The Somme, Our Story, 1916

To mark the Centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum presents its new major exhibition: The Somme, Our Story, 1916 . Packed with letters, photographs, original artefacts, documents and archival footage, the exhibition offers up a social history of the Somme, examining the men from Lisburn and district who fought and died in the battle (which lasted from July to November 1916), and how this impacted their families at home.

The Great War (1914-1918) affected all aspects of live in Ireland, and alongside the story of the local 11^th and 13^th battalions Royal Irish Rifles at the front, and the experience of those back home, the exhibition examines the local medical men and women who nursed the wounded and comforted the dying, and the role Ulster’s wartime industry, particularly its linen factories, had in winning the war.

The exhibition features special displays on:

• Lisburn’s ‘Pals’: the story of how Linen men of the 11^th battalion, Lisnagarvey Hockey and the town’s Orange lodges went to war together.
• A concise overview of the 36^th Ulster Division’s attack at the Somme on July 1^st 1916
• Archival footage of the Battle of the Somme
• Nelson Russell, the town’s youngest winner of the Military Cross (M.C.)
• The 16^th (Irish) Division at the Somme: Ginchy and Guillemont
• RAMC, VADS and Nurse: Medical men and women at the front.
• The first home front: munitions, aerolinen and how the war in the air was won on ‘Ulster linen wings’