麻豆社

Newtownards in County Down is a busy market town, thronged with cars and shoppers.

After the war, it saw the creation of an extraordinary memorial.

When the fighting ended in 1918 the country was in mourning. Memorials were erected in many towns and villages. They were a focus for people to gather and to grieve for those who never returned home.

But in Newtownards, where unemployment was high, the challenge of raising money to fund a memorial proved difficult.

Professor Fran Brearton, of Queen's University Belfast and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, has studied the story. Professor Brearton describes how, in 1924, frustrated ex-servicemen took matters into their own hands at the town's Bowling Green.

Location: Newtownards, County Down, BT23 7PA
Image of former soldiers at the snow memorial, March 1924