Nuns' letters reveal trauma of life during Belfast Blitz of 1941

A series of letters written during the Belfast Blitz which paint a tragic picture of life in the city at the time are now on display at the Northern Ireland War Memorial museum.
The Shore Road in Belfast in April 1941 at the height of the blitzThe Shore Road in Belfast in April 1941 at the height of the blitz
The Shore Road in Belfast in April 1941 at the height of the blitz

The letters were discovered in a Dublin monastery, having been written by sisters in north Belfast in 1941 as German bombers targeted the city in bombing raids which killed more than 900 people.

Museum manager Jenny Haslett said: “The shipyards in the east and the Waterworks in the north were both targets.

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“North Belfast was by far the worst area hit. You’ll see entire families of five, six, seven, eight and nine people all dying together in the one house. You’ll see ages ranging from two-month-old babies to 91-year-olds.

The letters on display at the Northern Ireland War Memorial museumThe letters on display at the Northern Ireland War Memorial museum
The letters on display at the Northern Ireland War Memorial museum

“We’ve heard and read some incredibly moving stories of loss and separation, but it is still hard to imagine what it would have been like to live through those years.”

She explained how the museum came to see the letters: “Last year, Father Magill from St John’s Parish House in Belfast called into the museum.

“He told us that he had discovered some very interesting letters written at the time of the blitz, letters written by the Poor Clare sisters who lived in a monastery on the Cliftonville Road in the 1940s.

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“Father Magill came across these letters when researching and writing a history of the Poor Clares which will be published later this year with a chapter dedicated to the war years and the contents of the letters.

The letters on display at the Northern Ireland War Memorial museumThe letters on display at the Northern Ireland War Memorial museum
The letters on display at the Northern Ireland War Memorial museum

“We’re very pleased to have the letters on display here thanks to him.”

The following are some excerpts from the Poor Clare sisters’ letters:

On Sunday April 21, 1941, just days after the Easter Tuesday raid which proved to be the most devastating, Sister Colette wrote: “With those whistling bombs, they seem to be right over you & you just wonder where they are going to land – well when that crash went it was not only the choir windows went but every window in the convent, door & shutters & all the house round – it was the blast of a bomb that fell off about 200 yards from the choir, only St Michael kept them off us – one of the enclosure gates was blown wide open & one half wrenched off its hinges – St Michael remained in his niche over the gate without a scratch & the Infant of Prague was smiling at us from behind the gate with his night-light lighting as if nothing had happened.”

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Sister Colette wrote again on May 16, 1941, after the second major air raid: “Dear me the worst has come at last & yet it must be the best – God’s Holy Will. We had a terrible night last Sunday worse than the first, a mine was dropped in the same place again but did not make such a flash as the houses were all down already & it fell in soft ground. Still our garden is full of debris & one of the houses just beside our wall suffered badly – our out-house roof also & the green house. The general idea is that the Germans think this is a barracks & that we are the target for these bombs falling around us – God has watched over us wonderfully & we are leaving the convent & chapel in charge of Our Lady & St Michael & the Infant of Prague – they will be the wardens.”

Sister Paul who was evacuated to Newry wrote on May 20, 1941, wrote: “So many lives could not have been lost at the last raid as every night thousands leave the city for neighbouring towns; and the poor to the hills. It was a very sad night when we were on our way to the Holy Cross Sister at night to see the procession of mothers with babies and little tots following, little boys & little girls carrying bundles (a blanket or a top coat, a pillow an old chair etc.) the men staying behind to put out the fires. Sometimes you would see a few of them carrying a bed. They were on the way to the hills for the night, and this procession goes on every night.”

In another letter written on May 30, 1941 one sister notes that there “was a constant stream of funerals to the cemetery and a great number of little blue coffins”.

• The letters will be on display in the Northern Ireland War Memorial museum until June before they are returned to the Poor Clares Monastry in Dublin.