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Up the Murph
My mother was allocated a house in Ballymurphy in the mid 50’s. It was 11 Divismore Park, at the corner of Glenalina road. At around the same time, Maureen McKee was allocated a house in the same street, 20 Divismore Park. It was just across the street from us. Maureen and Josie ‘Boxer’ McKee had fourteen children. Rosie, Josie, Seamus, Packie, Ned, Martin, Cookie, Anthony, Chick, Delores, Bernie, Maureen, Maggie and Tessie. Big families were the norm in those days, there were 13 of us also. And they like us, came from the Falls. Maureen was from Ton Street, ‘Boxer’ was a boxing coach with the Immaculata Club. He was from Baker Street.
Times were hard, Gerard ‘Chick’ McKee remembers six of them lying in their bed with Ned’s feet in his face and coats over them to keep warm. Like my brothers, the McKee boys went to St Aidan’s and later St Thomas’s on the Whiterock Road. Our national poet Seamus Heaney was a teacher in St Thomas’s. So was Michael McLaverty. His wonderful book, ‘Call My Brother Back’ is about the places we grew up in.
All of us spent a lot of time playing in the street, the Grogan’s, the McKee’s, the McGee’s, Wilson’s, McDonald’s, Ireland’s, McManus’s, the Ryan family, the Campbell’s, the Ward’s, the Curran’s, the Nelson’s, Bannon’s, Donnelly’s, Quinn’s, McLaughlin’s, Gillen’s, O’Hara’s, and McNally’s. I am sure I am leaving many out – Mea Culpa. Ballymurphy people are quite clannish. We are proud of where we are from and given half a chance we are happy to regale any listener with stories of growing up in the shadow of the mountain, a wonderful place to have adventures, real and imagined.
The pogroms of 1969 changed everything. The British army moved into the Henry Taggart Memorial Hall, a few hundred yards from us on the Springfield Road. The British army base remained there until 1999, when it was demolished. It was the epicentre of the military occupation which was reinforced by another fort in MacCrory Park on the Whiterock Road, home of O’Donnells GAC and later by another huge base on the slopes on the mountain.
Local people resisted the occupation in Ballymurphy. There were committees in every street. Women’s Hen Patrols made up mostly of mothers and grandmothers, as well as youth committees. Most everyone in Divismore Park was involved in some way or another. It was mainly passive, communal resistance. The Falls Curfew of 1970, and then Internment in August 1971 saw the situation deteriorate further. I watched from the nearby SpringHill estate, as the British army raided my home on Internment morning and family members were dragged out and taken away.
It was a surreal scene, as hundreds of British soldiers and armoured vehicles smashed into homes and dragged men and boys out. It was also the beginning of what was the Ballymurphy Massacre, as ten neighbours were shot and killed by the paras. They included Father Hugh Mullen, and Joan Connolly, a mother of eight, who was shot as she went to the aid of a fatally injured 19-year-old Noel Philips. An 11th victim Pat McCarthy died of a heart attack after he was assaulted by the paras.
Number 11 Divismore Park was wrecked by the Brits, ceilings were pulled down, windows smashed, doors wrecked and clothes and bedding covered in urine and excrement. My mother had to flee with the rest of the children. The house was uninhabitable. She never returned.
The McKee family suffered too in the conflict. Packie who had been interned on the Maidstone Prison Ship was there when the Magnificent Seven swam to freedom, led by Murph men Jim Bryson and Tommy Tolan. Tommy was wearing Packie’s black shorts when he escaped. He promised to return them. He never did.
Packie and his friend Jimmy Gillen went for a pint on Saturday September 30th 1972. They met at Kelly’s bar which used to be at the top of the Whiterock Road. But the last time Jimmy was there a Loyalist gun gang opened fire and Jimmy was shot in the leg. So they decided to go to Conlon’s Bar downtown instead. They were there when the UVF exploded a bomb which demolished the building. Packie was killed. Jimmy Gillen died 18 days later from his injuries. Jimmy lived in number 14 Divismore Park. His brother in law Tommy McElroy was shot dead in February 1972 by a British soldier, outside 1 Divismore Park where Tommy lived. The Brits said he was carrying a bomb. He wasn’t.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News four years ago, on the 50th anniversary of the attack on Conlon’s Bar, Packie’s brother Seamus told how his father died 18 months later of a broken heart. He recalled “When Patrick died the Paras never left the wake. They lay in the front garden at night and give abuse to anyone arriving at the house.” A second tragedy hit the family when another brother Josie, who was a professional boxer was shot dead in June 1979 by a UDA death squad in Castle Street. He was shot 4 times by a pillion passenger on a motorbike. Chick who was nearby in a local barbers heard the shooting and ran to the scene.
Another brother Hugh ‘Cookie’ who had been imprisoned in the H-Blocks, died from drowning in November 2006.
Like so many other housing developments, Ballymurphy lacked proper planning and basic amenities, including a lack of shops. Chick took up that challenge and in 1981 he bought a van and outfitted it as a van shop. It sat outside his mothers. Later he bought a bigger van and moved it to where our house had been at number 11. He eventually bought the land, and on the 6th of May 1999 he opened ‘McKee’s Convenience Store’. I was the MP for West Belfast at that time, and Chick asked me to do the formal opening in August that year. Above the front door there are two plaques, one marks the opening of the store and the second is dedicated to this brother Packie and his friend Jimmy Gillen.
This week after almost 50 years of serving the people of Ballymurphy, Chick is taking a step back. He was always a good friend to his neighbours. At a time of family bereavements or other crises, Chick was always quietly helpful. He was also a big supporter of good causes. The shop has been sold and a new owner will be running it. I wish everyone involved the very best of luck. For Chick it is an opportunity to take life a bit easier, I wish him and Bronagh, Gerard and Christine, Niall and Jack and Croiadh all the best for the future.
Mrs McKee died in September 1989, of her 14 children only 6 survive – Seamus, Ned, Anthony, Bernie, Maureen and Chick. The McKee’s are a great family. I am proud to know them and to have them as neighbours. Thank you to them and all the people of Divismore Park.
Postscript
As we go to print Micheál Martin at long last has said that he and his party would be bringing forward some proposals and ideas on the issue of Irish Unity. I welcome that. And I look forward to seeing what he produces.
An Taoiseach said: “There needs to be strong objective information that lays it on the table about what needs to be done …” I could take issue with the rest of his remarks but I won’t. Readers will know that this is not the first time Micheál Martin has made such a commitment. But it’s good that Fine Gael and now Fianna Fáil are going to set out their positions.
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