Site Visit Part I – Randalstown Forest, First World War Rifle Range
One of many Forest Service forests across Northern Ireland, Randalstown Forest was gifted by the Shanes Castle Estate in 1934. It is open to the public and can be openly…
Site Visit Part II – Randalstown Forest, Second World War Defences
The pillbox is synonymous with the Second World War. Thousands were constructed across the United Kingdom (and Ireland) to defend high-value areas or as part of a National defensive line.…
How much property did the army requisition?
This article aims to bring together a number of sources of information I have in order to demonstrate the extent of requisitions undertaken by the army, typically for short duration, in support of surges in violence but also for the accommodation of the newly formed Ulster Defence Regiment in the 1970s.
Second World War Microwave Experiments
The 1930s and 1940s saw huge advances in the development of radio and radar technologies, with one of the most sophisticated networks of Radio Direction Finding (RDF) being deployed in…
Was there a secret intercept station at Divis?
There are many elements of operations in Northern Ireland that will remain secret, and rightly so. But as time moves on historians, academics and enthusiastic amateurs will slowly uncover details…
Flickr Album Locations
The problem with not having a single platform that best collates the information and photographs I have collected over the years is trying to establish a solution that best shares…
A study of the pillbox at Murlough Beach
For those of you who are familiar with the beach at Murlough Bay nature reserve, you may have noticed a rather unassuming pile of rubble. Without interpretation you may have…
Downhill Radio Navigation Site
The use of radio technology transformed the air war during the Second World War. In a short space of time RADAR was born and fine tuned to detect and track…
Guarding the Coast
The British Isles and Ireland are island nations dependant on their domination of the coastline and waters surrounding them. With estimates of upwards of 11,000 miles and 1,700 miles respectively,…
Radar in Northern Ireland 1939 – 1945
One rainy afternoon in lockdown, I thought I would do some research on finding evidence for the WW2 radar sites that were once dotted around Northern Ireland. Finding photographic evidence…