Jude Whyte recalls his idyllic childhood in Belfast's Holyland before the Troubles impacted deeply on the Lower Ormeau community.


The lower Ormeau Road was a strange place to grow up in. University Street in the 1960s had a weird and bohemian feel about it. 

Next door to us at 139 was a Lutheran church, I got my first job there in 1966 aged 9, a cleaner to the pastor Rose Marie Cobalt. Two doors up was a homeopath called Mr Hamilton and beside him was our granny (no relation) who took in boarders from the boy’s home in Kircubbin Co Down.

At the back door was the Pepsi Cola company , a place that all the local kids got van boy work as soon as they could walk - hard to believe I was in Warrenpoint when I was 7 delivering lemonade to cafes and various business outlets.

Going out the front door and turning right we had the North Cricket club, while if one turned right there was the north's only University at the time to be explored and of course a few windies broken  along the way, for Ireland you understand!

The Holyland was then a working-class Protestant area, doorsteps covered in cardinal red polish, neat gardens with flag poles rarely empty, the obligatory bonfire every summer and a good dose of kick the pope bands going up and down the road at will from March until late October.

You see our house was a happy house. Ten kids, buckets of family allowance, Mum and Dad working with talk of getting a motor car soon. England winning the World Cup, Celtic the European one, while Down brought a strange very Protestant named trophy over the border 3 times. My god! as mum used to wonder, what in god’s name is wrong with those turbulent rebels on the Falls Road?


The first time I suspected something was.... erumm not quite right was in 1968 when kicking a ball around Dudley Street at the corner of Fitzroy Avenue. The date lives in my mind as it was the day that some uppity Catholic who clearly didn’t appreciate the wonderful entity of 'Northern Ireland' went into a house somewhere in far off Tyrone or Armagh without permission - such cheek I ask you!!! - his name was Austin Currie.

Any way Mrs Edwards rang the cops and in time they arrived and lined us all up against the wall. This rather corpulent fellow smelling of alcohol began by asking us all our names. Well that was easy; Paul Whyte, Jim Whyte, Ann Whyte, Kevin Whyte. He then came to the 5th and 6 members of this active service unit, looking menacing and in need of another drink I suspect. He said to Jimmy “I suppose you are another Whyte”? Jimmy being a solid law abiding son of Ulster said “No I am Green”. The cop then punched him in the face before kicking him on the ground, his older sister screamed in terror while we all ran as fast as we could up the entry in Dudley Street to tell mum and dad.

Seeing a grown man kick a child is something that lives with me forever. Jimmy Green was a friend of our family, a child of a mixed relationship and an adopted son of my parents. He was telling the truth while shaking in fear, his name was Jimmy Green.

Mum said we must have been cheeky while Dad went to the Police Station at Donegall Pass to lodge a complaint.

Never really forgot that day in the Lower Ormeau Road. My beautiful world of Cricket, the Ormeau Park, Hothouse, Botanic Gardens, Queens and Belfast’s first Chinese restaurant in University Road all felt somehow uncomfortable.

55 people were murdered in the Lower Ormeau Road during what was known as the troubles including 5 in the Sean Grahams bookies and 6 in the bombing of the Rose and Crown bar. In area of less than two thousand people it remains the most abused yet proudest of communities. I lived there until death came to my door with the murder of my mother, the same card-carrying member of the Alliance party who could never understand what was wrong with those people on the Falls Road.

Patricia, mother of Jude

Alongside her died Constable Michael Dawson, a member of the RUC who came to her aid in April12th. No one has ever been charged with her death or that of the slaughter in Sean Grahams bookies.

Except of course Mark Sykes charged 30 years later for remembering his dead friends who was shot 5 times in the same bookies Massacre.

Jude Whyte campaigns in pursuit of justice for those
who died violently during the Northern conflict. 

Lower Ormeau Remains An Abused Yet Proud Community

Jude Whyte recalls his idyllic childhood in Belfast's Holyland before the Troubles impacted deeply on the Lower Ormeau community.


The lower Ormeau Road was a strange place to grow up in. University Street in the 1960s had a weird and bohemian feel about it. 

Next door to us at 139 was a Lutheran church, I got my first job there in 1966 aged 9, a cleaner to the pastor Rose Marie Cobalt. Two doors up was a homeopath called Mr Hamilton and beside him was our granny (no relation) who took in boarders from the boy’s home in Kircubbin Co Down.

At the back door was the Pepsi Cola company , a place that all the local kids got van boy work as soon as they could walk - hard to believe I was in Warrenpoint when I was 7 delivering lemonade to cafes and various business outlets.

Going out the front door and turning right we had the North Cricket club, while if one turned right there was the north's only University at the time to be explored and of course a few windies broken  along the way, for Ireland you understand!

The Holyland was then a working-class Protestant area, doorsteps covered in cardinal red polish, neat gardens with flag poles rarely empty, the obligatory bonfire every summer and a good dose of kick the pope bands going up and down the road at will from March until late October.

You see our house was a happy house. Ten kids, buckets of family allowance, Mum and Dad working with talk of getting a motor car soon. England winning the World Cup, Celtic the European one, while Down brought a strange very Protestant named trophy over the border 3 times. My god! as mum used to wonder, what in god’s name is wrong with those turbulent rebels on the Falls Road?


The first time I suspected something was.... erumm not quite right was in 1968 when kicking a ball around Dudley Street at the corner of Fitzroy Avenue. The date lives in my mind as it was the day that some uppity Catholic who clearly didn’t appreciate the wonderful entity of 'Northern Ireland' went into a house somewhere in far off Tyrone or Armagh without permission - such cheek I ask you!!! - his name was Austin Currie.

Any way Mrs Edwards rang the cops and in time they arrived and lined us all up against the wall. This rather corpulent fellow smelling of alcohol began by asking us all our names. Well that was easy; Paul Whyte, Jim Whyte, Ann Whyte, Kevin Whyte. He then came to the 5th and 6 members of this active service unit, looking menacing and in need of another drink I suspect. He said to Jimmy “I suppose you are another Whyte”? Jimmy being a solid law abiding son of Ulster said “No I am Green”. The cop then punched him in the face before kicking him on the ground, his older sister screamed in terror while we all ran as fast as we could up the entry in Dudley Street to tell mum and dad.

Seeing a grown man kick a child is something that lives with me forever. Jimmy Green was a friend of our family, a child of a mixed relationship and an adopted son of my parents. He was telling the truth while shaking in fear, his name was Jimmy Green.

Mum said we must have been cheeky while Dad went to the Police Station at Donegall Pass to lodge a complaint.

Never really forgot that day in the Lower Ormeau Road. My beautiful world of Cricket, the Ormeau Park, Hothouse, Botanic Gardens, Queens and Belfast’s first Chinese restaurant in University Road all felt somehow uncomfortable.

55 people were murdered in the Lower Ormeau Road during what was known as the troubles including 5 in the Sean Grahams bookies and 6 in the bombing of the Rose and Crown bar. In area of less than two thousand people it remains the most abused yet proudest of communities. I lived there until death came to my door with the murder of my mother, the same card-carrying member of the Alliance party who could never understand what was wrong with those people on the Falls Road.

Patricia, mother of Jude

Alongside her died Constable Michael Dawson, a member of the RUC who came to her aid in April12th. No one has ever been charged with her death or that of the slaughter in Sean Grahams bookies.

Except of course Mark Sykes charged 30 years later for remembering his dead friends who was shot 5 times in the same bookies Massacre.

Jude Whyte campaigns in pursuit of justice for those
who died violently during the Northern conflict. 

6 comments:

  1. A strong piece that evokes many memories, given some of the same experiences. Police violence against children seemed to be something few in authority frowned at. My friend Davy Young, a Protestant kid, was punched and beaten outside Ballynafeigh RUC station one evening for merely saying evening all to the cops outside it. I recall having to go to Queen Street RUC station the following Sunday to give a statement about it. Nothing more was heard of it. We often got chased by the cops from Mintex across the road from Jude's, where we played our soccer. The Pepsi factory was in Fitzroy Avenue and the workers used to give us free bottles if were were fortunate enough.

    Great piece Jude.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gary R comments

    Of all the things I read that's probably one of the most moving

    ReplyDelete
  3. Vary moving piece, Jude. Good to hear from you again after so many years.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very moving. The lower Ormeau and Botanic gardens are beautiful areas of Belfast, great for walking and thinking. But my god what has happened to the Holylands. It's disgraceful what that once great area has become, I feel terrible for the long time residents and what they have to endure.

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    Replies
    1. Ryan,

      Not wrong. The residents are tortured by the students liquored up nonstop.

      Delete
  5. Poignant piece, your poor mum, and so much of the Troubles poured into that memorable anecdote about wee Jimmy Green

    ReplyDelete