CROWDS have been flocking to the Falls Park this week to visit a wake house – with a difference. The one-day event on Tuesday was entitled the Brewery’s Wake. Visitors were invited to step inside a recreated old Irish wake house to mark the memory of the Glen Road Bass brewery site as a way of keeping local memories alive of the famous West Belfast employer.
Pupils from Newhill Afterschools, Coláiste Feirste and Corpus Christi College worked alongside local artist Deborah Malcomson and representatives from the Upper Springfield Development Trust to recreate the interior of the home from the past using salvaged artefacts, old staff photographs and artworks. The USDT, along with the West Belfast Partnership Board, were able to gain access to the brewery site while it was being demolished and salvaged items that could be used in the wake house.
Local author Liam Kelly, who wrote the book ‘The Mountain Brewery – From Commissioning to Closure’, said the initiative “will go a long way towards keeping the memory of this very special landmark alive.”
