A Letter From Ulster

A Letter from Ulster is a 1942 documentary by Ulster-born movie director Brian Desmond Hurst who, along with his lifelong friend Terence Young (scriptwriter) and fellow Ulsterman and Assistant Director William (Bill) MacQuitty, created this film promoting a sense of community between the people of Northern Ireland and over one hundred thousand troops from the US based in Northern Ireland at the time. Hurst went on to become one of Northern Ireland's most prominent film director and Young went on to direct the early Bond movies Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Thunderball. William MacQuitty went on to direct the Titanic film A Night to Remember.

In 1942 tensions between the US troops and the local population were stirred up by propaganda from German spies in Dublin. Hurst's brief was simple- to make a documentary to show that everyone was getting along fine.

Brian McIlroy in Chapter 3 of Re-viewing British Cinema 1900 - 1992: Essays and Interviews explained that "Hurst was able to persuade one Catholic and one Protestant soldier to write letters home, explaining their impressions of their stay. From these letters, Terence Young, the scriptwriter, was able to construct a sequence of activities that revealed the different traditions of Ireland".

The film follows American soldiers from the US Army 34th Infantry Division as they train for war and enjoy the local hospitality. The two men who write home about their experiences take a tour of their new homeland in their little jeep and visit St Marys Church in Belfast, Gray Printers in Strabane, Carrickfergus Castle, and Roaring Meg on Derry's walls. They also travel by rail although the railway station seen is not Coleraine as portrayed in the film (even the station master's hat is correct) it is actually Cultra in North Down. They even manage to stray across the border with the South of Ireland towards Glaslough at one stage and are politely turned back. We also see them in their barracks at Tynan Abbey and undertaking tank and artillery exercises across the rolling landscape of Northern Ireland and the Sperrins can be seen in some footage. The artillery scenes used men from the 151st Field Artillery from Minnesota who, significantly, fired the first artillery shell of US Forces in the European Theatre of War in the Sperrins. The men we see went on to fight in some of the bloodiest battles of World War 2 including Anzio and Monte Cassino.

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