Pass Loning

Donegall Pass began life in the late 1600s as a lane-way (loning, loney, loanen) made by one of the early earls of Donegall (the first three of whom were all called Arthur Chichester) through what was then Cromack Woods (Library Ireland). The woods are remembered in local street-names such as Walnut Street, Elm, Street, Pine Way (which are all included in the mural), as well as Cromac Street itself.

Clara Copley was born in Rotherham, moved to Liverpool, and then to Belfast c. 1900, where she lived for about fifty years. Her career was a colourful one that included running a fish-and-chip stall, an amusement arcade, a waxworks, a theatre, and a boxing ring, which was initially unlicensed but made official in 1936, when Copley was aged 70. She retired to a house in Donegall Pass where she died in 1949; there is a ‘blue plaque’ at the site (with an incorrect date of birth, faithfully reproduced here) in her memory. (DIB)