On-line since
1 June 2003
Merchandise store now on-line in 'Resources' section
Welcome
to the South Belfast Friends of the Somme Association
website.
If you have surfed into this site from a search engine then you may not
have seen the opening movie. Please click here
to be taken to the opening page, then just click on our logo.
The Primary objective for this site is to allow the visitor to gain some
understanding into the role of the 36th (Ulster) Division
in the Great War of 1914-1918 and in particular to expose the awful reality
of that tragic and bloody summer of 1916 on the fields of the Somme and
the devastating impact it had on a tight-knit community that has since
become a core theme in the Ulster Protestant tradition and mythology.
Here we follow the fate of the Ulster Volunteers who
began by forming and arming themselves against the British during the
Home Rule Crisis, and finished up fighting and dying as British soldiers
on the far away fields of France.
One thing about the site must be made clear from the beginning. Although
it was to become politically expedient to emphasise the Ulster Protestant
contribution to the War effort and to play down the death and suffering
of Irish Catholics, it must be realised that Irishmen of every kind fought
on the British side. So although the South Belfast Friends of the Somme
Association and this website follows the story of a largely Protestant
Division of men, formed out of the old Ulster Volunteer Force, it is also
our intention to commemorate all the Irishmen who gave
so much in a war that they found difficult to understand.
The 90th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme shall
soon be upon us, and consequently a large amount of interest is being
shown on the subject. After our formation in September 2000 and after
many contributions to related worthwhile causes we decided to feed the
growing thirst for knowledge about the Ulster Division, by creating this
website to educate the un-informed and the interested. More can be found
out about other objectives and contributions of the Associations, in The
Association section.
We hope that you will find much to inform and entertain you here. As this
is quite a large site with a wealth of information including photographs,
digital video, music, relative research and grave location services and
even an on-line merchandise store, we suggest that you set a few hours
aside and make yourself comfortable, as we suspect, that as with the members
of the Association and many others worldwide, that once you have set foot
along “The Road to the Somme”, you will be sucked in and enthralled
with the devotion to Country, Crown, duty and friend that these men possessed
and of the many tragic and unnecessary losses and of stories of mighty
deed in situations that no man should ever be called upon to experience.
Large sections of text on this site have been edited from the most comprehensive
book to date on the subject - Philip Orr’s - “The
Road to the Somme”, and in Philips own words, visitors
should note that, while every effort has been made to avoid factual inaccuracies
on the site, it is not always possible or even desirable to alter
veteran’s recollections of a long-ago battle in the interests of
strict historical fact. So much thanks must go to Philip Orr
for doing the original research for his book, of which we used large parts
for this site, but a very large thank you goes to Billy Bittles
jnr, who re-edited text from The Road to the Somme and researched
many other sources on the subject and edited it all together magnificently
for this site and also thanks to zerobdesign
who put the site together and to The Platoon for supplying
the music and also to the Imperial War Museum for the
video footage, which can be purchased on VHS from the Imperial War Muesum
website, which you can get to through our resource section. (You
will find full credit details and research sources in the Resource
section)
The
site has been designed to read best like a book, from beginning to end,
but because of our easy to use navigation system you can jump to any anywhere
within the site and not feel lost. On the next page you will find a complete
site map to let you know exactly what you can find and where. It has also
been designed to use Flash Player 6 and Quicktime to optimise its performance
for watching the movies, animations and playing the music. You can download
Flash and Quicktime if you havent already, by clicking on their link at
the top of this page. Depending on your processor speed and bandwidth,
it may take a few minutes to load the movies, animations or music, but
please wait for them to load as it is well worth it.
Please take a moment to sign the guestbook while you
are here and please do call back on a regular basis as the site is not
yet fully completed because it is an ongoing project, where we will be
adding visitors personal stories, articles, photographs and submissions
and you will also be kept informed of forthcoming events. When you call
back you will find the new updates highlighted in red on the site map
page and if there haven’t been any new updates since your last visit,
please just stay and take another look around the site and pay tribute
once again to a brave generation, who gave their all for God and Ulster
at 07.30am on 1st July 1916, a date and time that will be forevermore
etched in the minds of Ulstermen and Women throughout the world...........
William
J. Bittles
Secretary
belfastsomme.com
Winner of
"In recognition
of creativity,
integrity and excellence on the Web."
View
and sign Guestbook
South Belfast Friends of the Somme Association and its
website belfastsomme.com do not necessarily agree with all comments and
statements made in the guest book, and cannot be held responsible for
the content of external links placed on the guestbook. The guestbook is
moderated and IP address recorded, so any vulgar, sectarian, degrading,
raciast or bigoted comments will be removed and the violaters Internet
Service Provider informed.
