1970s Belfast | Northern Ireland | Poverty in Belfast | Falls Road | Shankhill | This Week | 1970

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 29 тра 2022
  • Northern Ireland, has the highest unemployment in the UK. For those lucky enough to have jobs, wages are 25% less than those in the rest of the UK - but the cost of living is high. Housing conditions are rivalled only in the Gorbals in Scotland.
    This Week reports on what it is like to be poor, unemployed, and appallingly housed in Ulster, in fact how the inhabitants of the Shankill and Falls area in Belfast Live.
    First shown: 02/04/1970
    If you would like to license a clip from this video please e mail: archive@fremantle.com
    Quote: VT101038

КОМЕНТАРІ • 178

  • @tessaadie659
    @tessaadie659 2 роки тому +19

    I would say that Belfast was far poorer than anywhere in UK. My dad was born into a Birmingham slum area in 1920 but what he described was more palatial than this. He was lucky as my grandparents went on to have 12 children and they got a brand new council house in another area. Only 3 bedrooms so they were squeezed in but dad said they thought it was amazing as they had a garden to grow vegetables. I admire the people who were living in these conditions, unsung heroes who made the best of the little they had and that went across the religious divide.

  • @franceskronenwett3539
    @franceskronenwett3539 Рік тому +11

    It is so sad to see the grinding poverty in which many people in Belfast were forced to live and maybe still do. The case of Mr and Mrs Henry was particularly tragic. That man had probably worked all of his adult life, maybe even served in WWII and raised a family. People like him deserve better than this.

  • @paulwhite2533
    @paulwhite2533 2 роки тому +33

    poor buggers...what a life

  • @Hope-un5wv
    @Hope-un5wv 2 роки тому +19

    I lived in that area as a young child and this is how we lived and starved. I would return to England and my English grandmother would be horrified at the sight of me because I was so emaciated and then her goal was to fatten me up again before I went back.

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Рік тому +4

      So did I, and I still live here...... your comment is nonsense.

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 3 місяці тому

      @ManannanmacLir69
      Absolute drivel !

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 3 місяці тому

      @ManannanmacLir69
      Me too since 1967. ..nobody had 2d to rub together, they could barely get by themselves in sub standard terrace housing, nevermind being able to help others, but they helped where they could and made an extra dinner for some elderly or non abled neighbour thet knew needed help.
      Just like every other inner city in the UK or Ireland during those times.
      But we/I were always happy as children but a lot harder for parents in those areas, however......there was always a good strong community...., which was destroyed and ripped out of Belfast and virtually every other UK and Irish city, when new social housing was built.
      They built less houses in the inner city community areas and more "social housing estates", on the outskirts, forcing families to be split up and communities ripped apart through lack of housing in their original community areas and seek housing elsewhere (usually a housing estate).
      That's fact pal.

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 3 місяці тому

      @ManannanmacLir69
      So did I since 1967....nobody had 2d to rub together and could barely get by themselves, but they had a good sense of community and helped out where they could, in sub standard housing, just like any other inner city within the UK and Ireland during those times. And I was perfectly happy as a child.
      Your comment about abuse is ridiculous, no different to any other city and something never heard of.

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 3 місяці тому

      @ManannanmacLir69
      Clearly you know nothing.

  • @msives
    @msives 2 роки тому +27

    This is heartbreaking

  • @harrisonmckenzie4905
    @harrisonmckenzie4905 2 роки тому +20

    There was a massive slum clear-out in Belfast in the 70s to make way for a motorway, most of the these house where demolished and new houses were built in the out skirts of the city, which most of the families were moved it.

    • @margueriteoreilly2168
      @margueriteoreilly2168 2 роки тому +1

      It seems this is always happening in Belfast
      Don't even know Belfast in this and I was born in the 70s

    • @harrisonmckenzie4905
      @harrisonmckenzie4905 2 роки тому +2

      @@margueriteoreilly2168 They built over, Sailortown and Greencastle village aswell when building the M2.

    • @margueriteoreilly2168
      @margueriteoreilly2168 2 роки тому +1

      @@harrisonmckenzie4905
      My Great grandparents came from
      Sailors Town
      It's very sad,
      How so many people drop below tge property tramp
      So many left with nothing
      Even I this day nd age

    • @nathanjohnston1176
      @nathanjohnston1176 3 місяці тому

      Tearing down a slum in a city considered an active war zone during an insurgency is a fucking stupid idea...🇮🇪🚗💣💥

  • @theSam91
    @theSam91 2 роки тому +52

    Utterly sobering, some of the entitled people today should watch this.

  • @tomratican6345
    @tomratican6345 Рік тому +7

    i lived in Belfast during the 60s and 70s and it was hard. Live in England now. But i remember how hard it was back then. God love that wee man and his wife x

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Рік тому

      You're safer in Northern Ireland, than you are in England.

    • @j2msu341
      @j2msu341 Рік тому +2

      @@Drifty40 according to you 🤣

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Рік тому

      @@j2msu341
      No......according to statistics....there is a hell of a lot more murder and knife crime in England than Northern Ireland.
      Use your search and confirm for yourself. 🙄
      Just to start you off...there were 11 murders in NI in 2022....compare that to England Scotland and Wales. 🤡
      What was it you said on the other thread you were trolling with your 5 month old trolling account.........oh yes......not very bright, are you. 👶
      Away and boil your head kid !
      You've no idea what the hell your talking about on either thread.
      Stick with school ! You need the education.
      Or give that phone back to your mum,.......you're clearly too young to be using it without adult supervision. 👶

    • @tomratican6345
      @tomratican6345 Рік тому

      @@j2msu341 according to me is right

  • @melissabyrne8749
    @melissabyrne8749 2 роки тому +10

    How lucky are we now? So sad

  • @mrchickenfeathers9184
    @mrchickenfeathers9184 2 роки тому +3

    My mum and dad used to live in an old two up two down house in 1989, still had an outside toilet. They got a brand new build in 1990 when I was born.

  • @user-vy3vb8gf7e
    @user-vy3vb8gf7e 6 місяців тому +2

    What a lovely man Mr Henry was

  • @margueriteoreilly2168
    @margueriteoreilly2168 2 роки тому +8

    Heartbreaking

  • @herbertjohnston4608
    @herbertjohnston4608 2 роки тому +5

    I was brought up in donegall pass and remember daddy finding pawn tickets in his suit that's where mummy hide them hard times but thing we all had nothing. 😔

  • @gerry5134
    @gerry5134 2 роки тому +2

    That was a good video . Recognized some of the areas . Do you have anymore of it ?🙂

  • @RandomnessTube.
    @RandomnessTube. 2 роки тому +5

    Horrible times poverty has no religion some of the nicest people came from this era.

  • @gremlinuk1968
    @gremlinuk1968 Рік тому +2

    Was born in 23rd May 1968 , in a village called bushmills, I remember as a kid in the 70s going to bed in the winter, no heating, & my late gran putting coats on the bed to keep me warm,!

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Рік тому +2

      The same as any other working class area in the UK or Ireland during that era.
      A coal fire to heat the whole house.

    • @vanseventy
      @vanseventy Рік тому +3

      Have the same birthday 1970. Growing up here in the US in the north in farm community, we grew up happy and didn’t have much. I remember lighting many a fire in the coal burners and wood stoves. Moved way south back in the late 80’s. Never lived up north again due to that cold weather and always overcast. Kids nowadays have too much and get confused by so many material things and exposed to to much info at a young age. Seems like there is no childhood much anymore like these days. Can’t let an eye off your kids!

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Рік тому

      @@Drifty40 British rule is more poverty Ulster Scots Presbyterians sure do love poverty under British Protestant domination rule sad Irish Republicans offered them non sectarian secular Republic they spat in their faces since days United Irishmen only few Ulster Presbyterians sided with Irish Republicanism rest all delusional under seige Ulster Unionists.

  • @scottblack9213
    @scottblack9213 Рік тому +4

    "I wouldn't mind dying, get a bit of peace and quiet" ... Jesus. It's was extremely grim in certain parts of Ireland and the U.K. Scandinavia had good standards of living, at least in Spain and Italy they had the heat during summer. These Isles were the worst in Western Europe - the damp, the poverty, the slums. I can't abide the way young people behave these days, so entitled, on the whole (not always), they truly never experienced the set of circumstances these people had.

  • @Alfredromeothatsme
    @Alfredromeothatsme 2 роки тому +30

    Shame on the leaders of these countries that allowed this to happen. The sad part is it still goes on today!

    • @catherinemccullough299
      @catherinemccullough299 2 роки тому

      Another example of ‘white privlidge’!

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld 2 роки тому +2

      @@catherinemccullough299 it was orange privilege not white privilege... Everyone there was Caucasian

    • @catherinemccullough299
      @catherinemccullough299 2 роки тому +3

      @@Sean-sn9ld I don't understand what you mean, I meant that certain people, in the world, are forever going on about how badly they were/are treated, they think that every white person was somehow privileged. This was an example of how many people were living in abject poverty, whilst white Caucasian. Orange was neither mentioned nor implied. The article showed both the Shankill and Falls residents to be equally deprived.

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld 2 роки тому +2

      @@catherinemccullough299 "White privilege" is not something that occured in Ireland though, although "orange privilege" was a serious issue in the north of Ireland

    • @FannyShmellar
      @FannyShmellar 2 роки тому

      Seán How was it Orange privilege? That old man and his wife living in a cold damp cave were obviously Protestant. Guess the Orange privileges must have missed their house!

  • @Drifty40
    @Drifty40 2 роки тому +20

    This could be any city in the UK or Ireland during the 60's and 70's. Social housing and amenities at that time, were not fit for purpose.

    • @j2msu341
      @j2msu341 Рік тому

      Apart from 30years of civil war

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Рік тому

      @@j2msu341
      Where did you see that in this vid ?

    • @j2msu341
      @j2msu341 Рік тому

      @@Drifty40 see what ?

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Рік тому

      @@j2msu341
      Cival war.......the OP said... ..this could be any city in the UK or Ireland at that time......yet you chimed in about civil war. 🙄

    • @j2msu341
      @j2msu341 Рік тому

      @@Drifty40 I didn't

  • @patcom1013
    @patcom1013 2 місяці тому

    I was born '72 into these conditions and to be honest, had no idea I was living in poverty. It was all 'normal' to me. Only later did I realise.

  • @ogrebattle22763
    @ogrebattle22763 2 роки тому +2

    This is very sad.... these poor people... families with kids....

  • @DaraM73
    @DaraM73 2 роки тому +17

    Kept in poverty by the state.

  • @karenbrowne5800
    @karenbrowne5800 Рік тому

    My grannie had to go to the pawn every Monday and pawn my dads suit and sometime the clock just to feed the family , 11 of them in Small house in sailor town . It was collected on Friday and this was a continual on going thing , just to feed the family . Such hard times as someone else commented poverty has no religion .

  • @Sean-sn9ld
    @Sean-sn9ld 2 роки тому +16

    Makes it a little easier to understand the factors that drove people to conflict

    • @monkeybone39
      @monkeybone39 2 роки тому +3

      what? occupation and inequality drove the 'conflict'. Dont kid yourself, 'great' britain experienced similar poverty; be it Wales Scotland or England

    • @mrchickenfeathers9184
      @mrchickenfeathers9184 2 роки тому +1

      @@monkeybone39 what occupation and inequality was that

    • @billbo2117
      @billbo2117 5 місяців тому

      This kind of poverty in Belfast didn't discriminate, it was on both sides of the divide !

  • @7kingkev
    @7kingkev 9 місяців тому +1

    Appalling how people were forced to live , good people , but the sad thing is , it’s still going on in 2023 .

  • @j2msu341
    @j2msu341 Рік тому +2

    Down the bookies, cigarettes and vodka but no money for food or credit for the meter

  • @tomratican6345
    @tomratican6345 Рік тому +1

    The Falls and Shankill people all struggled .....unfortunately others made it worse

  • @syedadeelhussain2691
    @syedadeelhussain2691 2 роки тому +7

    Poverty even exists in the first world.
    Unfortunately, Economists focus more on solving the development problems of the Third World, but, they have happily ignored the advanced capitalist economies, and industrial democracies/societies.
    To reduce poverty, we must create more wealth, and redistribute less.
    With too much emphasis on redistributing wealth, the postwar consensus had not helped the UK!

  • @Hazztech
    @Hazztech 2 роки тому

    I truly feel like Richard hammond

  • @mateot7170
    @mateot7170 2 роки тому +10

    So sad to see this and from the 70’s and not the 1870’s! Disgraceful

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 2 роки тому +4

      Northern Ireland part the UK not as Rosey Ulster Loyalists make out.

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Рік тому

      @@RobertK1993
      What a load of old sectarian bollox !
      Have a look at some vids from Dublin, Limerick, Cork from the same period...or any other inner city around the UK and Ireland at that time....you'll find similar or worse.
      🤡

  • @SAKERKW
    @SAKERKW 2 роки тому

    6.55

  • @rizzledizzle9801
    @rizzledizzle9801 Рік тому

    Im from this area, what a miserable existance that seems, thank god things have changed.

  • @robbiethepict2783
    @robbiethepict2783 2 роки тому +7

    Grim.

  • @paulrickards4921
    @paulrickards4921 Рік тому +1

    It's coming bk with the cost of living crisis

  • @seamusdebuitleir20
    @seamusdebuitleir20 2 роки тому +4

    Sectarian kills the common man.....

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Рік тому

      Ulster Scots are obessed with Irish Roman Catholics Ulster Presbyterians especially

  • @KyleNornIreland
    @KyleNornIreland 2 роки тому +1

    What an utter f*cking Disgrace that people Lived in such Horrible Conditions poor souls SMFH

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Рік тому

      British imperialism for you Ulster Protestants Unionists live so much this what loyalty to British Crown gets you no wonder Irish Roman Catholics became Irish Republican/Nationalist

    • @KyleNornIreland
      @KyleNornIreland Рік тому

      @Robert Kelly I'm not political I dispise the all Governments they r evil Criminals

    • @billbo2117
      @billbo2117 5 місяців тому

      ​@@RobertK1993 it was all over the UK ,Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, London Cardiff and many other City's had slums like these ,with totally unfit living conditions!
      I'm sure the utopian Irish Republic had a few more !

  • @Brekner
    @Brekner Рік тому +1

    "Mother of 10 children"...as always, the poor playing the lottery with their children, hoping that one of them will make it big and take care of the rest...these "parents" are literally destroying millions of lives each year...shame on them...

    • @johndoe-jr7gc
      @johndoe-jr7gc Рік тому +1

      actually you do realise this was common place in ireland!! the church would push for people to have kids.

    • @Brekner
      @Brekner Рік тому

      @@johndoe-jr7gc And your point is? They're still horrible parents...

  • @dirkdaring3073
    @dirkdaring3073 Рік тому

    History is now repeating itself, I wonder how much he'd get for a Bluetooth speaker?

  • @dirkdaring3073
    @dirkdaring3073 2 роки тому +7

    that guy with the radio was only 25 in that clip-thats what a hard life does to you

    • @machida58
      @machida58 2 роки тому

      LMFAO

    • @franceskronenwett3539
      @franceskronenwett3539 Рік тому

      I have just written a comment on this documentary and wrote about Mr. Henry, the man with the radio in the belief that he was an old man.

  • @elisamcgowan4774
    @elisamcgowan4774 Рік тому

    10 children, and living in poverty!, AND self entitled too!.

  • @francismadden8561
    @francismadden8561 2 роки тому

    Fish an chips on a Friday night.

  • @michaelsalt4565
    @michaelsalt4565 2 роки тому +4

    My experience of NI in the 70s was that these conditions were self inflicted.

    • @michaelsalt4565
      @michaelsalt4565 2 роки тому +2

      @Bees1970 the choices that many made in these areas.

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld 2 роки тому +3

      @@michaelsalt4565 if there wasn't so much poverty , there wouldn't of been so many people volunteering ... It was impoverished before 69/71

    • @michaelsalt4565
      @michaelsalt4565 2 роки тому +1

      @@Sean-sn9ld the poverty that existed in these communities was a product of the choices that those communities made.

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld 2 роки тому +2

      @@michaelsalt4565 are you saying it was the Ulster Catholic community's own fault it was poor?

    • @_monti142
      @_monti142 2 роки тому +2

      @@michaelsalt4565 what where their choices? im asking because i dont know

  • @MisterPolitical1
    @MisterPolitical1 2 роки тому

    I'll 🤤 on the 🇬🇧 because the 🇮🇪 loves me more.

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Рік тому

      This is a flag of loser imperialists where much worse than Nazis 🇬🇧

  • @Mr---mr4ll
    @Mr---mr4ll 2 роки тому +1

    Up the …….😏🥰

  • @vanseventy
    @vanseventy Рік тому

    Socialism is great , isn’t it!

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Рік тому

      This Ulster Unionist domination they sided with the rich Sir James Craig despised the poor Presbyterians and other Protestants that voted for him used his own sectarian bigotry divide Ulster Protestants and Irish Roman Catholics only non sectarian Ulster Unionists where Sir Edward Carson he felt uncomfortable about Home rule being Rome rule banner being Anglican he knew that was blatantly sectarian. A d Terence O'Neil was only good Northern Ireland Prime Minister and he would though Revered Ian Paisley tí be hypocrite to go into power with Sinn Féin in 2007

  • @regplasma7906
    @regplasma7906 2 роки тому +3

    With the shite they play on the Radio now ,I wouldn't go back to the Pawn Shop after 3 days.Instead of a radio ,a few packs of Durex would have saved him not having a starving football team to feed.

    • @j2msu341
      @j2msu341 Рік тому

      Or buying cigarettes instead of food !

  • @tonyhancock3912
    @tonyhancock3912 2 роки тому +3

    Simpler happier times no mobile phones

  • @TheVintageApplianceEmporium
    @TheVintageApplianceEmporium 2 роки тому +14

    Young Couple: We've not got enough money to survive on
    Also Young Couple: Let's have TEN CHILDREN!
    You couldn't make it up.
    If ya can't feed 'em, don't breed 'em. It literally is that simple

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld 2 роки тому +18

      "Tell me you don't understand socio-economics without telling me you don't understand socio-economics"

    • @Jim-ok9zi
      @Jim-ok9zi 2 роки тому +5

      I was thinking the same thing.

    • @paddypenman2682
      @paddypenman2682 2 роки тому +3

      ain't hindsight a great thing

    • @wmtrader
      @wmtrader 2 роки тому

      This is 1970. Birth control pills weren't available until the late 1960s.

    • @machida58
      @machida58 2 роки тому +1

      Why would anyone WANT to have children???

  • @lowrydan111
    @lowrydan111 2 роки тому +6

    The horrible result of socialism

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld 2 роки тому +13

      ?? Which socialism now??

    • @solid7468
      @solid7468 2 роки тому +3

      ???

    • @iVenge
      @iVenge 2 роки тому

      Uh… there has never been socialism in Norn Iron, and likely never will be anywhere in Ireland so long as those brains are still imprisoned by the Catholic Church.

    • @fidelcatsro6948
      @fidelcatsro6948 2 роки тому +1

      Viva revolucion!!

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 2 роки тому

      British imperialism actually Shankill road in Belfast is part the UK a corrupt.