0:00:03 > 0:00:06Northern Ireland has produced more than its fair share of world
0:00:06 > 0:00:10class writers and poets, Nobel laureates and academics.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16They have enriched our culture, examined our history
0:00:16 > 0:00:19and drawn inspiration from the landscape they grew up in.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25But there's one woman, a highly regarded academic,
0:00:25 > 0:00:27writer and poet, whose work helped lay
0:00:27 > 0:00:31the foundations for the success of those who came after her.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35She isn't a household name and her contribution to the arts
0:00:35 > 0:00:39and culture of Northern Ireland has been almost completely forgotten.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41Her name was Nesca Robb.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47In a life that spanned the launching of the Titanic to the
0:00:47 > 0:00:48outbreak of the Troubles,
0:00:48 > 0:00:52she witnessed history in the making, and what she saw
0:00:52 > 0:00:56made her what she described as that anomalous thing, an Ulsterwoman.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Nesca Robb grew up at Ballyhackamore House in east Belfast,
0:01:16 > 0:01:20the second daughter of a prosperous and influential Belfast family.
0:01:20 > 0:01:23Her father's business, J Robb & Co,
0:01:23 > 0:01:27was a city landmark for over a century.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30But as well as wealth and privilege, Nesca inherited a rich
0:01:30 > 0:01:34streak of independence from her Scots Presbyterian ancestors.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45Nesca Robb didn't court publicity or notoriety.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49I think she often found herself out of step with the society
0:01:49 > 0:01:51she grew up in.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55And yet, she was a trailblazer, so why do we know so little about her?
0:01:55 > 0:01:58My name's Lesley Riddoch, I'm a journalist and broadcaster,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01and as you can hear from my accent, I'm Scottish.
0:02:01 > 0:02:04But until the age of 13, I lived here in east Belfast,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08a stone's throw away from where Nesca Robb grew up.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11I knew nothing about her then, but I'm going to put that right.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14I'm going to find out who she was, what she did
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and why Nesca Robb is a woman worth remembering.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25At the Public Records Office in Belfast,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29local historian Billy McCullough has been researching the Robb
0:02:29 > 0:02:31family and he's discovered
0:02:31 > 0:02:34a treasure trove of long-forgotten photos of Nesca,
0:02:34 > 0:02:38her unpublished autobiography and notebooks full of her poetry.
0:02:40 > 0:02:45If I'm wanting to find out about Nesca Robb, I've got to start here.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50Yes. Anything that I or anybody else knows about Nesca is
0:02:50 > 0:02:53basically contained within these pages.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57There's, I think, part of her autobiography, there's poems.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02There's different aspects of her life in each of the sections.
0:03:02 > 0:03:07The very last section of them that we looked at were the poetry books.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11And when you started looking in here, you didn't expect, did you, to
0:03:11 > 0:03:15find this kind of literary heritage, tucked away amongst all the annals?
0:03:15 > 0:03:18No. I wouldn't have gotten anything out of them
0:03:18 > 0:03:20that would have enhanced my history of the family,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24but they cover a vast selection of subjects
0:03:24 > 0:03:28and she did issue two poetry books at a later stage.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31- You've got a right stack of photos. What else is here?- Well...
0:03:31 > 0:03:32Oh, there she is.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36- She's a chubby wee lass. - She is a chubby wee lass.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39As she gets older, she never regarded herself as being a beauty.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44- Never. This is her sister, Mabel. - So there's quite an age gap there.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47It's obviously her before the christening
0:03:47 > 0:03:50at Castlereagh Presbyterian Church. That's obviously a posed picture.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55Only the well-to-do or better class people could have afforded that.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57So, this photo here is Nesca.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00This is at the Ballyhackamore House, is it?
0:04:00 > 0:04:03That is correct, yes, this particular photograph is the only
0:04:03 > 0:04:06photograph that I have seen with Nesca's father.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11The pony is called Robin and this is Nesca, I think, at maybe four,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13five years of age.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26Strandtown Primary, my old school.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32100 years ago, Nesca Robb lived just down the road.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36In fact, the connections between us are almost scary.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40We grew up in the same part of town, walked the same streets,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43went to a Presbyterian Church, had Scottish links,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46went to the same university in England.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49To me, this school hasn't changed one iota.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53But to Nesca, the whole area would be completely unrecognisable.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58Then, Ballyhackamore had only just been
0:04:58 > 0:05:01incorporated into the city of Belfast.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04And was home to many of its wealthy merchants and businessmen.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07Nesca's family home no longer exists,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09but I'd like to see where it was.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13Well, I know Nesca's house was down here, number 44,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17but actually, CS Lewis lived on this corner.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Well, this is Nesca's house, Ballyhackamore House, in 1910,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30and I think it was here.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Just right there, where those houses are now.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40Ballyhackamore House was more than bricks and mortar to Nesca.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43It was the place where she was happier
0:05:43 > 0:05:45than at any other time in her life.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53Nesca was growing up at a time of enormous change.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Belfast was growing rapidly and from a very early age,
0:05:57 > 0:06:01she was fascinated by life beyond the garden gate.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09I love her description of the tram journey into Belfast, past rows of
0:06:09 > 0:06:14precise, identical red brick houses and on across the Albert Bridge.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18The way she writes about shipyard workers steaming
0:06:18 > 0:06:21home from work like a river in space
0:06:21 > 0:06:24and mill girls with black shawls folded nun-like
0:06:24 > 0:06:30round their faces, filling the air with high-pitched talk and laughter.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32She wrote of a winter evening
0:06:32 > 0:06:37when the early dusk seemed to brim the streets like floodwater,
0:06:37 > 0:06:41the lamp lighters like uncouth pantomime fairies,
0:06:41 > 0:06:46with star-topped wands, touched lamps into blurs of gold,
0:06:46 > 0:06:51suffusing the foggy air with fugitive melting blue.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58And she describes how the city fed her imagination.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02A vast kaleidoscope, filled with a shifting human pattern.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05It made me irrevocably its child.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13Time and again in her writing, Nesca returns to the subject of place,
0:07:13 > 0:07:18of how she feels shaped by the city and the hills around Belfast.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24And she lived through some of the most significant
0:07:24 > 0:07:26events in its history.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Remembering the collective pride people
0:07:29 > 0:07:34felt at the launching of the city's most famous ship, she writes,
0:07:34 > 0:07:38"Half the town seemed to be there, packing the riverside,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42"for Belfast took a proprietary interest in its ships
0:07:42 > 0:07:46"and this was our masterpiece of design and skill,
0:07:46 > 0:07:50"the largest liner in the world, the Titanic."
0:07:53 > 0:07:57Years later, Nesca wondered if the fate that befell the Titanic was an
0:07:57 > 0:08:02omen of things to come, of political unrest in Ireland and war in Europe.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10In her memoirs, she recalls, "Those were unquiet days in Ireland.
0:08:10 > 0:08:15"Whenever my elders got together, the talk was of the threatened
0:08:15 > 0:08:18"Home Rule Bill and of ways and means of resisting it."
0:08:21 > 0:08:25Nesca, in her memory of all of this, is very excited about the prospect.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28What was the atmosphere like in Belfast at that time?
0:08:28 > 0:08:32It certainly was a period of feverish excitement in Ireland.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34It was THE topic of conversation at every meal.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38It was something that dominated the newspaper headlines,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41something that dominated the public discourse.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47During the period of the third Home Rule crisis, we see mass rallies
0:08:47 > 0:08:51being organised, demonstrations vehemently denouncing Home Rule.
0:08:51 > 0:08:57With the organisation of the Ulster Volunteer Force in January 1913,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01we have a sustained campaign against Home Rule.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04What was the Robbs' take then on all of this?
0:09:04 > 0:09:08Well, the Robbs, like many people from a similar background, were
0:09:08 > 0:09:12vehemently opposed to the idea of a devolved parliament in Dublin.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18They were concerned that the parliament would be ruled
0:09:18 > 0:09:19over by the Catholic Church
0:09:19 > 0:09:23and they were fearful for their own civil and religious liberties.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27They were also fearful for the economic position of Ulster.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31Ulster had become wealthy in the course of the 19th century,
0:09:31 > 0:09:34Belfast in particular was growing at an astronomical rate.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36It was very much a city that was trading with many
0:09:36 > 0:09:38parts of the world.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41And the Robbs were among that Presbyterian middle class
0:09:41 > 0:09:42merchant class,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46who had done extremely well in the course of the 19th century
0:09:46 > 0:09:47and early 20th century
0:09:47 > 0:09:51and they were fearful that this would be undermined by Home Rule.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Nesca talks about waking up one morning to discover her own
0:09:57 > 0:10:00family have been involved in what appears to be gun running.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02What was that all about?
0:10:02 > 0:10:05Well, the Ulster Volunteer Force needed weapons.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10The Ulster Unionist leadership arranged to have guns
0:10:10 > 0:10:14brought from Germany and landed, particularly at Larne,
0:10:14 > 0:10:17but also at Donaghadee and Bangor, in April 1914.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24There is some debate as to just how much was brought in at that
0:10:24 > 0:10:26time, but you see figures of 25,000 guns
0:10:26 > 0:10:29and three million rounds of ammunition.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35The guns are landed, from Larne and other distribution points,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37they are taken out across the province of Ulster.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41In a sense, the authorities turn a blind eye to it.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45One of Nesca's cousins was a dispatch rider with the UVF
0:10:45 > 0:10:48and her father provided support for his staff
0:10:48 > 0:10:53when they helped unload the cargo of guns in April 1914.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55For Nesca, as a young girl, I mean, she would have been just
0:10:55 > 0:10:59on the eve of her ninth birthday at the time of the gun running.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02And so it would have been a formative experience for her.
0:11:02 > 0:11:04I mean, something that she was extremely
0:11:04 > 0:11:06conscious of growing up in that household,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09in which they were fearful of Home Rule,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12they were concerned about what the implications it would have
0:11:12 > 0:11:16had for their family and for their economic and social position.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18And so it does leave a deep, deep impression on her
0:11:18 > 0:11:21and it does help to shape her thinking of her
0:11:21 > 0:11:23distinctiveness as an Ulsterwoman,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25so distinctive from the rest of Ireland,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28but even distinctive from the peoples across the British
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Isles, that the people of Ulster are separate people.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35But the threat of civil war
0:11:35 > 0:11:40and Home Rule was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44Nesca recalls, "From an upstairs window in the warehouse,
0:11:44 > 0:11:48"we were to watch the division's farewell parade through
0:11:48 > 0:11:50"the centre of Belfast.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53"Sir Edward himself was there to see them off.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58"And I nearly toppled headlong in my eagerness to see and hear him."
0:12:02 > 0:12:07As the world around her busied itself with the war effort,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11Nesca entered Richmond Lodge School For Girls.
0:12:11 > 0:12:13But having been educated by a governess till she was 10,
0:12:13 > 0:12:16she found it hard to fit in.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21She was teased for her lisp and for having the wrong kind of shoes.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24"Sometimes," she says, "nobody would speak to me, at others,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28"they would only speak in insults."
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Nesca found solace in books.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37And by her mid-teens, she'd begun writing poetry.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42Her inspiration came from the landscape of the Castlereagh hills and the Ards Peninsula.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46And she drew on the words and language of the people who lived there.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52English lecturer Kathryn White has been studying Nesca's
0:12:52 > 0:12:56poetry and where it fits into the Ulster Scots tradition.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02When you look at Nesca and think about, sort of, her story,
0:13:02 > 0:13:07erm, she was very influenced by her Presbyterian grandmother.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11She describes herself as being Scots to the marrow.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13And when you think even about her roots, her family,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17her ancestors were from the clan of MacFarlane,
0:13:17 > 0:13:21who came over, and round about the 1620s, settled in Bangor
0:13:21 > 0:13:25before eventually moving to the Castlereagh Hills.
0:13:25 > 0:13:28So, that influence was very much there.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34Nesca writes in standard English and she writes in Ulster Scots.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38Is there any kind of rationale for what she writes when?
0:13:38 > 0:13:40Yes, and I think it's interesting that she sort of goes between,
0:13:40 > 0:13:43actually, the two languages.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47But she turns to Ulster Scots and to the language, I suppose, of her
0:13:47 > 0:13:53grandmother and her ancestors, when she has something important to say.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58You can see this in a poem like Wishin', where Nesca
0:13:58 > 0:14:01writes of an old man longing for home.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04"All that's worth learnin', I got as a lump of a waen,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08"In the loanins an' boglands an' fields."
0:14:08 > 0:14:11So, the idea that she uses Ulster Scots
0:14:11 > 0:14:14when she's writing about important points or important
0:14:14 > 0:14:16periods of her life,
0:14:16 > 0:14:19says a lot about what she thought of the language.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22And that she thought Ulster Scots could perhaps express
0:14:22 > 0:14:28something that couldn't be expressed in standard English.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32"That there's no good in wishin's a thing that we all hae to learn,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36"And it's no kind o' job for a man for to yammer an' girn.
0:14:36 > 0:14:40"But the whins'll be out in the loanin and scentin' the air,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42"And the lark mad wi' singin' o'erhead
0:14:42 > 0:14:46"And I wisht I was there."
0:14:46 > 0:14:49She says herself in her early poems, which she
0:14:49 > 0:14:53was writing when she was very young, that she was sort of
0:14:53 > 0:14:58experimenting as well with this sense of
0:14:58 > 0:15:01the regional and the local.
0:15:01 > 0:15:07And she describes her early poetry as a private indulgence.
0:15:09 > 0:15:13Nesca's writing and her academic ability hadn't gone unnoticed
0:15:13 > 0:15:15at school, where she was encouraged
0:15:15 > 0:15:18to take the entrance exam for Oxford.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21This was a time when few girls went to university.
0:15:21 > 0:15:27As she said herself, "If a girl passed senior intermediate, she was branded clever.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32"If she wished to go further, she was apt to be regarded as a freak."
0:15:32 > 0:15:36Nesca's family were very supportive of her plans.
0:15:36 > 0:15:41But in 1922, her home life was torn apart, as first her sister,
0:15:41 > 0:15:43and then her mother, fell ill.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50I'm looking through Nesca's notes of 1922.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53She never included these in her autobiography.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56And they're very hard to make out,
0:15:56 > 0:15:59scribbled almost in some great haste.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01But I see in March, 1922,
0:16:01 > 0:16:04she records the death of her mother after a long illness.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09She says, "Of the events of that day, most have vanished.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12"But a few are as clear as yesterday.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17"My father weeping speechlessly while holding me in his arms."
0:16:19 > 0:16:22The loss of her mother, from whom she had inherited her
0:16:22 > 0:16:26love of literature, was a terrible blow to Nesca.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30But worse was to come.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34And here, in July, she recalls,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36"Auntie Katie entered with a troubled face.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40"'Nesca,' she said painfully, 'it's your father. He's gone.'"
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Just four months after burying his wife,
0:16:46 > 0:16:50Charles Robb died suddenly of a heart attack.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55The two girls are alone, Mabel and Nesca.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58They are in St Leonards-on-Sea, a resort on the south coast
0:16:58 > 0:17:01of England, where Mabel is recuperating.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Nesca recalls that she went out for a walk
0:17:04 > 0:17:07and was greeted on her return by the hotel manager.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16He says, "I'm very sorry, Miss Robb, but your sister..."
0:17:16 > 0:17:19There was no need for him to say more.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21So, in nine short months,
0:17:21 > 0:17:24the three most important people to Nesca have died.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27What an incredible loss in one so young.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31She was just 17 and now all on her own.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40Little over a year later, Nesca left Belfast to study modern languages
0:17:40 > 0:17:44at Somerville College, Oxford.
0:17:50 > 0:17:54It's strange retracing Nesca's footsteps, how often her world
0:17:54 > 0:17:58and mine cross over, first in Belfast and now in Oxford,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01where I went to university too.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04I've come here to meet college archivist Anne Manuel.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07She's discovered that in the archives of another student,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Margaret Mann Phillips, there are dozens of letters
0:18:10 > 0:18:13and photographs relating to Nesca.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16She met Margaret Phillips in their Hilary term,
0:18:16 > 0:18:17which is the second term of college.
0:18:17 > 0:18:20And it was after that that I think she then started
0:18:20 > 0:18:23to settle into Oxford and make some more friends.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26There was a rather poignant story, actually,
0:18:26 > 0:18:29of when she met Margaret Mann for the first time,
0:18:29 > 0:18:31when they started to become really quite close,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33and it obviously meant a lot to Margaret as well,
0:18:33 > 0:18:35because she's written about it,
0:18:35 > 0:18:40and she talks about before she really got to know Nesca, what her
0:18:40 > 0:18:44impression was, that she was rather, erm...
0:18:44 > 0:18:46aloof, I think, and separate,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48and certainly that's what her contemporaries thought as well.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51So she writes, "In common room and dining hall, they had seen
0:18:51 > 0:18:54"each other and Margaret had once told another girl
0:18:54 > 0:18:57"in their year that she was asking Nesca to come for a walk,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00"at which the contemporary had replied, caustically,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03"you might have a more congenial companion."
0:19:03 > 0:19:05- Right.- Which is a little bit rude!- Yes.
0:19:05 > 0:19:09"This remark showed the attitude of most of the year towards
0:19:09 > 0:19:12"the silent Irish girl, whose reserve, awkward figure
0:19:12 > 0:19:14"too mature for her years
0:19:14 > 0:19:18"and suspected intellectual power kept the others away."
0:19:18 > 0:19:19She was a dark horse,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23so she must have felt very alone, I think, in a strange country,
0:19:23 > 0:19:25a strange environment, and with people thinking
0:19:25 > 0:19:28- that she was, somehow, a bit different.- Yes.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33But Margaret took to the standoffish Irish girl,
0:19:33 > 0:19:36who confided in her about the loss of her family.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42The floodgates opened, she wept and wept,
0:19:42 > 0:19:44they comforted each other for quite a long time,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47and from that point on, they were the best of friends
0:19:47 > 0:19:52and I think, from there, Nesca felt she had somebody to talk to,
0:19:52 > 0:19:57and share her feelings and thoughts and spirituality,
0:19:57 > 0:19:59I think this was a very spiritual time
0:19:59 > 0:20:01for both Margaret and for Nesca.
0:20:06 > 0:20:07That really is striking,
0:20:07 > 0:20:10because we know that she has had such a terrible time
0:20:10 > 0:20:12before she came to Oxford,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15with her mother, father, sister dying one after the other,
0:20:15 > 0:20:19and she's... There's no evidence of that in a lot of her formal writing,
0:20:19 > 0:20:22later, about her time in England,
0:20:22 > 0:20:24but it seems like this is the moment that the dam burst.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26Yes, absolutely. Yes.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30So here are some photographs of her and her friend Margaret Mann.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33It's marvellous, because, actually, this is the first time we've
0:20:33 > 0:20:35- really seen Nesca as a kind of adult woman.- Mm.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Up till now, all the pictures of her have been just as a child...
0:20:38 > 0:20:41- As a child, yes.- ..and with all her contemporaries.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45Through Margaret, Nesca made many more good friends at Somerville.
0:20:45 > 0:20:49She's got quite a lot of photographs in here
0:20:49 > 0:20:52of her first few months at Somerville,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56and some of the friends that she made while she was here.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59I think there was a lot of humour in Nesca Robb, actually,
0:20:59 > 0:21:05and her friends obviously saw that, because a lot of these photographs,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09her friends are making odd faces at the cameras or smiling or giggling.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14This was obviously a lovely afternoon
0:21:14 > 0:21:17that several of them had on the river in Oxford.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24Throughout her time at Oxford, Nesca continued to write poetry,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27and the archive contains her published works
0:21:27 > 0:21:31and evidence of how it was received by the literary establishment.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35We have, in the collection, a couple of letters, one from TS Eliot.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37- Really?- Yes, indeed.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41TS Eliot writes to thank her for the book of poetry that she sent him.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45"It has given me great pleasure and I am much pleased, also,
0:21:45 > 0:21:47"to have your book of poems.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49"I have appreciated the poem about George" -
0:21:49 > 0:21:51not quite sure who George is - "but I should like to add
0:21:51 > 0:21:54"that other of the poems of the book have given me pleasure."
0:21:54 > 0:21:57She was also in correspondence with Walter de la Mare.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59"They have been a great delight to me.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01"If only I mention a few in particular -
0:22:01 > 0:22:05"those on pages eight to 36 -
0:22:05 > 0:22:08"it is not because many others have not been a joy to me,
0:22:08 > 0:22:10"but because I should tire you with too long a list."
0:22:10 > 0:22:13And he even says at the end, look, there,
0:22:13 > 0:22:15"I wonder if you'd do me the kindness
0:22:15 > 0:22:19"of putting my name in your book", so he'd like an inscription.
0:22:19 > 0:22:24- So these are accolades from people that know about poetry.- Yes.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31That archive was fascinating.
0:22:31 > 0:22:36So much information that sheds a light on Nesca's personality
0:22:36 > 0:22:37so far from home.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40One thing's certain, though - she must have left this college
0:22:40 > 0:22:44a very different woman from the grieving lass that arrived.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50At Somerville, Nesca found friendship and literary endorsement,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54and her PhD on the Italian Renaissance
0:22:54 > 0:22:57became essential reading for Italian scholars.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59But like so many other women,
0:22:59 > 0:23:01she couldn't get a full-time teaching job,
0:23:01 > 0:23:06so, in 1938, Nesca left Oxford for London.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10Within a year, Britain was at war with Germany,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13and eager to play her part, Nesca joined
0:23:13 > 0:23:17the Women's Employment Federation, where she specialised in identifying
0:23:17 > 0:23:22and recruiting skilled women for the war effort.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Once again an eyewitness to history,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27she wrote of her experiences during the Blitz.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31Later published as An Ulsterwoman In England,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35it was well received, and Nesca was invited to join
0:23:35 > 0:23:39the prestigious Royal Society of Literature.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43But the book was as much about her cherished Ulster identity
0:23:43 > 0:23:45as it was about London,
0:23:45 > 0:23:51so perhaps it's unsurprising that, in 1947, Nesca returned to Belfast.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05I've come to Cregagh Glen on the outskirts of east Belfast,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07land that once belonged to the Robb family.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11The council put up this plaque
0:24:11 > 0:24:14as part of the Cregagh Glen Heritage Trail.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19It is the only visible clue to Nesca, her life and her work.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24It's an acknowledgement of Nesca's importance
0:24:24 > 0:24:26as a writer and academic,
0:24:26 > 0:24:29and also of her contribution to the National Trust.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35For when Nesca inherited this land, and Lisnabreeny House,
0:24:35 > 0:24:40from her uncle in 1937, she did something unheard of at that time -
0:24:40 > 0:24:43she donated it to the National Trust.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Lisnabreeny was one of the Trust's very first acquisitions here,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52and one of its most important.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55But it was the income it derived from renting out the land
0:24:55 > 0:24:59at Lisnabreeny that kept the Trust afloat in its early years.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03Without it, we might not have the stately homes
0:25:03 > 0:25:05and Areas of Natural Beauty
0:25:05 > 0:25:08we associate with the National Trust today.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16Nesca joined the National Trust Committee on her return to Belfast
0:25:16 > 0:25:20and became a prominent figure in the arts community,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24promoting Ulster writers and artists here and abroad.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27She was working alongside well-known writers
0:25:27 > 0:25:29John Hewitt and Sam Hanna Bell.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33In fact, it was through John Hewitt that writer Patricia Craig
0:25:33 > 0:25:37first became aware of Nesca.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40I think I was first introduced to her little booklet
0:25:40 > 0:25:43by John Hewitt.
0:25:43 > 0:25:48He thought quite highly of her, and so did I when I read the book,
0:25:48 > 0:25:50which was very humourless.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53There was a lovely bit in one of her poems
0:25:53 > 0:25:58where she has two old country people talking and discussing
0:25:58 > 0:26:00the terrible pass that the world has come to
0:26:00 > 0:26:03and they're saying how disgraceful it is,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06all these young women bathing in July
0:26:06 > 0:26:11and they weren't wearing as much as we'd dust a flute...
0:26:11 > 0:26:12THEY LAUGH
0:26:12 > 0:26:14..which was a nice Ulster expression!
0:26:14 > 0:26:17You've been speaking about Nesca in the same breath
0:26:17 > 0:26:20as some of the luminaries of Northern Irish writing.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Why was she the one who seemed to be forgotten?
0:26:23 > 0:26:26It was to do with the times, I would say.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29The '50s was male-dominated
0:26:29 > 0:26:33and women had a very hard time trying to get anywhere.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35She had a lot of professions, if you like.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38You know, she was a scholar, she was a historian,
0:26:38 > 0:26:42a poet, a woman of letters, and autobiographer,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45a teacher and committee member,
0:26:45 > 0:26:47and so she didn't really concentrate on any one of these
0:26:47 > 0:26:49to the exclusion of all the others.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53If you try to think of an outstanding woman writer
0:26:53 > 0:26:56of the 1950s, it's just a blank,
0:26:56 > 0:26:58you know, which is why I think, in a way,
0:26:58 > 0:27:03that Nesca Robb might have filled that gap, if she had gone in more
0:27:03 > 0:27:07for self-promotion or if she hadn't tried to do so many things at once.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15So how would you place Nesca Robb's contribution, then,
0:27:15 > 0:27:16to Northern Irish culture?
0:27:16 > 0:27:18I would place her quite highly, actually.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20I mean, she was ahead of her time.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27I wish someone would publish her unpublished autobiography.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31It is so interesting and so good and so well-written
0:27:31 > 0:27:34that it's time that some attention was paid to this woman.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38But by the mid-'50s,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42Nesca was beginning to make a name for herself -
0:27:42 > 0:27:45writing a radio play, books of literary criticism
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and a biography of William III.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52And in a rare interview for the Belfast Telegraph,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55she revealed a little more of her personality.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58She said she "loved all good things in life -
0:27:58 > 0:28:01"friends, music, art and writing...and a good joke."
0:28:01 > 0:28:07She hated "tripe, sweet tea, rhubarb and the bulldozer."
0:28:07 > 0:28:13Nesca continued to work until her death in 1976.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16Nesca Robb was a forthright and interesting woman,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20who contributed across a whole range of the arts in Northern Ireland
0:28:20 > 0:28:23and lived through some of the most momentous years
0:28:23 > 0:28:26in European and Irish history.
0:28:26 > 0:28:27And yet her own reputation here
0:28:27 > 0:28:30seems to have been slightly forgotten,
0:28:30 > 0:28:31and I think that's a mistake,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35because Nesca Robb was, without question, an important woman.