“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

“Youth has no age – Pablo Picasso”. Above is one of the panels on Donegall Road, just above the City Hospital railway stop, celebrating the Sandy Row community.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01892 identity achievement future together focus hope peace community dreams dignity

“Today is yesterday’s tomorrow”. Vintage images of Sandy Row, including the Ulster Spinning Company and the Royal Bar, make up this “Heritage – Culture – Identity” board on Donegall Road. The central image is part of this photo montage.

Featured previously: Hope – Future – Change – Now

Hour-long video of Sandy Row memories

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01890

Here are two panels from the Donegall Road bridge at Roden Street both concerned with working life in the area in years gone by. The (uncredited) words at the bottom of the first board come from a Bill Clinton speech. At greater length, it goes “I do not believe we can repair the basic fabric of society until people who are willing to work have work. Work organizes life. It gives structure and discipline to life. It gives meaning and self-esteem to people who are parents. It gives a role model to children …”

The second features two stanzas from a poem called here “The Weaver’s Prayer” but also known as “The Master Weaver”, “The Weaver”, and “Just A Weaver”, and commonly though not unanimously attributed to one Benjamin Malacia Franklin in the 1940s; it is here said to have been penned by a “female Ulster weaver in 1922”: “Not ’til the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly, shall God unroll the canvas, and explain the reasons why. The dark threads are as neatful, in the weaver’s skilful hand, as the thread of the gold and silver, in the pattern he has planned.”

See previously: The Thread Of History which features two reflections on life as a female weaver.

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01848 X01854 “are as needed” “are as needful”

Two boards on the Donegall Road feature Linfield football club. The one above (at the bridge near Roden Street) features the 1957-1958 team; the one below (near the City Hospital station) has the founding team of 1886 and champions in 1890-1891 in the background (shown in Fortune Favours The Brave) “with Sandy Row former Linfield players Daryl Fordyce and Albert Watson, with the modern day youth of Sandy Row” (linfieldfc.com).

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01852 X01891 team spirit one goal sandy row jack milburn jim fisher wm rodgers j cairns alex russell jack graham ray cough g morgan robinson dickson parke hamill irvine braithwaite city cup county antrim shield gold

“What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life. To be with each other in silent unspeakable memories. This is the true harvest of love.” Here are two boards from the Donegall Road bridge celebrating family and long-lasting relationships. The one above includes photographs of local people from years gone by; the one below features the post-mistress Marlene Leslie and her husband George.

“Marlene & George Leslie’s retirement 2013. In 1976 Marlene started work in the Post Office at 421 Donegall Road. She became sub-post mistress in 1985. Marlene moved to the present location at 309-311 Donegall Road in April 2000. George joined her in 2001. While at 421 Donegall Road they were robbed nine times, fired at once, tied up once and experienced two attempted tiger robberies. Each Christmas the P1 classes of Donegall Road  Primary School come to post their letters to Santa – Marlene fowards on a return letter from Santa. Famous people who have visited the premises include: Barry McGuigan, Rose Neill and Lynda Bryans.” 

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01843 X01835

Here are three images from the Donegall Road bridge concerning factory girls – weavers, spinners, doffers, and millies. They feature two poems. The first is an anonymously written description of work in Lowell (Massachusetts) USA; the second is attributed to “Eliza Hamilton, Ulster weaver poet 1891”.

“When I set out for Lowell, some factory for to find, I left my native country and all my friends behind.
But now I am in Lowell and summon’d by the bell I think less of the factory than of my native dell.
The factory bell begins to ring and we must obey, and to our old employment go or else be turned away.
Come all ye weary factory girls, I’ll have you understand, I’m going to leave the factory and return to my native land.”

“I started work when I was eight, my childhood lost at the factory gate.
The flight of shuttle, noise and dust, the wage of labour not good enough.
My life was weaved outside my dreams, days always longer than they seemed.
I vowed the day that I was wed, my child would have a childhood.”

Click image to enlarge
Copyright © 2014 Seosamh Mac Coılle
X01845 X01847 X01838 The anonymous author of this poem was an Ulster immigrant girl of the 19th century working in a textile mill in Lowell, USA