“I am not an Ulsterman but yesterday, the First of July, as I followed their amazing attack, I felt that I would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world. My pen cannot describe adequately the hundreds of heroic acts I witnessed, the Ulster Volunteer Force, from which the Division was made, has won a name that equals any in history. Their devotion deserves the gratitude of the British empire.”
The words of Wilfrid Spender, Plymouth-born newspaper manager, quartermaster of the Ulster Volunteers, general staff officer of the 36th (Ulster) Division, winner of the Military Cross for actions at Thiepval, and Cabinet Secretary of the new “Northern Ireland” in 1921.
Kilburn St; later moved to Broadway/Donegall Ave, south Belfast
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Copyright © 2017 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Extramural Activity 
I went over to Belgium and France in August 2024 along with a group of 30 and we went to all of the sites, Beumont-Hamel, Theipval Wood, Albert, and it was the most humbling experience of my life. The guide from Point East Battlefield Tours is a real student of the Great War and brought the scenes to life, with not only dates and deeds, but also the human side of the war, I have never been so proud to be an Ulsterman.
Everyone should go there at least once to see what those lads went through, where the battlefield tactics of the old world met head to head with the wholesale death of the new… truly humbling in a way that simply cannot be put into words.