Filmmaker Brian Henry Martin reflects on NI's D-Day heroes at Belfast City Council's 80th anniversary reception
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00:00They didn't see themselves as heroes. I saw them as heroes. And I remember Philip Orr famously wrote a book called The Road to the Solace.
00:12And I was hugely influenced by that book. And Philip had interviewed Great War veterans in the 1980s.
00:19And I always wanted to do something like that, as a filmmaker, as a historian.
00:25So, to realize that these men who had liberated Europe were living amongst us, and were still here, and actually were just living normal lives.
00:36And then to go to Normandy, to go to Langefell, and see the entire village come out and honor the Austro-Rifles on Liberation Day.
00:48And to treat them like heroes. And then for them men to come back here, and to walk amongst us again, and no one take any notice of them.
00:56And they kind of realized, we should notice them. We should actually venerate them more.
01:03You know, and I really felt that at the time. And that was the great thing about being able to interview them, and to share their story, that was so important.