“There’s a nice wee place in Belfast, they call it Sandy Row. On a Saturday night, that’s where we used to go. A bucket on the stove, boiling all the whites, the big tin bath on Saturday nights.”
Here are two boards at the blind end of Blythe Street which together illustrate a short poem about Sandy Row in days gone by. The first, above, shows dancing and bingo (which took place in the Sandy Row Orange Lodge? – The Row You Know: Memories Of Old Sandy Row (ISBN 0953053504) by Donna McCann and published by Nicholson & Bass contains an image with the caption “Saturday night dance at the Orange Hall – Hector McMillan about to break into song”.)
The second, below, shows scenes from home: clothes in front of the fire, a child in a tin bath, a wireless radio, and a grandmother dandling a child.
Sponsored by the Sandy Row Women’s Group.
Two more boards are shown in Those Days Are Gone. A gallery of all of the pieces on the wall can been seen in a 2007 entry.
Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01904 X01906 women’s group
Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 