“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
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“To put bread on the table, those days are gone, when we all had to to Willie Allen’s pawn.

We met and we married along time ago; we worked for long hours when wages were low.”

Above and below are boards 3 and 4 of the ‘Sandy Row memories’ at the end of Blythe Street, showing Murray’s Tobacco Factory (in Linfield Road/Sandy Row, which closed in 2005 before being refurbished and opening in 2012 as Murray’s Exchange) and the old Belfast & Ulster Brewing building (unchanged image here), home to the south Belfast Ulster Volunteers (Sandy Row History) and most recently (until 2007) the home of Gilpin’s Furniture.

Two other boards can be seen in Mr. Saturday Night. 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
X01908 X019010 sandy row women’s group