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

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  • čas přidán 29. 05. 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

Komentáře • 182

  • @tessaadie659
    @tessaadie659 Před 2 lety +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 Před rokem +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 Před 2 lety +33

    poor buggers...what a life

  • @harrisonmckenzie4905
    @harrisonmckenzie4905 Před 2 lety +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 Před 2 lety +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 Před 2 lety +2

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

    • @margueriteoreilly2168
      @margueriteoreilly2168 Před 2 lety +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 Před 3 měsíci

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

  • @msives
    @msives Před 2 lety +27

    This is heartbreaking

  • @Hope-un5wv
    @Hope-un5wv Před 2 lety +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 Před rokem +4

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

    • @ManannanmacLir69
      @ManannanmacLir69 Před 2 měsíci

      @@Drifty40 It's actually not nonsense. Whole nationalist and loyalist Communities didn't help each other like they say they did. The Community could have helped that poor woman living in a hovel with those kids but chose not to. Plenty of that going on all over the place. Kids being abused left right and centre and nobody gave a hoot.

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Před 2 měsíci

      @@ManannanmacLir69
      Absolute drivel !

    • @ManannanmacLir69
      @ManannanmacLir69 Před 2 měsíci

      @@Drifty40 Sure it is boss. I lived in Belfast in the 70's right up until the nineties.

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Před 2 měsíci

      @@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.

  • @theSam91
    @theSam91 Před 2 lety +52

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

  • @tomratican6345
    @tomratican6345 Před rokem +6

    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 Před rokem

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

    • @j2msu341
      @j2msu341 Před rokem +2

      @@Drifty40 according to you 🤣

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Před rokem

      @@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 Před rokem

      @@j2msu341 according to me is right

  • @mrchickenfeathers9184
    @mrchickenfeathers9184 Před 2 lety +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 Před 5 měsíci +2

    What a lovely man Mr Henry was

  • @melissabyrne8749
    @melissabyrne8749 Před 2 lety +10

    How lucky are we now? So sad

  • @margueriteoreilly2168
    @margueriteoreilly2168 Před 2 lety +8

    Heartbreaking

  • @herbertjohnston4608
    @herbertjohnston4608 Před 2 lety +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. 😔

  • @ManannanmacLir69
    @ManannanmacLir69 Před 2 měsíci

    My dad came from there. He was called James Fee. Sadly I never met him because he died in 2005. Apparently he used to sing in clubs. What a hell hole if he came from that area :( RIP Dad.

  • @Alfredromeothatsme
    @Alfredromeothatsme Před 2 lety +29

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

    • @catherinemccullough299
      @catherinemccullough299 Před 2 lety

      Another example of ‘white privlidge’!

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld Před 2 lety +2

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

    • @catherinemccullough299
      @catherinemccullough299 Před 2 lety +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 Před 2 lety +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 Před 2 lety

      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!

  • @gremlinuk1968
    @gremlinuk1968 Před rokem +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 Před rokem +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 Před rokem +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 Před rokem

      @@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.

  • @RandomnessTube.
    @RandomnessTube. Před 2 lety +5

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

  • @Drifty40
    @Drifty40 Před 2 lety +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 Před rokem

      Apart from 30years of civil war

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Před rokem

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

    • @j2msu341
      @j2msu341 Před rokem

      @@Drifty40 see what ?

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Před rokem

      @@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 Před rokem

      @@Drifty40 I didn't

  • @gerry5134
    @gerry5134 Před 2 lety +2

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

  • @scottblack9213
    @scottblack9213 Před rokem +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.

  • @Sean-sn9ld
    @Sean-sn9ld Před 2 lety +16

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

    • @monkeybone39
      @monkeybone39 Před 2 lety +3

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

    • @mrchickenfeathers9184
      @mrchickenfeathers9184 Před 2 lety +1

      @@monkeybone39 what occupation and inequality was that

    • @billbo2117
      @billbo2117 Před 5 měsíci

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

  • @ogrebattle22763
    @ogrebattle22763 Před 2 lety +2

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

  • @DaraM73
    @DaraM73 Před 2 lety +17

    Kept in poverty by the state.

  • @karenbrowne5800
    @karenbrowne5800 Před rokem

    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 .

  • @patcom1013
    @patcom1013 Před 2 měsíci

    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.

  • @7kingkev
    @7kingkev Před 8 měsíci +1

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

  • @j2msu341
    @j2msu341 Před rokem +2

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

  • @tomratican6345
    @tomratican6345 Před rokem +1

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

  • @Hazztech
    @Hazztech Před 2 lety

    I truly feel like Richard hammond

  • @mateot7170
    @mateot7170 Před 2 lety +10

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

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Před 2 lety +4

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

    • @Drifty40
      @Drifty40 Před rokem

      @@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 Před 2 lety

    6.55

  • @syedadeelhussain2691
    @syedadeelhussain2691 Před 2 lety +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!

  • @rizzledizzle9801
    @rizzledizzle9801 Před rokem

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

  • @paulrickards4921
    @paulrickards4921 Před rokem +1

    It's coming bk with the cost of living crisis

  • @robbiethepict2783
    @robbiethepict2783 Před 2 lety +7

    Grim.

  • @seamusdebuitleir20
    @seamusdebuitleir20 Před 2 lety +4

    Sectarian kills the common man.....

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Před rokem

      Ulster Scots are obessed with Irish Roman Catholics Ulster Presbyterians especially

  • @Kyle1994NI
    @Kyle1994NI Před 2 lety +1

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

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Před rokem

      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

    • @Kyle1994NI
      @Kyle1994NI Před rokem

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

    • @billbo2117
      @billbo2117 Před 5 měsíci

      ​@@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 !

  • @dirkdaring3073
    @dirkdaring3073 Před 2 lety +7

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

    • @machida58
      @machida58 Před 2 lety

      LMFAO

    • @franceskronenwett3539
      @franceskronenwett3539 Před rokem

      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.

  • @michaelsalt4565
    @michaelsalt4565 Před 2 lety +4

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

    • @michaelsalt4565
      @michaelsalt4565 Před 2 lety +2

      @Bees1970 the choices that many made in these areas.

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld Před 2 lety +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 Před 2 lety +1

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

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld Před 2 lety +2

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

    • @_monti142
      @_monti142 Před 2 lety +2

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

  • @Brekner
    @Brekner Před rokem +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 Před rokem +1

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

    • @Brekner
      @Brekner Před rokem

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

  • @dirkdaring3073
    @dirkdaring3073 Před rokem

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

  • @elisamcgowan4774
    @elisamcgowan4774 Před rokem

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

  • @francismadden8561
    @francismadden8561 Před 2 lety

    Fish an chips on a Friday night.

  • @MisterPolitical1
    @MisterPolitical1 Před 2 lety

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

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Před rokem

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

  • @Mr---mr4ll
    @Mr---mr4ll Před 2 lety +1

    Up the …….😏🥰

  • @regplasma7906
    @regplasma7906 Před 2 lety +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 Před rokem

      Or buying cigarettes instead of food !

  • @tonyhancock3912
    @tonyhancock3912 Před 2 lety +3

    Simpler happier times no mobile phones

  • @vanseventy
    @vanseventy Před rokem

    Socialism is great , isn’t it!

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Před rokem

      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

  • @TheVintageApplianceEmporium

    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 Před 2 lety +18

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

    • @Jim-ok9zi
      @Jim-ok9zi Před 2 lety +5

      I was thinking the same thing.

    • @paddypenman2682
      @paddypenman2682 Před 2 lety +3

      ain't hindsight a great thing

    • @wmtrader
      @wmtrader Před 2 lety

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

    • @machida58
      @machida58 Před 2 lety +1

      Why would anyone WANT to have children???

  • @lowrydan111
    @lowrydan111 Před 2 lety +6

    The horrible result of socialism

    • @Sean-sn9ld
      @Sean-sn9ld Před 2 lety +13

      ?? Which socialism now??

    • @solid7468
      @solid7468 Před 2 lety +3

      ???

    • @iVenge
      @iVenge Před 2 lety

      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 Před 2 lety +1

      Viva revolucion!!

    • @RobertK1993
      @RobertK1993 Před 2 lety

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