Together we can celebrate 75 years since the guns fell silent in Europe

People here and around the world will mark the historic occasion as they did three quarters of a century ago when millions took to the streets, pubs, churches and public places to celebrate peace, mourn loved-ones lost, and to hope for the future.

WWII statistics vary and are incomprehensibly tragic - from 50 million to over 70 million military personnel and civilian deaths around the globe, with over 60 million refugees displaced and homeless.

An incalculable number of men, women, children and babies worldwide were left to live with the emotional, mental and physical scars of war.

On May 7 1945 the formal act of surrender was signed by Germany and next day the world celebrated.

At 3pm on the 8th Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a radio broadcast, listened to all around the UK and relayed by loudspeakers to many thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square.

Princesses Margaret and Elizabeth (now Her Majesty the Queen) mingled with vast throngs outside Buckingham Palace where King George VI and the Queen appeared eight times on the balcony.

For many the historic occasion was bitter-sweet, celebrating peace, mourning bereavement, beckoning a new future and thinking about those still in conflict until August 15 when Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending the war.

Later on VE Day Churchill gave an impromptu speech from a Whitehall Ministry balcony, telling the enormous crowd “My dear friends, this is your hour.”

By midnight an estimated 50,000 people crowded around Piccadilly Circus.

In New York huge crowds massed in Times Square.

In Paris the Champs Elysees echoed with thousands of voices singing ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.’

In Belfast thousands gathered to celebrate around the City Hall and in the surrounding streets, particularly in the east and north of the city that were hardest hit by the blitz.

“Belfast is letting itself go, that’s plain fact,” said the BBC’s Harry McMullan describing the scenes on Royal Avenue, “below me, the population of this city, laughing cheering and dancing, is surging past in great waves of colour and sound in brilliant sunshine.”

The May 8 was declared a national holiday and there were street parties, parades and celebrations in Bangor, Dungannon, Portadown and in towns and villages all across Northern Ireland.

In Enniskillen the bells of St. Macartin’s Cathedral rang out, bands paraded through the town, services were held in the churches, bonfires and fireworks thrilled the youngsters, singing echoed afar till after midnight and “so full were some of the public houses” a local newspaper reported, “ that drink was carried out to be consumed on the street.”

Enniskillen-born Roamer was a 1950s baby and while I missed the VE Day celebrations by five years I have many early memories of a town liberally dotted with vivid and poignant reminders of WWII.

I’ve mentioned some of them here before, like Enniskillen’s former American Army base in Lower Celtic Park, where Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower addressed GI’s prior to D-Day.

Ike’s podium is long gone, but other notable locations, like the shores of Castle Archdale and Killadeas, are rich with dramatic vestiges of war.

Ulster had an enormously important role in the war, indeed Winston Churchill stated categorically that if it had not been for Northern Ireland, the war would not have ended nearly as quickly.

In joyful scenes replicated across the country, VE Day in Fermanagh brought people spilling from their homes and congregating for community celebrations in vast volumes of noise and numbers.

At least half a dozen effigies of Hitler were burnt!

The Stars and Stripes flew in Newtownbutler; a Lisbellaw councillor brandished a placard of the vanquished German eagle under the British lion’s paw; Enniskillen’s Portora Royal School and R.U.C Depot were flood-lit; Derrygonnelly celebrated with three bands and a bonfire; Lisnaskea’s festivities continued until next morning at three o’clock and a large barrel of tar was burned on a hill outside Letterbreen.

“The conduct of the people on all these varying occasions was such that mannerliness and good humour prevailed,” the Impartial Reporter recounted, adding “in all, there was the knowledge that thanksgiving was the main note.”

Rita Hamilton from Maguiresbridge was on duty as a WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) driver at Castle Archdale sea-plane base on VE Day.

Rita and her sister Constance, along with nine or ten other women drivers celebrated on an RAF motorboat on Lough Erne, navigated by two young RAF boatmen.

“We were so happy that everything was over.” Rita recalls, “It was an unforgettable trip.”

Close friend and fellow-WAAF veteran Frankie Hornby will be joining Rita to celebrate VE Day 75 with the children in her old school, Maguiresbridge Primary, one of the many events in Northern Ireland marking the anniversary.

VE Day 75 has been designated as a Bank Holiday by the Government and you can attend local celebrations or even organise events in your own area.

There’ll be more details and VE-Day memories on this page as the May 8 approaches, when Northern Ireland will be joining in UK-wide and worldwide commemorations.

Further information and event ideas are at www.veday75.org