Over the Seas to Belfast (1946)

James A. FitzPatrick: Self - Narrator

Quotes 

• James A. FitzPatrick : Among the passengers on board, there are about a hundred and fifty evacuee children - homeward bound, after an absence of several years from their native land. Most of these youngsters, many of whom were infants when they were sent from Great Britain to America at the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, have become so accustomed to living in Canada and the United States that they have changed their native accents, manners and viewpoints. And undoubtedly their parents will have an interesting experience in getting them back into their former way of living, if such a thing is possible in Britain - or anywhere else in this modern world, a world that has temporarily abandoned the spirit of Auld Lang Syne, and is apparently trying to shape some new kind of life, with utter disregard for the sentimental traditions of yesteryears.

• James A. FitzPatrick : [on Princess Elizabeth]  Unlike other girls in Britain, the princess officially became of age on her 18th birthday, April 21st, nineteen hundred and forty-four - at which time she ceased to be an individual. She, like her parents, belongs to the nation.

• [last lines] 

  James A. FitzPatrick : Time and time again in the history of Great Britain, we are reminded of how deeply the love of royalty has been embedded in the hearts of all true Britons - and our final glimpse of the present king and queen, surrounded by their beloved subjects, leaves no doubt in our minds regarding the popularity of their majesties in Belfast. And this is the thought that we take with us as we reluctantly say farewell to the capital city of Northern Ireland.

• James A. FitzPatrick : The people of Northern Ireland consider America and the British Empire as two of the world's greatest forces embodying the spirit of free men. They believe life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are the rights of all men, and whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. They, therefore, are strongly united to Britain and her unwritten plan of government, which has evolved slowly through the ages - an empire with a policy of freedom by installments, making it more or less a group of independent dominions that remain a commonwealth of British communities.

• [first lines] 

  James A. FitzPatrick : Ship ahoy! With a heave and a ho, we just hoisted anchor in the harbor of Halifax at Nova Scotia, and we're out to sea again - the first time since the world war curtailed civilian travel to Europe.