Tag: Stories
Helen Holland
Ballysillan community development
Helen’s interest in getting involved in her local community came soon after she married. “Betty Rice was organising these meetings about new houses, so, I was quite interested in that. My husband used to say ‘why do y...
Padraic Fiacc
The life of a poet
Poet Padraic Fiacc was born Patrick Joseph (Joe) O Connor in Belfast on Elizabeth Street in 1923. The First World War had ended and Padraic remembers that “everybody went half mad when the war was over, and my moth...
Betty Carlisle
Shankill Women’s Centre Manager
As the youngest of five children, Betty recalls fond memories of the Woodvale area of the Shankill in west Belfast as she was growing up. “It was a very community spirited area, I spent lots of time playing and felt a...
Joe O Donnell
Short Strand community development
Reflecting on the housing conditions of his youth, Joe O Donnell explains, “Conditions were all very similar in that they were terrible. Most of the small two bedroom terraced houses in all of the working class areas ...
JB Vallely
Art in Armagh
JB Vallely was born in Armagh in 1941 and apart from a couple of years at the Belfast Art College and Edinburgh, has lived all his life in the city. He was always determined to express himself through painting. “Wh...