PEOPLE from the Market community and beyond have come together to mark the 50th anniversary of IRA Volunteer Joe Downey.
The 23-year-old was shot dead during a gun battle involving the British Army on 22 July 1972.
A commemoration for Joe Downey was held at the Market Memorial Garden on Thursday night.
Veteran republican and former Sinn Féin Belfast City Councillor Seán McKnight said: "Like many young men Joe had joined the IRA following the introduction of internment in August 1971.
"Joe lived with his mother, Sheila, father, Joe, and brother and sisters in their family home in Henrietta Street.
"Joe's father was a docker and that was the path that Joe Óg had hoped to follow, but it was not to be with the conflict raging around this small Market area.
"On Friday the 21st of July, when reports came in of shots being fired into the area from the Ormeau Avenue/Donegall Pass direction and that a local woman had been shot in the face at her own doorstep from a passing car, the local IRA unit turned out to defend the area.
"As the shooting continued there were two further casualties. Geordie Stow, who I witnessed in McAuley Street with a gunshot wound in his shoulder and, sadly, Volunteer Joe Downey who had been shot dead at the top of McAuley Street/Cromac Street, while attempting to cross the road.
"The heavy gunfire coming from a British Army sniper post in the Belfast Gas Offices at the corner of Ormeau Avenue/Bankmore Street prevented anyone from reaching Joe's body for some time."
