Play Remembers Oklahoma Bombing

From the Northumbria University news page.

Oklahoma City bombing project

An academic from Northumbria University, Newcastle, has written a new play to mark the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma Bombing.

The play, written by Northumbria’s Director of Performing Arts, Steve Gilroy, will be performed by Oklahoma City University (OCU) students this month as part of its anniversary project to remember the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

OCU commissioned Steve, an award-winning playwright, due to his expertise in verbatim theatre – a form of documentary for the stage based on personal interviews and transcripts. Steve then worked with OCU students and staff to conduct more than 35 interviews with family members of victims, survivors, local officials and first responders.

Steve said: “Often, during the verbatim process, interviewers have to work quite hard to coax stories from people. For this project, however, there was an incredible honesty that I haven’t seen before in any other project that I have done.

“People talked openly about their experience of the bombing; however, they also shared all sorts of different stories that say a lot about peoples’ ability to recover. They find themselves 20 years later when they are no longer defined by what’s happened and are able to open new chapters in their lives.” 

“The overwhelming message that comes from everybody interviewed for this project is the regeneration of the city as the background, but I think in the end, it is going to be about these very powerful individual stories that, when woven together, are going to create a much bigger human story about recovery.” read on>>>

Research Highlights Silent Warriors of First World War

1917 poster. Courtesy of the LOC.

From the News and Features section of the Northumbria University website.

A Northumbria University, Newcastle research student is calling for the women of World War One to be recognised.

John Hulme, a Master of Research student in History, asks why women rarely feature on war memorials despite the significance of their contributions during the war period. Using memorials, archives, databases and the works of several historians, John’s research considers the status of women in Edwardian England, contemporary views of the war and the role of women in it, and memory and memorialisation.

His research paper, entitled ‘Commemorating the Women of World War One, Never or Now?’ concludes that the time is right for a discussion of a new memorial: one that fully recognises the contribution women made to the British victory in the First World War.

John said: “First World War memorials are a ubiquitous feature of our built environment, present in every city, town and village. Writers of the time acknowledged the presence of women in many wartime occupations from 1914 onwards. Women replaced men in factories and offices as well as filling jobs created to meet the demands of the war, including producing munitions, manufacturing aircraft and nursing the wounded.

“My paper seeks to address why, given this contribution, women feature so rarely on war memorials.”

The topic is particularly timely as it takes place during the nation’s four-year commemoration of the Great War of 1914-18. With 2014 marking 100 years since the start of the war, the Government is leading on a series of remembrance activities taking place across the country. Coordinated by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the events will culminate in the building of a permanent commemoration that will memorialise this significant milestone in world history. >>> read on

The Newcastle YMCA First World War Memorial at Northumbria University

James McConnel

The Newcastle YMCA war memorial.

In late 2014, the Estates Office at Northumbria University contacted me about an interesting discovery they had made in a storage area in the University’s Wynne Jones building. Following my research into the war-related features of Trinity Building (formerly Trinity Presbyterian church), they knew I was interested in information about any war memorials on campus. It turned out that staff from Estates had discovered in Wynne Jones a hitherto unknown First World War memorial. The memorial was accompanied by a brass plaque commemorating the opening of the Newcastle YMCA building on Blackett Street in 1900. This building was knocked down in the 1970s to make way for the Eldon Square shopping centre. Various architectural features of the Victorian building were salvaged when it was demolished. These included stone carvings and door surrounds, which were mounted onto one of the exterior walls on Prudhoe Chare in 1976 (the alley by the side of Marks and Spenercs). But it appears that the YMCA’s war memorial was also rescued from the old building, which was then transferred to the Association’s new premises on Ellison Place. The University acquired this building twenty years later in the 1990s and – seemingly without realising it – also inherited the YMCA’s war memorial.

The memorial is made of wood and includes the names of about 100 men who ‘Gave Their All’ in the First World War. Three Northumbria history students are now researching the names of the men as part of a work placement module all students undertake in their second year. With the help of a
Masters student who is undertaking a project on war memorials in Newcastle schools, they have been introduced to the use of digitised local newspapers, the 1911 census, CWGC records, and military archives, in order to research the lives of those named on the memorial. We have also made contact with the modern-day YMCA in Newcastle and it is interested in collaborating with Northumbria on this project, with some of the young people from the Association helping with elements of the research . Ultimately, the hope is that the biographical information collected will contribute to a permanent online resource about Newcastle YMCA’s role in the First World War.