Translated from the Gaelic, the above is the Epitaph written on the Milltown Gravestone of the Anderson Street Martyr, Sean Martin, Thousands of stories may be told of the heroic sacrifices, on the battlefield, on the scaffold, that have been made by Irish Republicans through the last two hundred years, 1798 1998, to break the connection between our country and that evil vampire, England. who has misruled our land for 500 years now with a sword in one band and a bundle of Bank Notes in the other, massacring the noble Irish with one hand and purchasing local lackey’s down through the centuries, dividing and conquering and frustrating our national aspiration. Sean Martin, a young married man, reared in Anderson Street like Tone and Pearse before him had sworn to devote his life to the freedom of Ireland. and how he died illustrates his personal courage and the love he had for his people. On April,2Sth 1940, a group of I.R.A Volunteers had assembled at a house in Anderson Street Short Strand, No,34, to attend a gun and Mills Grenade lecture being given by Sean Martin, a local man and father of two, To quote the late great Jimmy Steele, what happened was, ‘during the course of the lecture Sean had dismantled the grenade and was putting it together again. The detonator which he was using was thought to be a Dude one. In demonstrating how to throw the grenade he pulled out the pin and released the lever, Hearing the hissing sound of the fuse he realised that the detonator was alive and that the grenade was about to explode. He rushed to the window with the intention off throwing it out into the street, but some children were playing outside, ln the few seconds left to him, Sean had to make that terrible choice, shouting to his comrades to get out of the house,,. he pulled the grenade into himself with his two hands and leaned over the kitchen table with the grenade covered by his whole body. The grenade exploded and blew him right across the kitchen, killing him instantly., all the others escaped.

“I’ll Fight Any Man In The Street, Bar Our Ned” Billy Gilroy, now 84 living in Carrick Hill (When This was first written) used to play the accordion at dances in “The Hut”, and well known banjo player, Alfie Darragh, used to play at weddings at street corner concerts when no doubt Josie Doggi & Rice would turn up to sing his favourite, ”Pennies From Heaven. In the summer Sunday nights Frankie Ferris and Henry ‘Popeye” Rooney used run “Housey” sessions, now called “Bingo”. On the occasional Saturday night Peter Farrelly who was a cattle drover, and also had a brother, Ned, who lived in Anderson Street, would have a few drinks and could be heard to shout “I’ll fight any man in the street, bar our Ned.”, oops, stand back here comes “Billy The Baker’ with his horse drawn bakers cart, delivering to McBrides slip, which was run by three sisters who never married, Bridget, Mary and Kitty, so the shop had the nickname, ‘Tootsies’. ‘‘Scoop’ McGuinness had a greengrocers at the corner of Moira Street, the kids used to steal potatoes from his outside stall and roast them on fires up the entry, then it was round to Maggie Kenny’s shop at the corner of Thompson to get ‘a Penny drink’ of lemonade.., an egg cup full to the brim. It was also to Thompson Street where you’d went to get a hair cut at the famous Joe “Ho” Hamilton’s barbers shop. Joe smoked Park Drive and never took the cig out of his mouth, the result being there was always a long ash banging from it, if a child having his hair cut by Joe was to remark, “Hey Joe, there’s a big ash on the end of your fag “,Joe was say, ‘blow it off’, which the boy would do, only to find himself covered in ash, which brought great laughter from “Be’.. and the kids fell for it time after time after tune.

As I’ve said earlier, there were a few boxers in the street, but one man who didn’t have much of a career., in fact he only had two or three fights before retiring always held on to his boxing gloves, not that he ever thought of making a comeback.. no, no, but when he had a few drinks on a Friday and Saturday night he was to be heard saying to the wife, “Here, hang these boxing gloves up in the hall... they’ll scare off the Tick-Men” At the end of Moira Street was the back gate of Richardson’s Fertiliser plant which was always kept locked, the main entrance being on Short Strand, most of the local men folk worked here. The firm later moved to Duncrue Street. What’s that you say, what was “Billy The Baker’s” full name? I don’t think anyone new him by any thing other than ‘Billy The Baker”, other than he worked for the “Co - 0?.. maybe his name was Billy Baker.., naw , are you daft.? Most of the old residents have passed on but they left a legacy of happy memories of gentler days, when neighbours were like family.