Athlone, County Westmeath/Roscommon: Love Letters from the Front

Available for over a year

On a dusty shelf in the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, BBC producer Ian Dougan came across a book detailing a forgotten collection of poignant letters between an English soldier and his Irish sweetheart. Eric Appleby was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery and was sent for training to Athlone in County Westmeath/Roscommon. It was here that he met local girl Phyllis Kelly at a dance. Eric was later moved to the Western Front but they kept in touch in a series of extraordinary letters set amid the horror of the First World War that were later collected in a book by Phyllis’s niece by marriage, Jean Kelly. The letters have now been dramatised in a major 137-part series on BBC Radio Ulster by the same name - Love Letters from the Front. Image: Phyllis Kelly and Eric Appleby taken in August 1915 Location: Athlone, County Roscommon/Westmeath Eric Appelby played by: Ruairí Tohill Phyllis Kelly played by: Róisín Gallagher