Sailortown (Belfast)
Sailortown was a working-class dockland community in the
Urban redevelopment in the late 1960s resulted in Sailortown's eventual demolition. As of 2021, only two churches, one pub and three houses remain of the once bustling waterfront enclave.[3][4] However, a combination of private investment in the greater Docks area and building of social housing by associations such as Clanmill has led to a growth in population since 2010 in the Pilot St area.
A "
Location
Sailortown is in the
The maritime-themed Sinclair Seamen's Presbyterian Church and St. Joseph's Chapel, a Catholic church, served as the places of worship for the Sailortown populace. Sinclair Seamen's church is still standing on Corporation Street as is St Joseph's, built in 1880 on Princes Dock Street. St Joseph's, however, is no longer in use, having been closed by the Diocese of Down and Connor in 2001, due to falling attendances and the lack of a local community.[9] There is currently a community-led campaign for the renovation of St Joseph's chapel and it is opened on occasion for events.[10]
The Midlands Hotel, adjacent to Sailortown on York Street, was once known as one of Belfast's most prestigious hotels. Notable guests included Laurel and Hardy and 1960s singer P. J. Proby.[7]
History
The working-class enclave of Sailortown was established on partly reclaimed land in the mid-19th century and was Belfast's first waterfront village.[7] It came into being in the period when Belfast's industry expanded and flourished; Sailortown was displayed on an 1845 Belfast street map. In addition to the docks and warehouses, Sailortown had linen mills, factories, a large fire station, a hotel, boarding houses, a variety of shops and businesses, and many pubs and taverns. Later there were a number of boxing clubs and cinemas. Many local men found employment as dock labourers, carters or merchant seamen; the women worked in the mills and cigarette factories. Most families had men away at sea, including boys as young as 14.[7] During the period when Belfast reached its apex as the hub of the shipbuilding, engineering, and linen manufacturing industry, there were more than 2000 men working in the docks.[11] The main distribution centre was beside the railway station with a constant flow of horses and carts passing through the main thoroughfares.
Life was hard for most of the people in Sailortown as they had to endure harsh working conditions with low wages and return home to small, damp, dilapidated homes, which often housed more than one family. The waterfront was described as having been "desperate with crime and inhumanity".
Protestants and Catholics were not always segregated, often living in neighbouring houses and sharing the same workplace.[14] As a rule, however, 'upper' Sailortown between Nelson St and York St was predominately Protestant, while the district closer to the chapel was mostly Catholic. Despite being host to a steady stream of foreign sailors, Sailortown was a close-knit community and viewed strangers with mistrust and suspicion.[14] William Murphy, the father of loyalist Lenny Murphy (the leader of the notorious Shankill Butchers gang), was a dock labourer from Sailortown's Fleet Street. Jobs in Sailortown were traditionally passed from father to son; Lenny Murphy's grandfather had also worked as a dock labourer.[14] Murphy was a common surname in Sailortown, albeit traditionally borne by Catholics.[14]
Parts of Sailortown were damaged during the
Demolition and redevelopment
The gradual demolition of Sailortown began in the late 1960s to construct the M2 motorway. The population was largely dispersed and rehoused in districts such as the Shore Crescent, a Protestant development adjacent to the Greencastle suburb of North Belfast, and the New Lodge. The last terrace of houses in Ship Street was knocked down in the 1970s. The Docks area has been extensively redeveloped and only three houses from the original Sailortown community remain standing.[7] From the mid-1980s, the "Rotterdam Bar", an old historic pub at the corner of Pilot Street and the harbour gates close to Clarendon Dock, was a popular venue for live music – in particular alternative rock bands. The 19th-century pub was slated for demolition in 2008. That plan, however, was shelved, although the bar has been closed from the early 2010s.[15]
The Sailortown Cultural and Historical Society was founded in October 1999. Since the beginning of the 21st century, some new houses and apartment buildings have been built in the area as part of a Sailortown regeneration scheme. St Joseph's is currently in a state of renovation and is opened for community events.[10]
The Troubles
On 21 July 1972, known as Bloody Friday, the Provisional IRA set off 22 bombs in Belfast; one of the explosions destroyed the premises of a seed merchant on Garmoyle Street.[16] Stephen Parker, who at age 14 became the youngest victim of the day's bombings, was the son of the Reverend Joseph Parker, at the time chief chaplain of the Flying Angel Club. This was a seamen's mission in Sailortown located on Corporation Street, providing a temporary home for visiting sailors. Several months before Stephen was killed in the Cavehill Road blast, a bomb exploded in the vicinity of the mission and destroyed part of the building.[17]
On Halloween night 1972, two young Catholic girls, Paula Strong (aged 6) and Clare Hughes (4), were in costume dress and playing near a bonfire when a 100-pound car bomb planted by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) exploded nearby outside Benny's Bar at the corner of Ship Street and Garmoyle Street. They were both killed in the blast and 12 customers inside the pub suffered injuries.[18] There is a memorial plaque commemorating the girls on the façade of the defunct St. Joseph's church.
Fireman Brian Douglas, a Protestant based at the old Whitla Street fire station, was shot to death on 7 February 1973 by loyalist paramilitaries whilst fighting a fire caused by street disturbances in Bradbury Place, Sandy Row. A study room is dedicated to his memory at the new Whitla Street fire station which opened later that year.
In February 2003, UDA brigadier
Notable residents
Natives of Sailortown who achieved wider notability down the years include
Sailortown in popular culture
Sailortown native John Campbell has published poems about Sailortown, and two of his books, Corner Kingdom and The Disinherited, are set in Sailortown's Docks. The latter book is based on the corrupt system which existed in the Docks beginning at the outbreak of the Second World War when men known as "Blue Button Men" were given preference in hiring over the Red Button Men who could only obtain work if they had fathers or brothers who were themselves employed as dockers. Novelist Eoin McNamee wrote about Sailortown in his novel Resurrection Man.
Playwright Martin Lynch's 1981 play Dockers vividly recreates Sailortown life in the early 1960s, its central theme being the fierce competition for jobs amongst the dockers and the power of the union which was the final arbitrator in who was hired or not.
Irish artist Terry Bradley was inspired by Sailortown to feature its dockers in a series of paintings.[21]
Northern Irish singer/songwriter Anthony Toner's song "Sailortown" was written following a performance at the Rotterdam Bar. It is featured on his album A Sky For Every Day.[22]
References
- ISBN 978-1-5092-1606-2. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-7453-0326-0. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-351-68179-7. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-8386-3386-1. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
From the early 1970s, there had been a major program of urban redevelopment in Belfast that caused large areas of urban blight. One such area was Sailortown, at the end of the M2, the motorway that linked Belfast to its airport and the main shipping port at Larne. At a time when exresidents of Sailortown were demanding new houses to replace their demolished ones, the Northern Ireland Office was engaged in a major landscaping scheme at the end of the motorway, using land that ...
- ^ Thayer, Jonathan. "Mapping New York City's Sailortown – New Media Lab". New Media Lab [1] Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ Stan Hugill, Sailortown. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1967
- ^ a b c d e f g "Sailortown Galleries – A selection of photo galleries reflecting life in Sailortown in bygone days". sailortown.org. 29 April 2010. Archived from the original on 29 April 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ "Legacies – Immigration and Emigration – Northern Ireland – Italians – Radio, Pokes and Marble – Article Page 2". BBC. 29 September 2003. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ "Last service in Sailortown church". BBC News. 11 February 2001. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ a b Mulgrew, Brendan (23 March 2021). "There is life in Sailortown and St Joseph's Church is at the heart of it". www.irishnews.com/. Retrieved 1 October 2021.
- ^ a b "Rediscovering Belfast's forgotten maritime past – Stakeholder". stakeholdermedia.com. 2 May 2014. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-553-01208-8. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ "The Giant's Tale: the history and heritage of North Belfast
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4090-6522-7. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ "Belfast's Rotterdam bar saved by recession". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 16 July 2008. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-413-77223-7. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
Two minutes later, a bomb planted by armed men devastated the premises of John Irwin, seed merchant, at Garmoyle Street in the docks area. Five minutes after that, a bridge spanning the M2 motorway at the Bellevue Arms, Antrim Road was undamaged when explosives in a car caught fire but failed to detonate. At 3.05 Creighton's Garage on Lisburn Road was demolished by a car bomb, setting petrol pumps ablaze, and simultaneously an electricity substation at the junction of ...
- ISBN 978-0-553-01208-8. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-9514229-4-6. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-385-40125-8. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ Magazine, Joe Graham Rushlight (3 March 2016). "tales of old Belfast Characters, Buck Alec Robinson, Fred Crawford UVF Gunrunner, Jimmy Duffin, Pig Minelly.Mickey Marley, Michael McLaverty". tales of old Belfast Characters, Buck Alec Robinson, Fred Crawford UVF Gunrunner, Jimmy Duffin, Pig Minelly.Mickey Marley, Michael McLaverty. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ Coleman, Maureen (18 September 2009). "Slums, brothels and seedy dives....journey into the dark side of Belfast". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
- ^ Bell, Jackie (20 April 2017). "Belfast-based singer Anthony Toner set for his biggest gig to date". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 3 February 2018.