Literature Vol. 3

THE TROUBLES

I can remember growing up in Aberdeen Street, West Belfast, just off the Shankill Road. It was the height of the Troubles in the 1970's. There was rioting every night of the week. At the bottom of our street there was a wall. I suppose it was a sort of peace line to keep the two sides apart. Aberdeen Street was only a stone's throw away from the Falls Road, which was where the Catholics lived.

When I was only five or six I can remember houses being burned out and people shooting at each other. That happened on both sides. There was a mill at the bottom of North Howard Street, right on the corner with the Falls Road. People from the Shankill used to get on to the roof of the mill and throw petrol bombs at the rioters on the Falls. Sometimes my Mum would take my two brothers and me to my Granny's house in Derry Street, on the other side of the Shankill, because the trouble was so bad. So my brothers and I stayed in her house. We would sleep in her back room, the three of us in one bed.

There were men from the area who used to stand at the street corners all night, protecting the area from anyone coming through the barricades to break windows or burn houses. That was a regular thing in those days. My Dad was one of the night men. They used to get an old bin, fill it with wood and make a fire to keep themselves warm. They stayed out till it was light the following morning. The only reason they did it was so families could sleep in their beds at night without fear their homes would be destroyed.

The political unrest which has existed in Northern Ireland has touched many people’s lives. This is just one person’s experience of growing up in Belfast where bombs, riots and fear were part of everyday THE TROUBLES