What a day. I’m not a football fanatic but I settled down yesterday afternoon and was gripped by the `Liverpool Chelsea match – neck and neck until the very end of a tense penalty shootout. And then came Eurovision hot on the heels of the presentation of the cup, just time for a quick tea and then we were off again on a roller coaster of a ride.
Who could deny Ukraine the win, not entirely on the merit of their entry but a groundswell of support for their country and their brave resistance to Putin’s army. UK entry was full of bounce and vigour and a personable young man who will make an impression where ever he goes. Happy in his own skin it would seem. His smile alone was a joy to see.
NO LAUGHING MATTER
It’s hard to credit what’s going on ‘up the hill’. What a poor example to our children, grown up adult ‘leaders’ behaving like spoilt brats. Stamping feet in petulance, little tight mouths, the same mantra over and over again. Why can’t all the other parties at Stormont take over, appoint a speaker, get to work and sort the protocol from inside the chamber instead of this stalemating and depriving the public of our rights to support in a time of tremendous turmoil. The election leaflets were full of how to improve life in Northern Ireland, education, health, civil unrest, green energy, can this now be achieved? Even the York Street Interchange got a mention. This road scheme is to improve the flow of traffic at the junction of two motorways and the Westlink but don’t hold your breath, the railway line is a problem as is finance as is agreement amongst ‘stakeholders’. It will be interesting to read the publicity in six months time and see if promises, vague or real, have been kept.
The proposed new road system is probably the most important development in this part of town since York Gate in the 90s a big new retail development costing £7million, offering more than 250 jobs and some 53.000 product lines and most interesting of all was the location, the Gallahers factory on Belfast’s York Street. The history surrounding the famous cigarette factory and the area around the docks was like something in a film, especially the days of the Hungry Thirties when tobacco sales soared as smoking suppressed the appetite and the factory prospered, exporting 4000 tonnes of ‘the weed’ in 1930 raising to 10.000 tonnes inside six years. Established in 1891 the 45 cigarette making machines were transferred from Derry to York Street to become the largest independent tobacco factory in the world employing at its peak 3200 people.
John Gallaher Michaels, nephew of the founder, spoke of the leaf conditioning room, the raw material being stripped as the girls removed every particle of stem. “Next, the stripped leaves are fed into cutting machines whose guillotine knives of razor edge keenness rise and fall at a speed of 500 a minute. Each machine consumes 600 lbs. of tobacco an hour and as the flakes fall they are sucked away into a series of cyclones and whirled and tossed about under strong suction which eliminates the dust and the strands of perfect tobacco fall in golden cascades into skips ready for the most amazing of all the many intriguing machines in the great building – the cigarette maker.”
Full marks for copy writing!
It may have seemed like that to the boss but to May Curry it was backbreaking work. I first noticed her dexterity the day we were preparing cabbage, where I cut out the stalk and chopped the leaf, she stripped the green from the vein in a lightening second. Then she explained that she once sat in Gallahers on a low chair, a bag on either side stripping the leaf into one and the waste into the other. A specific weight had to be reached and if the veins weighed more than the amount laid down for the day, a bonus was paid.
OFF TO THE WELFARE
“The older girls would sit along the floor in the long toilets smoking and I remember the day they made me take one and I fainted! I was taken off to the welfare where I lay till lunchtime. My sister Peggy worked in another department and someone told her the nurse had come up and someone was taken away on the stretcher. ‘I think it was your May’ she said. Peggy didn’t see the funny side and was furious with her 15 year old sister. “Never let me see you with a cigarette in your mouth again.’”
Four of May’s 10 sisters worked in Gallahers. Maudie in the cigarette room, Peggy on the leaf, Sarah making cigarettes and Lily on leaf and tobacco. She remembers there was music all day and the long lines of workers singing along, the older ones talking about the dances in Belfast and what happened when the boys got fresh. It was all a great education for the young girl.
She described how a high truck of leaves would come along and the bags would be filled up. “Look at my fingers,” she holds them up and the top of her index fingers are quite twisted. “All crooked, we cried every night with the pain but it was good money. We wore cream linen caps and creamy overalls. We were allowed 40 cigarettes every Friday and at 10.30 every morning we’d get half a pint of milk and a biscuit which was thick with chocolate.” She relishes the memories. “You could smell us a mile off and there was one story which went round Gallahers about Minnie going over the bridge on a bus packed with the shipyard workers and one of the men offered her his knee but he screwed up his nose at the smell from her clothes and said, ‘I know where you work’ and she replied, ‘and I know where you work – in a bakery because I can feel your dough rising!’” At that May went off into peals of laughter and you can imagine the fun they all had in the factory.
HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THEN
Now known as City Side it’s still a retail and entertainment centre. There are cafes, stores and charity shops. The 14 screen Movie House has a constant stream of patrons and The Twilight Zone caters for those who like to play the slot machines including poker but I was warned that parking is only for 5 hours at a time, however, if you going to stay to play longer, maybe have a meal afterwards the advice is to speak to one of the security guards and they will book you into the 24 hour system.
May Curry died a few years ago, what she would have made of the development of her former workplace I wonder. And what of the pork factory in Toombe Street now the Royal Mail. “When they brought the new bacon slicing machine in from America, the foreman fancied me and he allowed me to be the first one to work it. I was the first in the country to slice bacon on a machine! The wages weren’t much but every Friday we’d get a packet of pork, a fillet the thick of your wrist, sausages, pork pieces and of course, sliced bacon. That was enough to keep the family for quite a while.”
Those were the days!
IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY
Ollie is an imaginary seven year old boy from a single parent family. This doll is the brain child of Alison Knowles, a therapist in England initially working with adults but as parents started bringing children to her she realised her jargon was far from suitable so she created a new language and a special way to use it.
“I’d acknowledge the child but talk to Ollie who actually had the same issues as the little boy or girl.” She’d get the help she was offering the doll all wrong and, just as she thought would happen, the child suddenly got involved and told her what would or wouldn’t work for Ollie. This broke down barriers and the two formed a relationship where they could talk to each other about the most intimate concerns without embarrassment. It could take time but Alison discovered it worked. She would then tackle emotions, Oillie had them all, anger, happiness, sadness, fears, she made them visual, asking the child to draw their anger for instance, and so a discussion would begin using Ollie’s super power of learning to manage.
ALISON’S THEORIES ARE FASCINATING
She was so successful that there came a time when she couldn’t cope with demand so she wrote four books about Ollie for parents and then trained coaches to work all over the UK including here in Northern Ireland.
I talked to Avril Annett from Co. Down who became the first coach in Ireland in May 2019. She worked as a mental health nurse, has four grownup children and when her youngest child was unhappy and anxious she had numerous suspensions from school for so called bad behaviour. “It was years before she received a diagnosis of Asperger’s. She wasn’t a bad child, I believe there is no such thing as a bad child, like all children she just needed to be understood.
“Moya Laird is another Ollie coach also from Co. Down. She has two grown up children and grandchildren and spent 20 years as a special needs classroom assistant and has been a holistic therapist for ten years. “Through Ollie and his Super Powers I now have the tools to empower not only our children and young people but their families too,”
They both work with children whose parents don’t fully understand their child’s challenging behaviour.
One little boy of nine was uncontrollable coming up to his return to school. With patience and understanding Avril built up a rapport with the boy, drew what his worries looked like, made up rhymes to help when these emotions began to take over. It took time but eventually the truth came out, the child was frightened, pressure in the classroom and bullying were hard for him to cope with, however, with her training and experience Avril was able to dilute the strength of the fear and, as his mother was sitting in on the zoom meeting, she too learned how to support him and manage her son’s emotions. Successful result.
Usually it’s face to face meetings but with the Covid situation it has usually been on zoom although children appear to like this and to them a natural way of communicating.
Moya visualises dealing with situations where children are covering up deep and troubling thoughts as a caterpillar gradually emerging as a butterfly in a process that is totally confidential and gentle. It might be using blocks of different colours, one colour for each emotion and so concentrating on each concern and dealing with it before moving on. Where necessary the parents will be advised of other specific professional organisations.
“If the child doesn’t want to talk that’s fine,” Moya tells me. “It might be a ten minute meeting over a few sessions until trust has been built up. Some might be shy and hide behind the peak of a base ball cap or keep looking down at a book on their knee but gradually they begin to take an interest and make eye contact then we form a relationship.”
FEAR TAKES MANY FORMS
It transpired that one ‘naughty’ little girl who was being truculent actually was very frightened that Santa Claus might get Covid and not be able to bring presents to boys and girls at Christmas; a five year old wanted Santa to give his magic to everyone to “fix the virus and make everyone safe.”
One thing is for sure, little minds work in mysterious ways and to have qualified caring coaches to tease out the underlying fear is a welcome service.
Moya has a lovely way of putting it. “It’s like the branches of a tree, every one is important to investigate until you come to the trunk where the issues are becoming obvious and then drilling down into the roots to fully understand.”
Details of Wednesday’s Learn How To Speak Ollie at www.ollieandhissuperpowers.com
Just putting in this little montage of David Attenburgh because he’s my hero and he has just celebrated his 96th birthday. Same age as the Queen and I think there is a great attraction between these two, just look at the delight on his face. I bet they meet for afternoon tea and little walks in the garden – I hope so, how lovely to have an admirer four years short of your hundredth birthday.
Final thought. Will mother Boris get the Stormont family to knuckle down and get to work and perhaps remember they are there to serve us in a responsible way and that means sorting your problems out inside government chambers not on the media. It’s scandalous how long this wrangling has gone on. Wise up.