| Collection Description | The (Irish) Belgian Refugees Committee was established in October 1914 as part of the wider British
response to the flow of civilian refugees flooding out of Belgium in the weeks after the country became the
epicentre of the twentieth century’s first global conflict.
For Britain and Ireland alike, the case of ‘poor little’ or ‘Catholic’ Belgium was a strong mobilising factor in the
early months of the war. Reports of atrocities being carried out against nuns and the destruction of the historic
library at Louvain were especially powerful in motivating Irish people to support the war. Just as with the Battle
of Waterloo almost a century beforehand, Belgium in 1914 became the stage for a European and eventually
global conflict where rival imperial armies clashed. The battle lines in Belgium and Northern France moved so
little during the four years of conflict that, for the duration of hostilities, many Belgians had nowhere to go back
to as their cities and towns were transformed into a warzone. Ireland took in a modest overflow contingent of
Belgian refugees, primarily from Antwerp, from October 1914 onwards. The initial effort was coordinated by
this entirely voluntary committee before being taken over by the Local Government Board. [UCD Archives] |
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