PRONI release December blog

PRONI have submitted their December blog which continues to chart the stories and content from men and women who lived during the First World War. 

PRONI hold a wide range of records, including letters, diaries and memoirs, relating to the First World War and to contemporary events in Ireland, providing firsthand accounts of all aspects of war as well as on life at home.

The December blog features, amogst others, a diary entry by Lilian Spender, wife of Captain Wilfrid Spender, Staff Officer with the 36th (Ulster Division). 

In an entry marked December 11, she recounts: 'I went to the Old Town Hall the other morning, to see what the Unionist woman are doing for the war. They have turned the Ulster Volunteer Force ‘Post House’ into a clearing house for gifts for the troops, and also for the Ulster Division, and have done and are doing a perfectly splendid work in that way.

'They are also collecting Christmas toys to give to the children of Belfast men who are serving either at the Front or in the Ulster Division; either old toys, if sound, or new toys, or money.'

Each month PRONI will publish short transcripts from the papers of a number of individuals who lived through the period.

Click here to view the December blog.