Absent friends are precious memories of a life left behind.

Jim Kearney is another Absent Friend who I would like to introduce you to . Jim made contact with me after a recent request for stories from Belfast exiles living away from their old hometown .

Jim has been away from Belfast for the past thirty years now .
And recently reconnected with his hometown on a return to Belfast
to bury his mother , May Kearney . May’s maiden name was Mc Murrough . There were seven children in the family .
When Jim was in Belfast for his Mothers funeral he went to the wake for his mother . His sister Mary was there and recalled a few incidents about
Their childhood growing in The Bone district . Mary said she used to tie their dog to the neighbours front door knocker and then hide behind somebody else’s front door . The dog would try to get loose and in doing so made a lot of noise causing some of the residents in the street to go out looking . In the end they tried to find the owner of the dog who was hiding nearby watching all the goings on .
At the age of seven or eight years of age she was talking about the games and songs played and sung as they skipped on a rope or swung on one of the old gas lamps on the long summer evenings.

Jims Mother originally came from Eskdale Gardens in Glenard , or ther new part of Ardoyne . His Father came from Glenview Street on the Bone.
Jims Father was a good football played and he played for Crystal Palace in his younger days but returned back to Belfast and the Bone because of homesickness . Jim also played for the Glenview Hearts and on Sundays Jim would go and watch the games his Father played in on the old cinder pitch from the slopes of the dumps.
Jim remembers his father always made sure he got the ball the night before the game so he could immerse the ball in a bucket of water ensuring that no-one wanted to head the ball which gave him an advantage .

Jim recalls watching the men playing Toss down at the back of the Beltex by the brickyard. The peelers would come and chase all the men and we would wait to see if there was any money left after they had gone.
There was always one man at the toss whose job it was to pick up all the money if the peelers came. The two men in question there at the Beltex Pitch and Toss were Nailer Clarke and Stitch Mc Coy . These two hard men were popular around the district .Nailer Clark one day confronted the bailiffs and peelers who had come to evict a family from their Glenard home in the 50’s . Nailer punched holes through those who came serving their cruel justice on the poor family . Nailer took them on in a fight and threw a few well placed fists in the face of the bailiffs . As the peelers and other bailiffs ran to subdue Nailer the bystanders circled in on them and in a joint effort the crowd evicted the bailiffs from the district . They were said to have run from the streets of Ardoyne in fear for their lives . There are many other stories about Nailer Clarke and Stitch McCoy that could go on forever . Maybe in another article I’ll talk about those .

As a child Jim and his family lived at 102 Ardilea Street in the Bone
District near to where the Saunders Social Club was built in memory of Jim Saunders who was one of the early victims killed in the Troubles .

Jim would to the Forum picture house on a Saturday morning on the front of the Crumlin Road . There was always the YoYo games as well as the films . Jim and his sister would get in free as the doorman (Mr.Langley) was the father of his uncle Bo McMurroughs girlfriend (Peggy Langley) who was the sister of Gerry & Mary Langley the songwriter/singers from Ardoyne.

Jim would also go to the Park picture house and if they had no money maybe they would try to bonk in. This was done when you had the price of one ticket and then that person would get in and open a side door and the rest of the mob would creep over on the floor to an empty seat...it was all very exciting . The things childhood stuff was made of . Nobody was hurt or got offended . It wasn’t rude and nobody got offended .

Sometimes Jim would also go over to the Waterworks along Rosapenna Street and in all the wee streets close to the Waterworks he remembers the Honeysuckle trees that hung their flowers over the garden walls onto the street. He still remembers the sweet smell and the apples he
Sometimes plucked from the trees along the way.

Behind Jim’s house in Ardilea Street was the Fieldy Wall
(a walled waste ground) where it was said "Galloper Thompson" rode at night with his head under his arm .
“It didn’'t stop us all playing there as kids “
Jim says .

Ardilea Street on the Bone was also once known known as Savages Row . The name came from Old John Savage a rich mill owner who built some half houses behind his mill in Flax Street . The name Ardilea was from John Savages home in Greenisland , County Antrim . The story is that old John Savage had killed himself and Galloper Thompson was beheaded by a guillotine in the Old Beltex Mill . Both ghosts were reportedly seen in many areas around North Belfast . Witnesses claim of seeing a headless horseman known as Galloper Thompson coming along on his horse to the old loney and the dumps that overlooked Ardoyne Village . Even the bravest of souls who walked from the Bone to Ardoyne at night would rush like mad in fear of the hooves that could come after them . The ghost of Galloper Thompson haunted many of who had never even seen him through the stories that were spread . Thompson like John Savage was a rich young man who owned some of Belfast’s linen mills .

As a child Jim remembers making pipes there from hollowed out corks and pencils with the lead taken out. They would put dried grass into the pipe and try to smoke it, although this past time passed very swiftly .
He used to run around then with Mickey Molloy and Joe Maguire, the brother of Rab, who ran a Barbers shop on the Falls. Some of the families Jim remembers where The Maguires and it was Joes sister (Marie ) who worked at the City Bakery where Jim and his family could buy clippings
(the left overs from Swiss Rolls) Jim and his sister also went to the Irish Dancing Lessons down in the old tin hut on Saunderson Steet.
It used to be a kind of community hall for people to meet . Some say it once was an old British Legion Hall .

Jim went to Sacred Heart school on Glenview Street . His first teacher was Mrs.McCann and the last was Mr.Gormley.
Jims father was killed in an industrial accident when he was about nine years old. He was killed in England in 1960.
He remembers there was a benefit match for him to pay for some of the costs and help us out.
When Jims Father died he left a wife and seven children behind .
Those times were hard. They lived upstairs at 102 Ardilea Street and another family the McAllisters lived downstairs . One night they all heard screaming so my mother ran downstairs and found Mrs.McAllister there in flames, she had been standing in front of the fire in a nylon nightdress.. Jims Mother rolled her in a blanket and succeeded in putting out the flames, Mrs.McAllister was badly burned as were his mothers arms and hands.
After that they left Ardilea Street .
Jim about ten years of age when they moved into a house on the Limestone Road where they stayed for a year before being assigned a house in Turf Lodge.

Some years after they had left Ardilea Street they were told that it had been burnt to the ground.
When the troubles came Jim left Belfast and made a new life for himself in Holland where he stills lives to this day .



The End