Talk:Belfast Blitz

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Spot87 (talk • contribs) 21 May 2006.

First Edit
I found it difficult to write the 'human cost' paragraph. There were too many tragic stories. In the end I opted to repeat quotes from primary sources which are in several books.

Dr Brian Barton has published most on this topic, however there are instances where he seems to have a 'orange' tinge to his writing.

I didn't include 'ditching', it was difficult to summarise. For months some people left the city every night and slept in ditches with a deterioration in hygine, manners, etc

There are different accounts as to who sent the telegram to whom. It probably was sent to the Dublin City manager rather than to deV. For now I opted to follow what many books say.

It would be good to get photos of the blitz. Plenty exist. But they seem to be copyright.

I left out later discussions. deV wanted to help. Offers were rejected. e.g. joining the electricity grids - at the time the south had a surplus of power from ard na crusha

I left out discrimination in - for example the 'home guard' (Dad's Army) had to take an oath which effectively excluded nationalists

Ok, any suggestions? --ClemMcGann 09:45, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

Good work, Clem.

Lapsed Pacifist 15:55, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

Seconded. --Red King 19:20, 31 August 2005 (UTC)

This is an excellent article. Thank you. (anonymous but grateful, January 24 2007)

After the blitz came a post war housing boom consisting of estates like newbarnsley ballymurphy highfield e.t.c, I remember as a kid asking my father why we had such strong coalsheds they where the size and height of a large bedroom with an 8 inch thick concrete roof and all just to store 2 or 3 bags of coal ! I was told that after the war designers where told to add these as ready made bomb shelters, of course back then they would probably not have forseen the threat of all out nuclear war —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.12.228.66 (talk • contribs)

Belfast Blitz
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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:51, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Unreferenced statements
I removed some statements which had references, but when the references were followed did not support the statements. User:ClemMcGann then but them back, so I have removed them again. Please don't put these statements back unless actual references that support them can be found. DJ Clayworth (talk) 17:13, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I am surprised that any editor would remove a section which has been in the article from its first inception with the comment remove unreferenced bollocks. This article predates our citation templates, nonetheless a reference was given in the form of a footnote.  If you doubted the words then a 'citation required' could have been applied. When I restored the article I cited an extract from the original reference.   It is, as the cite says "Extracts from an article on The Belfast Blitz, 1941. By Jonathan Bardon.  Lecturer of History, Queens University, Belfast."  (who has written and broadcast extensively on this subject)  You now say "when the references were followed did not support the statements".

Perhaps you could say which? Will you now restore the paragraphs?
 * ClemMcGann (talk) 19:36, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

I apologise if this seemed tiresome or heavy-handed. Most of the stuff I remove from Wikipedia doesn't deserve any time spent on it. This article accidentally went the same way.

When I removed the text that I did, the only 'reference' given was a superscript "1". Reference number 1 was to a BBC Online article which in no way supported the statements made. I don't think there was any way that I could have deduced that an unnumbered footnote was meant to be the reference. The footnote is also unclear as to what kind of publication the reference is. Is it a book? An article? A lecture? Is Bardon representitive of historians of this subject?

I also think that the text as it stood before I edited it is poor quality. It's not clear to me if the 'crisis' that the government was allegedly unprepared for was the war, or the bombing. The relevance of Craigavon is unclear, since he died months before the bombing. The 'bullet point' style of writing is open to misinterpretation. If we wish to show that the government of Northern Ireland was unprepared for a bombing then surely it would be better to quote figures about shelters built, AA batteries in place, or other preparations rather than quoting what Lady Londonderry said about the chief minister. I have no problem with you improving the article. DJ Clayworth (talk) 20:42, 22 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Apology accepted & point taken. Bardon has written extensively on this subject.  The article could improve better references.  The publication was a pamphlet which derived from a lecture.  He has since published a book with the same title. ClemMcGann (talk) 21:00, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

Map
The image which shows Belfast Lough could be improved if Dublin, Belfast and a scale were also shown - at present this map is a bit scanty. This would then illustrate the two cities' relationship to each other.

I would do it myself, but lack the knowledge. So, any takers ? RASAM (talk) 13:43, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

Alsoma map of the route taken by the bombers would be most useful, for example did they fly up the Irish Sea? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 157.203.254.1 (talk) 10:45, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

City centre bombardment
From all accounts I have read the city centre suffered more damage in the 4/5 May "Fire Raid". The article states that Bridge Street was "effectively obliterated" in the 15/16 April Easter raid but on that occasion the Luftwaffe had turned its full force onto North Belfast districts especially the New Lodge, Antrim Road, Lower Shankill and York Street. Their targets were the Waterworks, Victoria Barracks and mills. The section in the second raid needs to be expanded to include the devastation visited upon East Belfast, city centre and the Harland and Wolff shipyard.--Jeanne Boleyn (talk) 14:13, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 09:21, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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"Easter Eggs for Belfast"
Is there any conformation from a credible source that William Joyce ever made such a comment ? A lot of comments attributed to Joyce tended to be of dubious veracity and not backed up by reports/transcripts from official monitoring services. Joyce's broadcasts were monitored by the BBC, Irish Army and (US) Foreign Broadcast Intelligence service so the If such a comment were ever actually broadcast there is likely to be a record of it somewhere. 109.144.221.170 (talk) 21:33, 10 February 2024 (UTC)