Our Stories — Our Times: Public Duties

Last updated: 3 October 2024

Red Cross volunteers and ambulances provided vital first aid care and training throughout the north of Ireland. Even as conflict raged around them, they remembered days at the football, fairs, and motor races with fondness.

The conclusion of the Second World War marked a return to normality for the British Red Cross nationally and locally, but it also predicated a drop in volunteer numbers.

Although, the post-war world would lead to new developments in the public services offered by the Red Cross in Northern Ireland.

This period of activity included new ambulance and transport services, support for the disabled and carers, meals on wheels, and the return of event first aid. It also included the first recorded example of foreign refugee support in the region.

I remember it was a very cold, raw, wet morning with sleet and rain all day. Maureen Darby of the Belfast Branch and her helpers were waiting, in the dark, to meet the boat as it docked and to assist people, before they went on their journey.

First aid training and event first aid were cornerstones of volunteer work. Both were duties remembered fondly by participants in the project. particularly around the north coast and the Ards Peninsula motorsports.

In Counties Tyrone and Londonderry, some smaller detachments of the Western Branch supplied first aid resources to local GAA matches. Although, at times, the nature of the conflict intervened.

Holidays for the disabled and carers were trialled in partnership with other support services. Eventually, Red Cross branches in Northern Ireland were assisting groups to travel to Blackpool and Mosney.

We took part in Pontins holiday camps for the disadvantaged. After we came home, we always had a barbecue at Lady Mairi Bury's house. We had a raised garden with water feature for the visually impaired. Some of the workmen volunteered time and made a patio with a large red cross on it.

In 1979, the widespread “winter of discontent” in the United Kingdom impacted Northern Ireland and the Red Cross. A strike by the region’s ambulance drivers led the Red Cross to offer emergency ambulance crews during the industrial action.

One participant recalled the ‘apprehension’ before the first night and the ‘hectic’ times that followed, worsened by the loss of an ambulance to a traffic accident and the underlying impact of the Troubles. 

'Things got a lot better’, however, before the three-week long strike came to an end. During the period Ulsterbus gifted the Red Cross a bus that was transformed into a mobile medical aid unit for large events and emergencies.