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. 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 |