A “great crowd” attended Ballinamallard Historical Society’s launch of ‘Ballinamallard & The Great War,’ a new book encapsulating Ballinamallard’s contribution to the Great War and its effect on the village.

Hosted at Ballinamallard Methodist Church Hall, the launch took place on Friday, May 31 at 8pm and was led by Dr. John Graham.

An exhibition of “findings” from The Great War such as pictures, artefacts and medals were on display in the hall to correspond with the launch.

Henry Robinson, Chairman of Ballinamallard Historical Society, commented that there was a “great crowd” at the book launch. He continued: “There were quite a number of people there who had relatives who had featured in the book, people who had partook in the First World War.”

Mr. Robinson also noted that the Historical Society were “very encouraged” by how well the book was received. He commented that those in attendance of the launch thought that the book was a “very nice publication” which was “easy read” and had “a lot of information.”

Explaining how the book came about, Mr. Robinson said: “We started it about two years ago as an idea and then it branched out.

“It was initially supposed to be a memorial book, just to those who lost their lives, but then the idea was put forward that we’d extend it to include all those who had partook in the war and survived the war.”

Explaining that collecting information on the war survivors was a difficult task, Mr. Robinson said: “Very little was recorded about those individuals, that’s where the challenge came in and we were very encouraged by the information that did come forward.”

He continued: “We know that there is still information out there that hasn’t come our way and we would still appeal for people to give us even further information and there could be a further edition of the book to update it if necessary.”

Following the successful launch of ‘Ballinamallard & The Great War,’ Mr. Robinson concluded: “The Historical Society would like to thank the public for their support.”