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St. Matthew's Church of Ireland sits just off the busy Shankill Road in west Belfast.

During the war an English lay missionary called Rosamond Stephen worked in St Matthew's parish. She visited Catholic and Protestant families in an area known as 'the cottages', which lay between the nationalist Falls Road and the loyalist Shankill Road.

Rosamond saw the war as an opportunity to bring Catholics and Protestants together in the face of a shared enemy - and to bind Ireland to Britain.

To this end she devoted herself to persuading young men, of both religions, to enlist in the British Army.

As a cousin of the novelist Virginia Woolf, it is perhaps not surprising that Rosamond had a flair for literature. Her written record of visits to working class homes in west Belfast offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives, concerns, fears and foibles of the people. Opinionated and often insensitive - she sometimes notes the bad drinking habits of young men when reporting on their deaths at the front - she is always genuinely concerned for soldiers and their relatives.

Dr Myrtle Hill has studied Rosamond's writings. The reader is Jacky Adair.

Location: St Matthew's Church of Ireland, Shankill Road, Belfast, BT13 3AA
Image of St Matthew's Church circa 1900
Image copyright National Museums Northern Ireland, Collection Ulster Museum

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