‘Britain at War’ knitted figures bring wartime stories to life in Enniskillen

A knitting project showing Britain during the Second World War has been praised for bringing the era to “life”.

The exhibition from The Longest Yarn is currently being shown at St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen, as part of its UK tour that will run to the end of 2027.

The project Britain At War is an 80-metre installation that explores the social history of the Second World War featuring life-sized, hand-crafted “Army of Duty Calls” figures, honouring those who served.

Kenny Hall, Dean of Enniskillen Cathedral, said on The Longest Yarn’s last visit they had close to 20,000 visitors in a six-week period.

“It’s great to have it here in Enniskillen because Enniskillen is the only town in the British Isles to have two regiments named after it, the Royal Enniskillen Fusiliers, the Royal Enniskillen Dragoon guards and this is a regimental chapel we’re actually standing in,” he said.

“So it’s wonderful to hear it, we’re the only venue in Ireland, so it should be a large attraction here to Enniskillen.

“It also not only helps the cathedral and puts us on the map, but it helps and supports the local businesses, and they’ve done a fantastic trade last year during the six weeks, and especially during the winter months, when it’s very quiet.”

Mr Hall said the knitted figures really brought the period “to life”.

“I think generations to come really need to see what our ancestors went through and what they suffered for peace, really, peace in the world, and it’s going to a very good cause, because it’s going to support veterans’ charitable purposes,” he said.

Tansy Forster, who was born in Magherafelt but now lives in Normandy, France came up with the idea for the project to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

She said: “I’ve done this because I got to know so many veterans in Normandy. We used to have one who landed on Utah Beach on June 6 1944 called Harry and he was actually billeted with us for the 60th anniversary.

“And then Harry came to stay with us every year as our guest for 16 years and then Harry passed and when Harry stopped coming, the sixth of June was actually very sad and very bereft of any real reason for all the celebrations etc going on there.

“And I had this mad idea, why don’t I knit a topper for my garden gate? I keep alpacas, I knit, and I’d seen all these post box toppers in the UK, and I thought, well, I’ll do one of them for my garden gate and then I thought, no, actually, why don’t I go along the garden wall because there’s a lot to tell about the story of Harry.”

She added: “So then I put it out on Facebook. Would anybody else be interested in doing this? And I got people saying, yes, they would and the next thing I knew I was designing a storyboard of 80 metres representing the 80 years for the 80th anniversary.”

Claire Holmes and Mavis Fleming said their group the Knitwits were asked to create a piece showing the arrival of American troops in Belfast.

“We did quite a lot of research about it and unearthed things,” Ms Holmes said, “like the fact that when the first Americans came over they were given a guidebook to Northern Ireland which explained about the culture, the religious situation, the political situation, where to go, how to talk to women, where the border was, and how they were to go over the border and we recreated that.

“One of our ladies recreated one of the soldiers sitting reading his guide to Northern Ireland guidebook.

“It was very fascinating to do it, because I don’t think any of us realised that the first sight of the United Kingdom that the American soldiers had was Belfast, and they were all over Northern Ireland.”

Ms Fleming said it took “a huge team of people”, with the youngest knitter being just 10 years old.

She added that they have “no idea” how much yarn it took to complete the project, receiving some from donations and some from people’s personal stocks.

The exhibition is open from 10am to 4pm until March 20.