Celebrating and commemorating the end of War in Europe 75 years ago

It was taken on the main street in Kesh, County Fermanagh, on the evening of VE Day when the town celebrated with a parade, headed by Kesh flute band.

I’m told there was also a big bonfire that night. And the children and young folk weren’t overlooked as next day the local people, aided by members of the R.U.C., organised a sports meeting at which special prizes were distributed.

In the evening a dance was held in Loane’s Hall which drew a very large attendance.

But sadly, any public events planned for the 75th anniversary of VE Day this Friday and over the weekend have been cancelled or postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions.

However, as you’ll doubtlessly have seen and heard in the press and media in recent days, there are many other ways to honour the WWII generation and to celebrate and commemorate VE Day whilst staying at home.

There are numerous radio and television programmes and countless live streams and online broadcasts.

At 3pm on 8th May 1945 Winston Churchill announced on the radio that the war in Europe had ended following Germany’s surrender the previous day.

“We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing,” said Churchill in an historic speech that’s being rebroadcast on Friday “but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead.”

By nightfall 50,000 Londoners were partying in Piccadilly Circus, Red Square in Moscow was packed to overflowing, in Paris the Champs-Elysées echoed with the singing of ‘It’s a Long way to Tipperary’, jubilant throngs crowded into New York’s Times Square and all over Northern Ireland multitudes of people spilled joyfully from their homes onto the roads, streets and squares to sing, dance and hold impromptu parties.

Bands paraded, crowds cheered, fireworks exploded, pubs were packed and bunting draped many buildings and lampposts.

The celebrations were a bitter-sweet blend of welcoming peace but mourning bereavement.

The day beckoned a new future though no one was forgetting those still in conflict until Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on the 15th August 1945, effectively ending WWII.

The act of remembrance and two-minute silence will be marked in homes, apartments, gardens front doorsteps and balconies all across Northern Ireland and the UK on Friday, and Her Majesty The Queen will send a message to the nation at 9pm on BBC One, the exact moment that her father, King George VI, gave a radio address in 1945.

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales will read an extract from King George VI’s diary from 8 May 1945 which describes the day including The Royal Family’s iconic Buckingham Palace balcony appearances.

As part of special BBC programming, extracts from Sir Winston Churchill’s victory speech will recreate the moment peace in Europe was announced 75 years ago and the Queen’s address to the nation will be followed by a national singalong of Dame Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

We’re all invited to open our front doors and join in the singing.

While the world awaits a vaccine for Covid-19, another note arrived in Roamer’s mailbox recently highlighting a local connection with the first ever use the smallpox vaccine in America.

The practice of immunisation goes back hundreds of years to the Far East where drinking a concoction of snake venom was thought to give immunity from a poisonous snake bite.

But English physician Edward Jenner (1749 -1823) is considered the founder of vaccinology in the West in 1796, after he inoculated a young lad called James Phipps with vaccinia virus (cowpox) and demonstrated immunity to smallpox.

Jenner was born on May 17 1749 in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, the eighth of Anglican vicar Reverend Stephen Jenner’s nine children.

After his discovery of the vaccine Jenner became famous and developed connections with the most elite circles of European society.

He corresponded with and was received by royalty including George III, the Tsar and the King of Prussia, and received numerous accolades for his work including a fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

After his first experiments in England Dr Jenner wrote up his findings in 1798 but it took a little while for his ideas to reach the USA, where a Dr Benjamin Waterhouse claimed to have used the first vaccination in Cambridge Massachusetts.

However it was an Ulsterman, Dr John Crawford, who first introduced the smallpox vaccination in America, in Baltimore.

Because he devoted a great deal of time and energy publicising his success with the vaccine, Waterhouse got all the credit.

Dr Crawford was born in Northern Ireland on May 3 1746, the second son of a clergyman.

He went to Trinity College Dublin when he was 17 and then to the Leiden university in the Netherlands where he graduated with an MD.

After various medical and surgery posts in the UK, at sea and around the world, he went to Baltimore in 1796 and helped found the Baltimore General Dispensary.

I hope to have more of his life story here in the near future but after becoming something of a University Lecturer and leading light in the Masonic Institution in America Dr Crawford died in Baltimore on May 9 1813.

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