Belfast - No Way Out ( 'This Week' 1970)

[@chrisNI5140]

I was born in Belfast 1971, that was like going back in time. God bless my late Mum and Dad for seeing us all through that, what a woman our mum was!!

[@peterleitch48]

Absolutely!!

[@cougan64]

I was born in Belfast in 1964 & remember these days growing up in the mid 70s when ur old enough to understand what’s going on , going to school with holes in yours shoes & the backside off ur trousers very tough days indeed & very little food , things have come along way now for the kids who are spoilt but that’s probably because we suffered at that age & now you give your kids all you can ! Hard days but happy days in many ways growing up as a child , where did time go !

[@jameshiggins1505]

I grew up living in a house like this, thank god for our parents ❤

[@shadowmanNI]

Thanks for uploading. Grim viewing , very hard times

[@BuckFidenMD4547]

You can feel the suffering loud and clear. These people were strong in ways most modern-day folks would never understand.

[@GavinConlon-x3w]

I loved it too be honest. Lived facing a barracks most of my life, cavendish St/Falls Road, west belfast

[@SausageSideways]

​@GavinConlon-x3w Where's the barracks now? Did they take it away a long time ago? I went to St. Dominic's so I know that area but I don't remember a barracks or else I'm just being simple and it's still there 😂

[@1916jamesconnolly]

Poor old Mr Henry was buzzing when he got his Radio back for 3 Days, had it straight to his Ear before he got out of the Shop, then back to Pawnshop with it at end of the Week and back to silence and misery. These Days we don't know how lucky we are, this was proper Poverty.

[@BelfastManUtdTherapy]

So sad isn't it 😢

[@loonylinda]

This made me very sad..i wasnt aware as i was in UK, how badly people in Ireland had it...makes you feel ashamed when i lived a comfy life as a child in the 70' not even aware of the derelict homes these poor children had to live in.

[@jeff-m8o]

I was born on the Shankill in 1964...My Mother and Father worked for Henry Taylors then James Mackies..Hard times i know, my 3 siblings and i occasionally got what we wanted but my Parents made sure we always got what we needed....I will never forget them and what they did for us..RIP....

[@patrickball2493]

To think that today thousands of workable transistors that are now dumped in recycling centers weekly throughout the country and that poor old fellow pawning his . We don't seem to realise how materially we'll off we are today .

[@billbo2117]

The truth be told ,this deep poverty didnt discriminate, both my parents and their families lived like this in their youth . It makes me appreciate what we had growing up (which wasnt very much) And todays kids are living a life of privilege and really dont know how good they've got it.

[@stephenholmes1036]

It was the same for us in the South

[@stephenholmes1036]

Both parts us in the South and the north wete as good as third world countries from the 1920s to the late 1970s. Todays children haven't a clue

[@ciaramcwilliams5291]

Don't worry hun...we know

[@stephenholmes1036]

Good man

[@barbaraoconnor9698]

Heartbreaking viewing, God those people had such a hard life. The state of the houses they were expected to live is is appalling.

[@steve00alt70]

Why didnt they move country?

[@stephenholmes1036]

It was the same in the for us South, Move using what for money?

[@Home8rew]

I was born in the 60s in NI - this reminds me of my gran’s house. One coal fire to heat the whole house and keeping milk cold using a metal bucket full of water in the yard. It was bloody freezing 🙂

[@PeterPsn-z9o]

I was born in north east England, the houses and standard of living were the same . Not just Ulster at that time it was all over the country after the war . Hard times but we were happy cause we were all the same .

[@Valar-q7g]

This is actually quite depressing. The way those people were treated was disgraceful

[@laurenmcgowan6862]

It’s Absolutely heartbreaking truly horrific to watch and nowadays people nothing to do with the country or done nothing for the country are in fancy hotels with that much free money they can sent most of it back home to pay of the house effn treacherous corrupt politicians

[@colincampbell4261]

Fkn nonsense - run down flea pit hotels and no free money, racist.

[@richardbaker3000]

Bullshit.

[@Jungleland33]

I take it you're not aware of the irony of your post?

[@johnbarnes9379]

If only we could afford dinghy's back then.

[@desmondhull5778]

That's what peeves me off.All these migrants are getting everything and our people had to live like animals.

[@windjammer97]

Same conditions were in Dublin, London, Glasgow, Liverpool etc, etc. Working class were being shafted by a succession of Govts

[@LeeMcDaidDonegal]

I remember Michael Caine talking about how shocked he was by the abject poverty he encountered during the filming of "Get Carter" in Newcastle (which was filmed at exactly the same time as this video was filmed). He came from an impoverished background himself in War ravaged London, but still he was taken aback by what he witnessed in Newcastle in 1970.

[@windjammer97]

@LeeMcDaidDonegal Adam Curtis does a great documentary on the subject called the great British housing disaster. On KZbin

[@BelfastManUtdTherapy]

Thanks for the upscale rendering of this programme as the original one is very grainy. Cheers guys

[@anneliamohara2842]

Mr Henry what a good person , just liked his music , poor man had to go with out his transistor for 3days . He had it rough.

[@tonynorney7092]

My mum and dad grew up in the pound loney, how did they cope.😢

[@TheMacanta]

My Da's family were from English St in the Loney and my Ma's family from McQuillan St across the road from Dunville Park. I was born in 1967 and these houses and the shocking conditions are still fresh in my mind.

[@tonynorney7092]

@TheMacanta I was born Ton Street 1965

[@stephenholmes1036]

Dublin was as bad

[@belfast5133]

This was only 24 years after WW2 ended that davastated the world there was not much for anyone but we got by, and most people from both sides got on well with each outher before the troubles, housing was bad for both sides and most people did not have much on both sides.

[@mariabagnoli868]

There weren't many reports like these at the time. Belfast was mainly ignored over in England .

[@SausageSideways]

We still are

[@mariabagnoli868]

True. Look at that stupid Brexit thing the Tories never even considered Northern Ireland. ​@@SausageSideways

[@diarmuidoconnor4268]

Danke ❤

[@movinon1242]

Borrows 30 shillings for a week, pays 2.5 in interest. 8.33% interest per week. That is 433.33% annual. What usurious ghouls.

[@colincampbell4261]

Loan sharks.

[@DPK12]

Not just Belfast but lots of towns experienced the same.

[@movinon1242]

£13 GBP per week = $33 USD (1970) =$1,700 annual £17 GBP per week = $43 USD (1970) =$2,210 annual I know in NYC in 1970 entry-level and low-level office workers made $6,000-8,000 USD annually. In 1970, the median American family income was $9,000 USD. Only 9% of American families earned below $3,000 USD (i.e, deep poverty). These Belfast workers were, globally speaking, dirt poor.

[@davyjones68]

What do you mean?...we are white privileged.

[@BruceLee-fd7uw]

Yea but NYC rent and found prices would be higher would they not

[@yetidodger6650]

The economy was strangled by the British Government.

[@revsin1886]

And not the paramilitary groups bombing and murdering? I grew up in it, it so called freedom fighters on both sides that destroyed the place

[@johnbarnes9379]

@@revsin1886 And still doing so Brother

[@ciaramcwilliams5291]

​@@revsin1886yeah the government allows that ya know...

[@ulsterscot]

Those terraces - so beautiful

[@freespirit3508]

All government caused

[@colincampbell4261]

No - shit employers, Belfast wages are still about 20% lower than in Britain.

[@robertwoods-dc4wo]

Yeah we all took turns on sharing a bath 8 of. us I was lucky was the youngest and got in the deep sink😂

[@donnasmyth45]

"The good old days" 😒. Those poor people. Who knows..we could revert to those times again.

[@movinon1242]

The US government spends $2+ trillion more every year than it takes in. State and local governments borrow almost as much all together. We're borrowing money thats going to have to be paid back by kids just being born. Its just a matter of time before the federal budget is solely payments on the national debt.

[@klawlor3659]

Looking at life in the UK right now....I reckon we're on our way back. That being said, the conditions those poor souls were living in were beyond atrocious.

[@shadowmanNI]

Well , we seem intent on becoming the 3rd world...

[@SausageSideways]

Why is it such a shock that letting a 2 year old out to play in the street amongst traffic might end up with fatal consequences? Why was this just considered normal yet if a parent so much as farts in their childs direction nowadays these same older generations will have something to say? It really annoys me.

[@Kyteasahigh]

*All for what? Now the Irish won & got everything they wanted & General Mike Jackson said “We couldn’t & didn’t defeat the łRA.”*

[@ToldAlthea]

This was pretty $&@?ing depressing.

[@Bambamni]

Wow, how far we have come. Pure hardship in them days

[@ellegraham4603]

What about England,🙄

[@steve00alt70]

Why does this look like something out of 1945 WW2 Germany? Or North Korea 1920's? Why were the people imprisoned to live there behind barbed wires? Like a concentration camp. Why couldnt they all just move to another country?

[@phoenixkali]

It looks like today in Ireland.

[@phoenixkali]

And you can’t move with no money.

[@billbo2117]

@@steve00alt70 They weren't prisoners ,they were extremely poor . It was an example of poverty in Belfast in the early1970s. It was much the same for working class people in City's and towns all over the UK.

[@steve00alt70]

@billbo2117 why were they so poor?

[@AndrewDaley-lr9qg]

How long have you been living in la la land. ❓

[@SimonCraig-j7p]

What a shithole how did they not strive for more

[@rizzledizzle9801]

Im sure they did but poverty and a war going on around you can knock the ambition out of you.

[@SimonCraig-j7p]

@rizzledizzle9801 hmm ya fair enough but at same time so many people there strive for absolutely nothing other than the social enclave prison of a radius of 100metres.

[@mrherbman1]

And these people were better off under British rule Things may not have been great in the south but there very few people living in conditions like this

[@CR19917]

They were still under British rule, this is Belfast in 1970.

[@BruceLee-fd7uw]

I was dwn south in 1977 it wasn't much better

[@belfast5133]

The housing conditions in the south where every bit as bad as up here ask anyone who lived in the tennament slums in Dublin.

[@CR19917]

To make matters worse, on June 28th 1970, over 500 Catholic employees at the Harland and Wolff shipyard were forced to leave their jobs by their Protestant employers. The majority of these men had no choice but to become stuck on the dole, long-term.

[@jixuscrixus1967]

The biggest surprise is that there were any catholics in Harland and Wolff, they must have been cleaners.

[@CR19917]

@@jixuscrixus1967 Harland and Wolff employed over 35,000 people at one point, I'd say less than 5% were Catholic which is still a couple of hundred

[@jixuscrixus1967]

@@CR19917 I understand the situation with Belfast/Harland and Wolff, it was very similar in the shipyards in Scotland, sectarian Protestant strongholds.

[@billbo2117]

There is much talk about the past and the legacy of the past, and Irish republicans have been assiduous in collating and circulating material to support their selective interpretation of that past. Let's not forget the campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Provisional IRA and directed against minority Protestant communities in border areas in Fermanagh, south Tyrone and south Armagh. In Fermanagh and south Tyrone, there were 203 murders carried out between 1971 and 1989, of which 178 were carried out by republicans. Of these, only 14 have resulted in successful convictions. The United Nations has defined ethnic cleansing as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic, or religious group from certain geographic areas”. That is what happened along the border. Douglas Deering, the last Protestant shopkeeper in Roslea, close to the border in Fermanagh. He was a married man with three children and a devout Christian who attended a gospel hall across the border in Clones. His shop was bombed four times and then, eventually, he was shot dead in the premises on May 12, 1977. Republican politicians and propagandists often claimed the targets for IRA violence were men and women who had served in the security forces, but Douglas Deering was not and never had been a member of the security forces. This was a sectarian murder and part of a wider republican strategy of ethnic cleansing.

[@billbo2117]

There is much talk about the past and the legacy of the past, and Irish republicans have been assiduous in collating and circulating material to support their selective interpretation of that past. Let's not forget the campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Provisional IRA and directed against minority Protestant communities in border areas in Fermanagh, south Tyrone and south Armagh. In Fermanagh and south Tyrone, there were 203 murders carried out between 1971 and 1989, of which 178 were carried out by republicans. Of these, only 14 have resulted in successful convictions. The United Nations has defined ethnic cleansing as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic, or religious group from certain geographic areas”. That is what happened along the border. Douglas Deering, the last Protestant shopkeeper in Roslea, close to the border in Fermanagh. He was a married man with three children and a devout Christian who attended a gospel hall across the border in Clones. His shop was bombed four times and then, eventually, he was shot dead in the premises on May 12, 1977. Republican politicians and propagandists often claimed the targets for IRA violence were men and women who had served in the security forces, but Douglas Deering was not and never had been a member of the security forces. This was a sectarian murder and part of a wider republican strategy of ethnic cleansing.

[@rayscott3445]

I was born in the sixties there was always money for the drink though