`Belfast:’ The legacy of leaving
Big turnout for book event in Hudson Falls
The Front Page
Morning Update
Friday, November 19, 2021
By Ken Tingley
It is family lore that on a crisp Belfast evening in 1955, my father and two of his shipmates - possibly full of drink - parked themselves on the stoop outside 32 St. James Road in Belfast and began singing “My Wild Irish Rose.”
Inside, I suspect that Rose Marie Sally was secretly pleased with the attention she was getting, while her mother was aghast at what the neighbors would think.
The story goes that Esther Sally quickly defused the situation by inviting the sailors into the parlor for a cup of tea.
My grandmother lost two of her daughters to handsome seamen and a third later joined her sisters in America.
Those Belfast roots are part of me, so as I watched the opening credits for the new movie “Belfast,” the shots of the cranes at the Harland and Wolff shipyard, - that’s where they built the Titanic - Belfast Castle up on the hill, but more importantly, I’m sure I caught a glimpse of Belfast City Hall. After all, that’s where my parents met on a blind date.
My mother and two of her other sisters left before “The Troubles” began, but I suspect it was still part of her growing up; the religious divide between Protestants and Catholics did not appear over night.
When I was 16, my Aunt Esther came over from Belfast and stayed with us for an entire summer. She had the flowing red hair of a young Maureen O’Hara and it was easy to understand why those sailors kept chasing the Sally girls. They were gorgeous.
But my aunt was there for a reason.
Her family now occupied 32 St. James Road, a row house just off the Falls Road in the Catholic part of town. The last time I visited, Aunt Esther’s son told me about growing up during “The Troubles,” about being stopped by British soldiers on his way to school and his father warning him not to get involved.
One day there was an explosion outside the hedges behind the garden at St.James. My aunt stumbled upon two critically injured British soldiers. I remember being told my aunt was visiting us for “a rest.” But she never spoke of that day.
“Belfast” is not so much a movie about “The Troubles” as it is a voice about a family trying to understand what the future holds.
It asks the question of whether they should stay or go.
It made me wonder if this was the question my mother and her siblings had been wrestling with their entire lives.
And maybe the answer for my mother was a handsome young sailer singing “My Wild Irish Rose.”
I spent the summer of 1964 running wild in the streets of Belfast as a rambunctious 7-year-old. It was a very different world.
I’ve been back several times since. After my father passed in 2001, my brother and I took my mother back to visit Aunt Esther. Mom took us to City Hall in Belfast and showed us the spot where she met my father for the first time on a blind date.
Years later, I took my son to Belfast as well and showed him the spot near City Hall where his grandparents met. This was his legacy. We later stopped to take photos outside the row house on St. James Road where I swore I could hear someone singing.
I always wondered how this unassuming Irish beauty - my mother - had the gumption to board an ocean liner for America to start a life with an American sailor she barely knew.
“Belfast” may finally provide the answer.
It wasn’t that she wanted to leave, but that she knew that she would have to leave. The handsome young sailor just made the decision a little easier.
Hudson Falls event
When I arrived at the senior center in Hudson Falls Wednesday, they were playing Bingo. I was the follow-up act and I didn’t care for my chances.
But when the Bingo was done and I was introduced, there were still more than 25 people there to talk about life, newspapers and my collection of columns - “The Last American Editor.”
As I’ve traveled around the region in recent weeks, it was a clear there is still an interest in newspapers and what they provide to the community. That’s good news. The war isn’t over yet. People care about their communities and their local newspaper and we all need to support them.
Infections
Washington County continues to have the worst infection rate in the state (109 per 100,000). Warren County is right behind it and the number of hospitalized is alarming. What may be worse is that few people seem to be aware of the rise. I estimated about half of those in the supermarket on my last visit were wearing masks.
