Paddy Duffy Collection

Memories from the History Girl mural in east Belfast’s Thistle Court. (Close-ups below.)

• We used to go to Church Street East Disco … It was brilliant. Dee Street Disco in the Community Centre was good too.
• Geary’s and The Tab sold all the electrical goods. The TV rent man came on a Friday. We sometimes didn’t answer the door!
• I loved Nabney’s, Burkes and Nellie Stewarts. Dora Burnes was a good wee shop too.
• There was a swimming pool in Victoria Park that opened in the summer. It was always freezing though!
• I used to buy a bag of broken biscuits and and damaged fruit as a treat, when I went to the cinema.
• We used to get our hair cut in Sammy Sanford’s.
• The Road was always busy – shops and bars all the way along.
• Barlow’s hardware at the Conswater Bridge used to have all the plates and cups outside in crates for you to buy.
• I drank in the Con Club. It was great – they didn’t let women in!
• I came from Singapore to live here with my husband. He died and I went home, but had to come back to Belfast. I missed it too much … it’s my home now.
• My granny had a bathroom. I thought that was great. Our toilet was in the yard …
• I worked in the Ropeworks and love it … the craic was great.
• I loved Joe Bump’s chippy – the pasties were great.
• If you were late for work at the Ropeworks they locked the door and you lost your pay. Hardly anyone was ever late.
• My grandpa took me to the shipyard and swung me on a crane in one of the workshops. My mummy was raging when she found out!
• We used to play Kick the Tin … there were sometimes 30 of us all playing together …
• I loved the smell of Inglis’ Biscuit Factory along the Road.
• The was The Vulcan, The Ulster Arms, The Four and Twenty, The Clock Bar and The Armagh House. Hastings, who own all the hotels now, used to own a good lot of the bars on the Road.
• I remember seeing a ship being launched in the yard. It was about 1976 and all the ones from Mersey Street School went. I met my daddy in the crowd of thousands.
• You got your good shoes in Irvine’s and your gutties in Warwick’s. It’s still there.
• My granny kept her milk in a bucket of water because she had no fridge.
• I worked in the shipyard – left school on a Friday and started in the Yard on Monday.
• Everyone had a net bag made in the Ropeworks. You don’t see them nowadays.
• We followed the Glens everywhere, but a home match in the Oval was always the best craic.
• All my mummy’s brothers were in the Army or Navy during the War … they all came back.
• I remember Stanley Brookes. They cashed your Providence Cheques.
• We used to go to the cinema on a Saturday morning for the Kids Club. It was always bunged!!

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