A Walk Through A Village From Another Time

A Walk Through A Village From Another Time 

By Paul McCann

If you could paint you a picture of my village in North Belfast , from another day and another time , I would show you a colourful place and you would  see the faces of people with radiant smiles and a community who loved life in all that they did .

You would see images of streets with children playing , factories , school and a church that was the focal part of the village .

All I have are my words and imagery to open up an understanding of the everyday life in a village that grew and became the large community that it is today .

In saying all that I’d like to invite you to take a walk with me down memory lane to see the old streets that I knew and as we make our way through these memories of the past that paved the way for the new streets we have today . The olden years are the golden years , the old ways are the simple ways and we can learn a lot about life from those who first came to lay down the foundations to what we have today .

As we sit on the doorstep of tomorrow chasing our yesterdays let me take you back to another place in another time in my village.

Even though people could walk to most places in my village transport was always available at the turn of the century either with a bicycle of your own or a tram .
In 1913 a tram Depot was built and trams where often seen making their way up and down the main road from my village into the City Centre .

One of the first schools in the village was  Chief Street which was opened in 1902 by Cardinal Logue . Chief Steet school had just one classroom which was small in size and in there was a pot belly fire . The teacher often would ask all the class to bring in a piece of coal to school to keep the classroom warm in the winter and in those days they had no notebooks or paper and pen as  they used what was  called  , a slate and chalk in glass . As the years progressed more students walked through the door at Chief Street school with extra teachers for the increase in numbers at the school where there were now fifty students in the class.  .

Eventually Chief had to close as a new school was built called Holy Cross girl’s school Holy Cross which was opened in 1914 by Mr Joe Devlin , the nationalist M.P. for West Belfast . The old army huts school was bigger than Chief Street and was able to cope with the growing numbers coming to the village to live . Holy Cross Boys Primary School in Butler Street was opened in 1941 next door to  Holy Cross girls school then after the war a new school called St Gabriels was built in 1959  . The dynamics of school life was changing fast . The progression from slates to blackboards , then to whiteboards and these day there are lap top computers .Its nice to look back to a time , long before  the internet came to town to when we learnt multiplication by memorising our ten times tables in ours , counting up using our fingers and thumbs and doing logarithms from books on bits of paper .

Outside in the streets children played their street games . There were green gas lamppost’s on both sides of the street and on top of the little terrace house there was  black smoke pouring out of from the chimney pots . There where always people who came around the streets in horse and carts like the rag and bone man and ehind the horse and carts there were often people with shovels and bags collecting the horse droppings for their roses .

Holy Cross Boys Primary School in Butler Street was opened in 1941 next door to  Holy Cross girls school then after the war a new school called St Gabriels was built in 1959  .

I remember myself going to Butler Street school as a child and my four sister and I would meet at the dividing fence every everyday to eat our sandwich  at lunch break
“People started to get T.V. sets in the 1960’s and social life suffered . People stayed in more and watched TV instead of going out for walks and going to the local dance halls .

Some of the old houses around the village were being demolished and new homes built in the new Glenard estate that was established . A new girls school St Gemmas was built in 1969 near the old Beltex Linen factory . The trams where overtaken by new Belfast bus in 1954 . This was taken over in the late 1960’s by the new style red double decker buses with their token machines instead of friendly bus conductors .
Gradually cars began to appear around the streets . This gave rise to  the local black taxi service that ushered people back and forwards into town .

There was the man who sold bundles of sticks from his cart , there was men with hand carts selling peat briquettes , shoelaces and pots and pans .

During the second World War air raid shelters were built in the streets so when the sirens went off people would go running from their houses to shelter inside the little brick huts where they would share stories and songs until the danger had passed . Our village was hit in 1941 by German Bombs and many people fled the village for the Ballysillan hills . The bells of Holy Cross never made a sound during the war and where only to rung in the event of a German invasion . The stained glass windows at Holy Cross where taken out during the war and kept safe until it was over . During the war a German bomb landed at the top of some house killing all those who where there . One of those people was a soldier who had returned back home on leave . It was a hard time in the village then but people had a great love for life and kept smiling through those dark days

Seasons came and when and people adapted to life . The year of 1947 was called the big freeze .  Spring brought out the girls who loved the social life in the local dance halls . . Summer time was when children would fly their kites and families would take a weeks break in places like the Isle of Man or in Butlins holiday camps.

Young men would play their handball games around the factory walls  .

There were colourful parades of cubs and boy scouts on their marches around the city and processions through the streets carrying holy statues . There wer street bonfires and music festivals known as the  Fleadh Cheoil during the summer months .

During the Eucharistic congress in 1932 the district was adorned with murals painted by Danny Mc Carthy . Other artists including Robbie Kane  added new chapters to the village life on murals in the village that showed the ever changing face of life in the village  . In 1952 the streets where decorated for the Parishes silver Jubilee . Many of the men and women sat up for weeks doing buntings and decorations for their street .

The important message that comes through here is the people of the village were a special breed who were proud of where they lived .

The End

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