AROUND Easter time every year, the thoughts of many folk in Northern Ireland turn to the German Luftwaffe’s devastating Belfast blitz between April 7 and May 6, 1941. This year marks the 80th anniversary of this particular blitz, and there are still some Belfast people who remember the attacks first-hand, and country people who recall the city’s shocked evacuees arriving at rural railway stations. Belfast still has ‘gaps’ on its streets, and marks on buildings, that are poignant reminders of Hitler’s bombardment, 80 years ago. The first raid by eight German bombers that April 7/8 followed a single reconnaissance flight in November, 1940.