the family didn’t know existed.

“I encountered this relative by complete chance. While trawling through names of casualties I noticed a casualty named Burke at an address which had featured in my family tree – Sackville Street, Belfast.

“After some digging it turned out to be a great uncle – Rifleman George Burke from the Brown Square area who died on July 1, 1916 with the 36th Ulster Division.

“In order to enlist, George lied about his age to make himself younger – an aspect of the war which we don’t often consider.

“Having gone missing on the first day of the Somme, his family appealed for information in local newspapers such as the Belfast News Letter and Belfast Evening Telegraph, however it took over a year for them to be officially informed of his death. This must have been harrowing. His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing.”

In 2015 Jason starting doing walking tours in east Belfast and other parts of the city: “I always tell the visitors that they’re not sightseeing tours, they use sights to tell a particular themed story. The idea was to invite people into the wonders of our history and to show them that far from being boring and fusty, that history can be inspiring and exciting.

“The idea that I always say to the visitors that come on the tours, and it’s been mostly locals so far, is to inspire a bit of pride in the city through exploring the hidden history.”

When he had to begin cancelling tours due to Covid, the Historical Belfast podcast was born: “The podcast had always been at the back of my mind. The lockdown gave me the time and the space to master the technology.

“From doing walks about east Belfast and the city centre I’ve gathered a catalogue of stories and interesting tales that I think deserve to be told. I think podcasts are a great medium to do that.”

Jason’s most recent podcast features an interview with Mark Scott who is the author of the soon-to-be published book ‘Among The Kings’ which tells the story of Ernest Fitzsimmons, who went by the name of ‘Fitz’, and resided at 172 Roden Street in South Belfast.

‘Fitz’, by his own account, oversaw the operation to bring home the body of the Unknown Warrior only to be subsequently written out of the story and anonymised himself.

Of the medium of podcasting he said: “People who tend to be interested in history tend to be that wee bit older and are maybe less au fait with technology. Whenever you’re talking about podcasts it’s almost like a foreign language.

“It’s going to take a bit of time to chip away at that.”

You can listen to Jason’s podcasts at www.buzzsprout.com/1047775