Mena's Memories

After placing advertisements in the National Irish newspapers in Australia about this project called Absent Friends I received two letters from Mena McGeough . She wanted to share her story in this series of articles .

Mena is now living in the Queensland State in Australia and she wanted to share some of her memories about growing up in Belfast in a village called Ardoyne . The people and the places she can still recall as if it were only yesterday . Mena Mc Geough at this time of writing is 82 years of age .
Her love of life is a positive inspiration for anyone who considers positive aging a reality in their life .

Mena was born in the Docks area of Belfast . Her parents Frank and Sarah McGeough left Moffit Street and moved into Jamaica Street in Ardoyne .

Mena went to Holy Cross school until she was 14 years of age and she told me it was a Friday when she left school and on the Monday she started work in Lindsays Linen Mill . She worked in Flax Street and said it was a great place to work . She made many friends there and recalls Mary McCann from Jamaica Street who moved to England and is now passed away .
She recalls Maureen Fox also from Jamaica Street and Teresa Wosford from Brompton Park . Betty Doherty from Highbury Gardens was another good friend of Mena’s .
She also worked for Ewarts Mill and learnt many aspects of the linen industry where she did cleaning and did work as a cloth and doffin inspector. She was also a spinner and could out her hand to any task in the mill . Like her Father Frank she was a Jack Of All Trades .

As we went on talking in our correspondence Mena mention some words of poem from the 19th Century .
“How often and how truly was Linen called the staple trade ,
but now Linens dead and gone and in its grave is laid .“
Mena’s Dad was in the merchant navy were he was a swan and scaler on the boilers in the ships as well as a Jack Of All Trades upon the open seas .
Some other members of her family were also in the merchant navy .
Billy who is deceased now , Robbie and Tony
Some other members of Mena’s family left Belfast ,
Robbie and Tony moved to England .
Maggie who has passed on now emigrated to New Zealand .
Many of her connections are scattered all across the globe .
Mena herself emigrated to Australia .

Mena told me that she always loved children . As a young girl she often minded or looked after other peoples kids . She reckons that if she had half a chance she would have kept them all to herself . It is always hard when for what ever the reason you cannot have children of your own but have a earnest love for them . Mena‘s big heart a place for everyone .

Mena mentioned all the families that she was very close to as she grew up .
There were people like the Mc Auley family , The Keen Family , The Brown and Mc Bride families who lived across the street from her .
The community of Ardoyne were like a extended family . Everyone looked after one another . A cup of sugar until pay day came around .
There was the sharing of lumps of coal and even the little acts of goodwill that people used to do . dinner . Often if a family were doing it tough a dinner would be left outside the door in the evening or there would be others items left with no mention of who did the kind favour .
People cared for each other then . There were always get togethers and little parties . Mena loved to sing at parties and always had a song ready . Irish ballads and country was her choice . Her favourite artists were Hank Williams , Kenny Rodgers and Patsy Cline .

Mena’s nephew John lived in Sydney and I had his contact so I rand him and told him I was writing Mena’smemories . John contacted me and he spoke of Mena’s outgoing personality . Everyone who knew her never had a bad word to say about her . She was the life of the party and had a voice that would charm the birds out of the sky . Mena loved music and dance and that was shared with everyone she met .

Mena loved the social life around Belfast and spent many hours in places like The Palace in York Street and in Donegal Street The Paradise Club ,
Sammy Lackies in Royal Avenue , The Granville Dance Hall and May Kings Dance School .The Kingsway and The Plaza .
Mene remembers going dancing on Saturday Nights . They were great times she tells me .Often when she returns to Belfast she visits her friends that used to go dancing with her .

Mena was also fond of walks and there where lots of open spaces in Belfast where you could do that . Especially when in the summer there were the long twilights before night fell . It was a perfect invitation to go walking out and about . Places like Greengate and the Botanical gardens . Belfast was full of parks and glens . There were silent places like Harmony Village and further afield like the Toe Path by the River Lagan .
Some of the walks around Belfast were a wonder indeed . There were lovely paths through the Divis Mountain and Cave Hill and beyond to the hidden places that only you could discover for yourself .
Not many people owned motor cars then so most people got around by foot .
Sunday mass , shopping , going to the dance halls and pubs .

Mena recalls a little spring where she would get a drink from after going to Mass at Ligoneil on Sunday . Sometimes she would even fall in as she drank but that was great she tells me

A poem

Open Spaces For Belfast
By Paul McCann

There are some things that belong to Belfast ,
Like painted pathways where the river Lagan flows .
Like the beauty of the Botanical Gardens,
and what goes on at the Balmoral shows .

The flicker of fires .
The crack of a spark .
Where the old soul of Belfast is alive and well .
The nod of a head .
The silent things never said .
The gift of knowing what no one can tell .

Like picnics on the grass in Ormeau Park .
We all need to find open spaces in Belfast .
Where fresh air is free on a long walk to the Lough ,
and Bangor boats come in as in times past .

A welcome word in a concrete landscape .
A smile of a stranger,
happy children at play .
It's a walk up the mountains ,
or down through the glen .
It's the colours of wild flowers in May .

Beyond the ghetto where the long grass grows knee high,
hiding the deep blue eyes of the butterflies wing .
You’ll hear whispers of lovers as they softly sing,
their secret dreams promising everything .

There’s magic in the open spaces of Belfast .
Its between a fairy tree and a blackthorn bush ,
stop and take a look at the wonder of it all ,
it will pull you in when love gives a push .

By Paul McCann

Mena left her home town of Belfast on Halloween Night October 1969 . The troubles were at their peak and daily riots where taking place all over the district . Bullets and bombs were heard every night and day . Many people had made a decision to leave Belfast at this time . The troubles had began to divide the community in more ways than one . Mena had decided to take an exit from the madness and emigrate far away to Australia . Its very sad to see how violence and terror separates a people from their land .
On the night see was leaving all the children in Jamaica Street were crying .
It was very sad for her she tells me . She wonders now about those children and if they got married and had children of their own . Mena left behind Maragrette , her sister in Andersonstown . She visits them each time she returns to Belfast . Other connections of her family still live in Ardoyne like Tommy and Francie Fairley from Highbury Gardens . They’re both painters by trade . Then there’s Hugh Fairley who was in the merchant navy .
Hugh married Mena’s sister Maggie who emigrated to New Zealand . There are members of the Fairley family who live in Sydney , New South Wales in Australia .Their names are Gerald , Patrick and Mary . There are a long list of names that I could add to these connections but for what its worth Mena says she loves them all , every one .

Mena’s brother Billy who died has two sons in Queensland Liam and Felix .
Mena’s other two brothers Tony and Robbie and all their connections live over in England now . In exile and now unable to return home . They have their own families and a new life in their adopted country . Like Mena herself now who lives in far north Queensland down under in Australia , which must at times seems like a million miles away from the people and places she once knew in Belfast in a little village called Ardoyne .
Where Mena lives she never sees Irish people and she’s lost touch with all her old friends . The only person that she keeps contact with is her nephew John since I started writing this passed away .
Mena ended her letter to me saying I love Irish people . There is noi one like them in all the earth .

The End

By Paul McCann