Distinguished guests, veterans, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to welcome you to the Museum tonight to the launch of the new book “A New Battlefield” The Royal Ulster Rifles in Korea and our new Exhibition “The Korean War”.
Although the Korean War is studied by schoolchildren in Northern Ireland as part of their GCSE History syllabus, that period of history in the early 1950’s and that particular conflict has been largely forgotten today. War was never really declared – it was considered a police action and like the Great War it ended with an armistice. Indeed the Korean War has never really ended and tension still exists in 2011 between North and South Korea.
Perhaps because it happened so far away it has often been called the “Forgotten War”. The dictionary says that “forgotten” means
– to lose the remembrance of
– to fail to remember
– to neglect
– to dismiss from one’s mind
– to fail to notice
By your presence here today you have shown that you have neither “neglected” nor “dismissed from your mind” those momentous events of sixty years ago at the River Imjin when 1/3 million Chinese soldiers were launched against UN lines.
Last year when we were planning what our next exhibition would be and knowing that David Truesdale and Davy Orr were working on a new book about the Royal Ulster Rifles in Korea we decided that the Museum should do an exhibition to cover this conflict. It had also been a suggestion from a few members of our friends group the “Friends of the Somme”.
We started work on the exhibition in the winter when the snow was lying deep around the Museum and in some ways replicated the wintry conditions that were endured by the veterans who served in Korea. It was impossible for us to ignore those events of sixty years ago especially since our own Col Robin Charley had participated in them. Thus for the past few months we have been working hard to put together this exhibition which we think provides a “fascinating record of an extraordinary time”. It is particularly appropriate, but also particularly Irish, that we launch this Exhibition which has such a prominent focus on the Royal Irish Rifles, on St George’s Day!!
In order to complete this Exhibition for today we have been helped by many people. Indeed we would like to thank everyone who has made the Exhibition possible. The names are recorded beside the replica Korean Memorial. Thanks are due to those who loaned artefacts, provided photographs, helped with artwork and construct exhibits. Members of the U3A undertook research and the RUR Association provided funding towards the oral history part of the Exhibition.
We would particularly like to extend our thanks to those Veterans who gave interviews which were recorded for our Oral History Archive, so that their memories of what happened in Korea would never be ‘forgotten’.
Not only does the Exhibition provide a visual record of War Memories, but the nineteen exhibition panels also provide:
– some context of events leading to the war
– detail on the role of the RUR
– the treatment of the Irish priests, the Columban Fathers.
– the events at Sea and in the Air
– explanation of the differences between North and South Korea
– details of the tensions that still exist today
– and information about how the Korean War is remembered today in the grounds of the City Hall, Belfast at the Korean Memorial.
Indeed as part of the Exhibition we are pleased to display a small replica of the Korean Memorial, along with detailed models of the Battle of Happy Valley and the Battle of the River Imjin. We thank Paul Rea for these wonderful exhibits that he has constructed and Freddy Campbell and Jim Lawther for the electrics. Thanks to Trevor Ross for changing our Colditz Gate into a Korean Pagoda.
We hope this Exhibition gives you some insight into a divided country with different cultures on the far side of the world which drew into it people from the North and South of Ireland and from Great Britain and many other countries in those explosive events of 1950-1953. It may be difficult for us to fully comprehend those events in one visit and we hope you will revisit along with your friends and families.
Our hope is that as a result of the Book Launch and the “Korean War Exhibition” that no longer will events there, and particularly the role of the RUR, be forgotten.
I would now like to invite Mr Spencer McWhirter of the RUR, a veteran of the Korean War, to say a few words and to open our Exhibition.
Carol Walker, Director
To be continued