Daughter trusts dad to ‘chase away naughty noise’ of blitz

The well-known Banbridge author and storyteller Doreen McBride was born in East Belfast on the eve of WWII.

Her latest book is entitled ‘We Just Got On With It’ which she wrote as “a record of the day-to-day lifestyle of people in Northern Ireland, their contribution to the war effort and the changes that began to occur after the war.”

It’s a substantial compilation of WWII accounts by members and officeholders of some of our local history groups.

Few aspects of living here before, during and after the war are absent from its 220 pages, with the complete alphabet of wartime Ulster covered from ‘A’ (agriculture, aeroplanes and Americans) to ‘Z’ (zoo keeper Denise Austin’s baby elephant Sheila which she brought home every night from Belfast Zoo fearing it might be bombed.)

It wasn’t, but a Luftwaffe raid on 7/8 April 1941, followed by two major attacks on 15/16 April and 4/5 May and a fourth minor attack on 5/6 May brought death and destruction to a city drastically unprepared for the blitz.

Derry/Londonderry, Bangor and Newtownards airfield were also bombed.

Parts of Belfast were reduced to smouldering rubble, nearly 1,000 people were killed, the majority of them civilians, 2,500 were injured, 50,000 were left homeless and roads, industry and infrastructure were destroyed or severely damaged.

Chapter 5 of Doreen’s book, concentrating wholly on the blitz, is a relentless succession of hair-raising and heart-breaking accounts of Belfast’s raids, and the other attacks on Ulster towns and communities.

“Belfast is a small city,” Doreen emphasises, “so every family was affected” and every page brings at least one harrowing story - though occasionally tinged with humour.

Dublin sent fire engines to Belfast’s aid and a southern fireman rescued an old woman in danger of being crushed under her collapsed house.

She recognised his accent and exclaimed, “You’re from Dublin, aren’t you? I knew I was being pushed through the earth but I didn’t realise I’d gone that far!”

A family looking after a Jewish refugee cowered in their house surrounded by dropping bombs.

The terrified mum, a good Catholic, vigorously prayed, “Jesus, Mary and St Joseph protect us.”

The Jewish lodger repeatedly chimed in “and me too!”

There are tragic descriptions of massed burials, makeshift mortuaries, direct hits on shelters, packed hospital wards overflowing into corridors, and terrified Belfast-folk dashing to the safety of the hills where they watched the city they’d fled from disintegrate and burn...their loved ones and relatives still there.

As an accomplished storyteller and historian, Doreen McBride very vividly recalls the first raid.

“Mummy lifted me out of my cot, took me downstairs, put me in the cubbyhole under the stairs and told me to stay there. I peeped out of the door. Daddy was dressed in his ARP (Air Raid Precautions) uniform. The noise of explosions and aeroplane engines overhead was deafening and our dog, Toby, was under the stairs howling his head off. Mummy went over to Daddy, gave him a big hug and said, ‘I wonder if we’ll see each other again.’ He said, ‘I hope so,’ kissed her, opened the front door and as he went out I saw the sky was red, lit up by all sorts of flashes. Mummy was crying when she crawled in beside me. I’d never seen my Mummy cry. I gave her a big hug and told her not to worry because, ‘my Daddy would chase the naughty noises away.’”

A stark account from an ARP warden at dockland Post 381 highlights Belfast’s unpreparedness - “nothing worked”.

The warden couldn’t phone for a fire engine or ambulance because the phonelines were down.

The gas was ruptured and the electricity was cut off.

Roads were impassable so when the fire engine finally arrived the area was an inferno but with the water mains destroyed the hoses were useless.

Doreen, Mummy and Toby stayed under the stairs.

“We didn’t sleep that night,” Doreen remembers, “we just held onto each other and prayed.”

Miraculously, when the bombs stopped the house was intact, Toby stopped howling and “Daddy came home safely.”

‘We Just Got On With It’ by Doreen McBride is available in all good bookshops and from Amazon.

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