Welcome to Weaver Street: The first in a heartbreaking and heartwarming new WW1 series

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A stranger, on his first entrance into the city might suppose it is but thinly inhabited, the enveloped situation of the shops...tending to hide a considerable proportion of people from the eye."

Welcome To Weaver Street by Chrissie Walsh is a marvellous historical novel set during World War I and beyond in Liverpool. Given that the largest concentration of nationalists in Belfast lived in the west of the city – on the Falls Road and in the districts off it (Clonard, the Lower Falls and the streets of the Falls – Shankill interface) – then one might expect that this was where most of the killings took place. years: dolls, teddy bears, cot mobiles, baby clothes, bath toys, CDs of suitable music and nursery rhymes, puzzles

Civilians were far more likely to be killed in Belfast than soldiers, policemen or paramilitaries, but many civilians who died were engaged in rioting and therefore ‘combatants’ of a sort. As a country with a diverse population, the UK is home to other sizable ethnic groups, with mixed ethnicity (2.8%), Indian (3.1%) and Pakistani (2.7%) being the largest groups reported. For example, in the initial outbreak of July 1920, three men who lived in the unionist Shankill area were killed – but they were all shot either in or on the edge of the nationalist Clonard district; recording their deaths as having happened in the latter is more informative. In the immediate vicinity of CH1 2BQ there is a large concentration of residents that are single - 64% of the resident population. On average, around 38% of census respondents were single. Areas with large single populations are often in built-up areas, with good entertainment facilities. It is also common to see a younger population in these areas. One slight criticism of the book is that it’s a bit slow-paced and maybe could have been edited a bit, as it’s quite long and occasionally repeats itself. But it didn’t take away too much from my enjoyment of it and I would recommend it to other fans of this genre.

Figures for relationship status do not include those aged under 16, or those family members aged 16-18 who are in full-time education. Kitty and Tom Conlon arrive in Liverpool in July 1916 to claim the house Tom’s great-uncle has bequeathed him in his will. The move to England couldn’t have come at a better time. Dublin is in turmoil following the Easter Uprising and Kitty’s brother is now in prison. It’s only fairly recently that I discovered how superb Chrissie’s books are. I haven’t read every book that she has written to date which is something I hope to rectify fairly soon. I read the synopsis for ‘Welcome To Weaver Street’ and it certainly sounded like the sort of book that I have come to expect from Chrissie Walsh – an emotional saga which is guaranteed to tug on the heart strings. Well it was that and so much more. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Welcome To Weaver Street’ but more about that in a bit. The family of William Cowan were at pains to point out that his death on 14 th April 1922 had been accidental – in the death notice they placed in the Northern Whig newspaper, they stressed that there should be no retaliation. [15] On 30 th April 1922, Ellen Greer was examining the gun of a friend who was a Special Constable when it went off, killing her. [16]What did they have to say to each other, the elder brother engaged in fighting for Ireland’s freedom, and the younger brother pictured smiling as a member of the victorious Plassey Squad Depot Challenge soccer team? How did the family, in exodus, grieve Eliza? My aunt Maureen had hazy remembrances of the Weaver Street atrocity, but it came as a total surprise to my father. He had a difficult relationship with my grandfather; the war mutilated their relationship as well my grandfather’s body. He has always been vague on family history, whereas every member of my mother’s family leaps out at me in glorious technicolour. A final death as a result of an accidental shooting was not included in Hassan’s list, nor is it included in the total of 498 here – that of Joseph Burns, who died having been shot on the night of 12 th – 13 th January 1922. He is named as a member of Na Fianna on the Co. Antrim Memorial to Republican dead in Belfast’s Milltown Cemetery, but for years, an element of mystery surrounded his inclusion on this memorial, as his death was not reported in any of the Belfast newspapers.