A Sense of Community down the Falls Road

This story is taken from an interview with Geraldine McGee, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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I remember the seat with the rationing now. We all had ration books. What we used to call “going for the rations”. And we used to go to a groceries away up the Shankill Rd, why I don’t know, but it was up the Shankill road. I was too young to know, but there was always 2 of us with the a basket and a list of things. It’s 2 ounces of tea and 2 ounces of butter for each one. And I remember the man … he ran the shop, and we were a big family, and he gave us a couple of extra ounces or whatever, he would. We had lots of mouths to feed up there. But we walked down Townsend Street and up Old Lodge road to where his shop was to get the rations. And at school, too. Clothes were all the, you couldn’t get clothes and shoes. We had our feet measure by the sister. I remember my mum saying to us, “now make sure when the sisters are taking measurements that you push your big toe up”. Whatever it did, it was a lion for. But we didn’t do any of the things quite, but we were in the same boat,. There was no money around, it was amazing. When I look back now, there’s 10 in my family, and we never wanted for anything. My mum was a colonist, a great cook and a great … everything. She could paint and paper the whole house, and she was very particular about those, you know? In those days you bought flour in bulk, 100wt bags, and momma used to save these bags. How did she get the stuff out of the flour? She soaked it in something, and it wasn’t bleach, but she soaked it. And when she got enough of those she’d make another sheet for the beds. We were never hungry. We always used to say, “we’ve enough hot and cold water”, that kind of thing. They made do. It helped. It just went completely out of my mind with stuff. But these days I have very very happy memories of my home.

[Seamus]
We were all the same, there’s an exception in our house as well. You threw nothing away. But coming away, you’re used to it.

[Geraldine]
In those days, in school — you know where you collect permissions today and so forth? Well, these little cards in school, and the rosary beads. And you took this home, and did the beads and everything. And you got a pin for each one, and you stuck a pin in this. It was great. And the amount of money that you got, you know, those who were impoverished, the impoverished people. But we didn’t know we were impoverished. My sister would say “We were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor”. Which is a nice saying, isn’t it?
And my father taught music. He worked in a fancy box-making place on the Dublin Road, which was bombed. I don’t know. It was bombed out on the Dublin Rd, had to be rebuilt.
Over the 12 of July or whatever, I remember, my father used to take us down in this old vehicle to this old derelict building. He had access, a key or something. And we used to watch the parades going by on the 12th July. And we loved it! We didn’t know in those days that they were different from us, all that nonsense.
My mother and father, he told me to get into the house, implemented his income, and …people came into our place that weren’t of our faith. We didn’t ask them any questions, what religion they were or anything like that. They were putting bread on our table. It’s only when you look back now at where people came from, as we do now. All the apportioning places, religion to peoples’ places, that I would never have thought of in those days.
My Father died in ‘52, after the war. We used to do ceilis and things like that. I remember him, every Boxing day he used to — he played the accordion, the violin and the piano, and he taught all 3. But he used to go up to Nazareth house to entertain the elderly folk. And the orphans would have been there. I remember there used to be no traffic the whole trip. Traffic used to be sparse, and Taxis were just … He carried the accordion with him, and he had a thing, he had a go like that, and he had a thing made, 2 handles of wood, all carried on the one side and the other side. And he walked from our place, Richmount, to — was it the Ravenshill Road? That was during the war. You walked everywhere. There was no means of transport or anything. Those were nice days. But it’s nice to reflect back that people lived through those days and had smiles on their faces. But you weren’t bitter.
You didn’t have the problems that you have today.
That’s the whole thing. We had a Community sense that we don’t have today. That’s gone for good. Everybody’s in the same boat. All the people up the Falls, they all lived in big houses. Even our house was spotless and clean. We were very happy in it. But we used to go up the Falls for a walk on a Sunday. We would admire and envy the houses, but I suppose they weren’t all that different from us. They went through the war too. It appeared not to be anything like that. And people helped each other, literally out. I remember the pram, sitting outside the doors with the Children in it, and the hoods all up. People walked everywhere, and they knew everybody. They’d bid you the time of the day. That kind of thing is lost.
I remember something. I’m a bit worried about this. My father was a very very quiet man, very kindly. He heard what appeared to be bombing, and he got up straight away. He just ran out of the house, and he saw flames, and he followed them down the Falls Rd, right down to Percy Street. It wouldn’t be there now. Just before you come to King Street. Townsend Street, round that area. There was a big flour mill there, and that was bombed. He went down, but he couldn’t help anybody. People were just thinking of their own preservation.
A lot of Belfast people came out to the country after the bombing. They were looking for accommodation, wherever they could get it. And then they were travelling to work. If you could get in there you could get to work easily enough, through the extra trains, morning and evening, for the workers.
There used to be more down the Falls Rd, just below the baths, where the baths used to be. And women, god help them, they didn’t even have footwear on. “oh, I would do that”. I don’t know what it was. They made implements, some sort of war implements. I’m a bit hazy about that. But the revers of mine worked in the base come janey. Women having babies 2 weeks before, in the back at 6 o’clock in the morning, with not even their breakfast in them. That was all very harsh, wasn’t it. What had happened. We just wondered what we’d learnt. What our situation would be. We should be so grateful for what we’ve got. If you don’t know what the past was, you don’t have much to be thankful. Unless you’ve someone who was maimed or …

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