Tuesday 25 February 2014

BBC tells Ireland's WW1 Home Front stories

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01p33l4
The BBC has launched World War One At Home, a collection of stories about how the war affected the people and places – the 'Home Front' – of the UK and Ireland. Some 1,400 stories that will be released during the course of this year, with hundreds more planned for released by the end of 1918.

The BBC has partnered with Imperial War Museums and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to collect and record these stories, and I know that many historical societies across the island were also involved.

The stories will be broadcast on national radio and television, and online. Each World War One At Home story focuses on a place – airfields, hospitals, schools, churches, town squares, theatres, high streets – and shows how local events were influenced by the global conflict. You'll find an example in the radio podcast below, which tells the story of a cycle shop in Omagh High Street, Co Tyrone, that landed an order for 50 bikes, complete with rifle straps, for soldiers in 1915.

Broadcast details across UK regions can be found here, but if you want to see the Ireland-based stories already broadcast, click here for the full selection. Most of the podcasts are around 5–6 minutes long.