Please note: The Northern Ireland War Memorial will be closed from Friday 10 July to Tuesday 14 July 2026 (inclusive) for the July Bank Holidays. We will reopen on Wednesday 15 July 2026 at 10am. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

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First Aid in the Blitz: Civilian Care in Wartime Belfast
In this blog, Dr Becca Watterson, NIWM Education Officer, looks at how Belfast cared for the wounded during the Blitz. From First Aid Posts and ambulance crews to hospitals pushed to their limits, the blog draws on the Northern Ireland War Memorial collection, oral history, and contemporary accounts to tell the story of the people who responded when the city came under attack from the air.
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A Woman's Place during the Second World War
Guest blogger, Dr Robyn Atcheson, examines how the Second World War transformed women's roles in heavy industry. In the early twentieth century, work in heavy industry was widely assumed to be the domain of men. Women, if employed at all, were typically confined to peripheral or lower-paid roles. This long-standing assumption was dramatically disrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.
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Ike's Big Rig
It is well know that General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike for short) visited Northern Ireland as part of the preparations for D-Day in 1944. What is perhaps less well known is that one of his vital pieces of equipment, a mobile office known as the "SHAEF-Mobile" was designed and built at Langford Lodge. Guest blogger, Clive Moore explores this hidden piece of wartime history.
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Danger UXB: The hidden legacy of the Belfast Blitz
When a bomb was discovered at Rivenwood housing development in Newtownards in August 2024, it sparked an interesting question - was this the first bomb to be found since the end of the Second World War? Our Collections Officer, Jim O'Neill, wasn't entirely sure, so we decided to do a bit of digging. A search through the newspaper archives soon revealed that several similar discoveries had been made over the years.
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Victory Over Japan: Memories from the NI War Memorial
NIWM's Research Officer, Michael Burns, explores how Victory over Japan was celebrated in Northern Ireland in August 1945 as recorded in our oral history collection.
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James Magennis VC
NIWM Collections Officer, James O'Neill, charts the story of Leading Seaman James Magennis was the only person from Northern Ireland to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War. Raised just off the Grosvenor Road, Belfast, poverty led him to join the Royal Navy, where his actions during Operation Struggle and the attack on the IJN Takao earned Magennis Britain’s highest honour.
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The Stormont War Room
In this blog, NIWM Research Officer, Michael Burns offers a glimpse into the operations of local Civil Defence efforts on the four fateful nights Belfast was subjected to enemy attack. This blog focuses on the story of Stewart O’Fee (1915-2004), a civil servant during the Second World War and volunteer Intelligence Clerk in the Civil Defence War Room based at Stormont Castle.
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Nobody Died in the Blitz
Guest blogger, Matthew Maw, examines how three Belfast artists represented the Blitz in their work, with a blog post entitled, ‘Nobody Died in the Blitz’. Matthew puts the artists portrayals in the wider context of the ‘War Art’ genre and asks questions about the taboos and self-censorship that are involved when painting such devastating acts of violence against the human body.
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"The Bravest Man never to have been awarded a VC": A re-examination
In "The Bravest Man never to have been awarded a VC": A re-examination, guest blogger and NIWM Outreach Officer, Mark Wigton, explores the myths that surround one of Northern Ireland's most enigmatic soldiers, Lt Col Blair "Paddy" Mayne.
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