The Appalling Influx From the Slums The Belfast Blitz
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Transcript
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|---|---|---|---|
After the Easter Tuesday Blitz of 1941, | 0:00:08 | 0:00:11 | |
around 40,000 people in Belfast had to be put up in rest centres | 0:00:11 | 0:00:16 | |
and some 70,000 had to be given meals every day | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
in emergency feeding centres. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
Many citizens decided to leave the city altogether. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
The Belfast Telegraph reported... | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
"Children clutched their favourite dollies. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:32 | |
"Many brought with them their pets, from budgerigars to tabbies." | 0:00:32 | 0:00:36 | |
On 16th April, Joseph McCann saw... | 0:00:36 | 0:00:40 | |
"Streams of people moving up the Falls, | 0:00:40 | 0:00:43 | |
"the women and children with mattresses and bedclothes | 0:00:43 | 0:00:46 | |
"strapped to prams and handcarts." | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
In south Belfast, Moya Woodside watched... | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
"..an exodus on foot, trams, lorries, trailers, cattle floats, | 0:00:52 | 0:00:57 | |
"bicycles, delivery vans, anything that would move was utilised. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:01 | |
"Hundreds were waiting at bus stops, anxiety on every face." | 0:01:01 | 0:01:06 | |
This mass migration from Belfast brought into the open | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
the extreme deprivation of those now bombed out of congested streets, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:14 | |
who had endured two decades of unemployment and neglect. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:18 | |
Emma Duffin, a volunteer nurse, was shocked by... | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
"..the incredible dirt of the people, | 0:01:21 | 0:01:24 | |
"of children crawling with lice, not even house-trained." | 0:01:24 | 0:01:28 | |
Moya Woodside recorded that | 0:01:28 | 0:01:30 | |
the 11 evacuees staying with her mother were... | 0:01:30 | 0:01:32 | |
"..all filthy. They refuse all food except tea and bread. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:36 | |
"The children have made puddles all over the floor." | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
Several had tuberculosis and two had severe scalp infections. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:43 | |
Moya's sister, living 30 miles from Belfast, complained of... | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
"..the appalling influx from the slums the day after the raid. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:51 | |
"The whole town is horrified by the filth of these evacuees | 0:01:51 | 0:01:56 | |
"and by their filthy habits and take-it-for-granted attitude. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
"The smell is awful! | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
"They don't even use the lavatory, they just... | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
"do it on the floor, grown-ups and children!" | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
The official response to the crisis was distinctly unimpressive | 0:02:09 | 0:02:13 | |
by comparison with that on the other side of the Irish Sea. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:16 | |
One reaction, by the Ministry of Public Security, | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
to the desperate situation was to issue this order on 19th April. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:24 | |
"Destroy all dangerous animals at the zoo immediately." | 0:02:24 | 0:02:29 | |
Two RUC marksmen were sent to Bellevue Zoo. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
The Belfast Telegraph reported that the head keeper, Dick Foster... | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
"..stood by with tears streaming down his face | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
"as the executioners proceeded from cage to cage | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
"and dispatched the animals, 33 in number, and a vulture." | 0:02:42 | 0:02:47 |