Today the Chaiman of the Northern Ireland War Memorial, Lieutenant Colonel C T Hogg, invited me to attend the launch of A Letter to Ulster. The invitation came at the suggestion of my friend Alderman Marion Smith, Deputy Mayor of North Down.
Life in Northern Ireland in 1942 was recalled in the short documentary film, being shown daily in the War Memorial gallery to mark the 70th anniversary of this classic and of the arrival of the US Forces to train for the war in North Africa.
The documentary lasted 25 minutes and is being screened at1.30pm during September and October, admission free.
The ‘stars’ of the film are ‘Don’ and ‘Wally’, two US servicemen who are pulled up by their Colonel for not bothering to write to their folks back home. Their story unfolds in scenes showing firing artillery pieces in the Sperrins, assault course training in Tynan Abbey in Armagh and tank movements on exercise across the rolling countryside.
The reality of the war ahead is left lurking in the background as Don and Wally set off on a tour which takes in Carrickfergus Castle, Strabane and Derry’s walls.
The film was made by Brian Desmond Hurst, Northern Ireland’s greatest film director. He was the natural choice to make the film inBelfast, where he was born and educated and from where he left to fight with the Royal Irish Rifles in Gallipoli in WW1.
In 2011 Hurst became only the fourth film director to be honoured with a blue plaque from the Directors Guild of Great Britain. A Letter from Ulster was screened at the ceremony, after which the film critic, Mike Catto, said:
“Everyone here should see this film. And in this era of easy digital images, audiences should know in advance that is not just an old black and white curiosity. It is an extraordinary feat of technique and manipulation”.
Hurst’s nephew and biographer, Allan Esler Smith, Marion’s son and the Executor of the Hurst estate, has written a booklet about the film, Revisiting A Letter from Ulster. The foreword is by General John W Vessey, who was a sergeant with the US Forces inNorthern Ireland in 1942 and who became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces and principal military adviser to President Ronald Regan in 1985.
Hurst’s other films include Malta Story (1953), Scrooge (1951) and Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951). For further information about Brian Desmond Hurst, see www.briandesmondhurst.org