Reconstruction of Ieper - An Irishman's Diary

The Belgian city of Ieper (Ypres) was almost pounded to oblivion during the First World War. The Ypres salient (a salient is simply a bulge in the line that gives the defenders the advantage of being able to fire on those in the salient from three sides) was the scene of several battles during the War. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed and many towns in the region were destroyed. 

After the War, the Belgian authorities had to decide whether to rebuild Ieper more or less as it was or to take a new departure and start from a blank slate. They decided on the former approach and I have just written an Irishman's Diary in the Irish Times newspaper about the reconstruction of Ieper and some Irish connections to the city. Read it here.

 

Remains of the Cloth Hall, Ieper. Image source.

To understand the impact of the War on the citizens of Ieper, there is a very good article here by Pieter Trogh of the In Flanders Fields Museum. 

It is strange to walk around Ieper today in 2023 and see all the buildings that were built just 100 years ago in such an ancient place. As I mention in the newspaper article, many buildings contain markers showing the year of construction. There are some examples below and these markers serve as a reminder of the history of Ieper and what it endured during the War.

As mentioned in my newspaper article, the photographs taken by the Antony brothers (known as Antony d'Ypres) provide a great insight into what the town looked like before, during and after the War. The scale of destruction and the efforts that were put in to rebuilding are staggering. On that note, it is terribly sad to see modern day conflicts around the world killing and maiming people and laying waste to towns and cities in the same way that WW1 laid waste to Ieper.