They say a photograph captures a unique moment and a place in time – something that’s particularly true of this 1969 snap of kids playing in Varna Street, a street in the Divis area that has long since been demolished.
The image is the subject of a research project by Ronin Films documentarian Ronan McCloskey who, alongside local historian Pat Dorrian, is hoping to uncover the stories behind some fascinating photographs from yesteryear.
Ronan is attempting to track down some of those pictured here in Varna Street with a view to creating a documentary that looks at Belfast’s social history beyond the Troubles.
He said that while many adults shunned the camera during the conflict and the anxious preceding period, there is a wealth of images of youngsters that may offer an insight into the lives of people at that time.
Amongst those pictured in Varna Street is 62-year-old Billy Kane, who was just nine-years-old at the time.
“I don’t even remember a photographer being there that day taking photographs, but there’s another one of me and another young lad who’s in that photo, Sean ‘Rubber’ O’Neill, and he (photographer) must’ve taken one of us in Gibson Street that day,” he reflected.
“That place where that was taken was our football pitch.
“We’d have played matches there from the morning, through the afternoon and into the night. We must’ve played 10 matches a day. That’s what you did.
“After internment in 1971 you maybe would’ve collected wood for a bonfire and burnt it in that big opening in Varna Street. It was quite a popular opening for people gathering and meeting.”
He continued: “In our wee street alone there could have been 20 of us running about. Every family had six or seven kids. There was the McLaughlins, the Boyles, the Quigleys – there could have been six or seven boys in each family of all ages, so you had plenty of friends to go with. But football was the main thing; kicking a ball about, playing a game of Rally-O, going up to the Dunville Park – things like that.”
Billy estimates that the photograph was taken some time before August 1969, a month that witnessed the pogroms that would lead to over three decades of violence.
He notes that the graffiti on the wall simply reflects “Celtic and Rangers stuff”, which would later make way for political slogans in the years to come.
For young kids whose main concern was playing football, Billy said there was “no sense” of the impending violence.
“After 1969 and the burning of Bombay Street that was it,” he said.
“I remember that pretty well – it was terrible. I’d an older borther who was 16 or 17 and him and some of the older lads and men went up onto the Falls to stop the area being burned down.”
Billy now lives in the Dunmurry Lane and has three children – now adults – of his own. Admittedly, his current area is a lot quieter than was Divis in the 60s and 70s, but he fondly remembers the "camaraderie" amongst the people of the area and the long halcyon days when mothers “never saw” their kids.
In addition to Billy Kane and Kevin Lawlor, other faces thought to be in the photo are Paddy Loughran, Sean ‘Rubber’ O’Neill, Brian Maguire and Peter Fitzpatrick.
If you can spot yourself in the photo, or know someone who is there you can get in touch with Ronan via the Andersonstown News.
