Rugby

In Pictures: US soldiers play American football and baseball at Ulster Rugby's Kingspan Stadium

<span style="color: rgb(58, 58, 58); font-family: 'PT Sans', sans-serif;  line-height: 18px;">A baseball player makes a run for first base at Ravenhill</span>
A baseball player makes a run for first base at Ravenhill A baseball player makes a run for first base at Ravenhill

The images, which have been merged with pictures of the same locations in the present day, were unveiled today by the

Public Record Office of Northern IrelandOpens in new window ]

(PRONI).

Garreth Montgomery from PRONI said: “The images show how much Kingspan Stadium has changed and how the ground was used during the war years by GIs.

“I am always on the lookout for interesting old photographs in our collections that could be merged with contemporary digital shots taken in the same location today. These merges have proved hugely popular on our Flickr stream and as a means to highlight the various collections we hold in PRONI.

“In doing so, I came across these rare shots of GIs playing baseball and American football at the ground in the early 1940s. Being a regular at Kingspan Stadium and following Ulster Rugby, I thought it would be interesting to try and merge these old shots with ones taken in the same location 70 years later during PRO12 league matches.”