Ardoyne - Our Lives

# Cead mile failte romhat

# A Iosa, a Iosa

# Cead mile failte romhat

# A Iosa

# Cead mile failte romhat

# A Shlanaitheoir... #

Years ago, like, once darkness fell, you'd have been in, you know,

you wouldn't have went out of the district, you know?

It's a totally different world for the kids growing up now.

# Cead mile failte romhat

# A Shlanaitheoir... #

They're the first to come in to this generation of no troubles.

I would like to become a professional boxer, obviously,

but it's not always going to happen.

It's not reality like, but hopefully I do, like.

My dream is to be a pop star.

I sing everyday of my life.

Just the way of the border into all the areas,

you know, you're really hemmed in here.

There's at least one Protestant area on every corner inside of Ardoyne.

Ardoyne is right in the middle, surrounded by all Protestant areas.

Loads of people think it's really bad because of the rioting and all,

it's not really like that.

I do like here. I wouldn't want to move anywhere else.

Even though it's a shithole like, but it's our shithole! You know what I mean?

-Conor?

-Yeah?

-Up. Sleep all right?

-Mm-hm.

-OK?

-Aye.

-That's all he does.

Boxing is a hard thing to get into.

It'd take you a long time before you would get any kind of money out.

Connor is the youngest of six.

He's the baby of this family, you know?

My family, like, give me support all through the boxing.

That's all I really need, like.

We thought it wouldn't last two weeks, to be honest!

At the start,

he was more like Billy Elliot dancing around the ring, you know?

You've to give a lot of time up.

You're not allowed to have a good time with your mates sometimes.

But it will be good at the end

if you could be a professional boxer like. It could happen.

I feel for him, you know.

Like the pressure of his boxing,

and the pressure of his friends and school,

feel like he's cramming an awful lot in.

Do you not think the better kids are under more pressure, you know,

that gets put on them?

-There's not a sinner about.

-HE LAUGHS

-Hurry up!

-Mum!

-Bethany!

-What?!

-Come on, love!

-Do you want your pee!

-Ah, you think you're so funny!

Oh, go on.

I fight with my brother and sister.

-Yeah, you come down taken off with my phone.

-Yes, all right.

-You mean nelly. Big fat retard.

-Bethany is huffy.

Just in the mornings.

Some of them think I'm cheeky and some think I'm well-behaved.

You can't talk to them for 45 minutes

from when they get up out of bed.

It's a known fact, apparently.

Cos I think you have to be cheeky when you need to be cheeky.

If people be cheeky to you then you need to be cheeky back.

Bethany is happy all the time, most of the time.

Everybody thinks she's lovely.

Have to be in the school for ten to nine,

and if you're not in by ten to nine, then you get shouted at.

It's not safe to walk up to school.

Cos our school is in a Protestant area.

And we're Catholics and they're Protestant and, like,

they might hit us or one of our ones might hit them ones and then...

You can't walk through Glenburn, cause it's a Protestant area.

Cos they would see their uniforms and know where they were from.

It's just weird.

-What's this for?

-Bethany!

-What?!

-Come on, now!

Let's go out this way.

'It's a hard world. We're not loyal.'

We are from here in Ardoyne which is the most

sectarianism place in, like, the world.

-Why didn't you just go straight?

-Huh?

-Don't drive around here, you're not allowed.

-Why?

-Cos you're not.

Stop here, Daddy.

-He doesn't listen! See you later.

-See you later.

See you later. Happy child, isn't she?!

HE LAUGHS

Serious.

Yes, I know about the tensions and about the parades and all,

but that's all, that's part

and parcel of all the things that need to be sorted out after

the IRA went away, went to sleep, if you know what I mean.

If you're walking through a part that know that you're Catholic,

they'd know you're a Catholic straight away,

and the same that we would do if they came into our area.

-You're not mature, you header!

-I'm more mature than you are!

I'm mature-er than you! But he's my hairdresser.

He helps me get the gel on, gets it all combed over.

Makes it sit nice and lovely.

I give him five fags a day for doing my hair. What's happening?

What about you?

Everyone loves me. I don't know why, but.

Anything I say, it's funny. Totally, like, so.

Yeah, he's one of the funniest people I know in my life.

He's always cheering you up. But he's not right.

-He's not a bad lad.

-That's right, big kid.

There's people out there, haven't got no mates, just sit in the house.

I go out and all of these here look after me.

It's kind of hard for Pee Wee to stick up for himself,

cos he's just a kid.

THEY SHOUT OVER EACH OTHER

I said help!

I pulled a wheelie bin the full Saturday and carried the thing up!

Look at that dump!

Someone needs to stay here and mind the wood.

My best mates, every last one of them,

I haven't got no best mate, but they're all my mates.

-You better not split and leave me, Mickey, son.

-What?

You better not split and leave me.

-Did you see the dud we got in yesterday?

-What?

-It's a dud.

That's a dud, yeah?

-Good, isn't it?

-It looks good, doesn't it?

-Aye.

It looks like a dud.

DOGS BARK

Up here's North Belfast.

Coming in from the city centre, this is the Crumlin Road.

Then this is where we are right here, Ardoyne.

And this is just all Catholic area right here.

Ardoyne is right in the middle. Surrounded by all Protestant areas.

And we're just right there. Them block of streets there.

All my mates are here. I don't even know anyone outside of it, really.

You know, I've no family anywhere else.

That's Ardoyne now, that's a good shot there for you.

That mural, there.

Years ago, like, you know, once darkness fell...

HE HONKS THE HORN

Once darkness fell, you know, you'd have been in,

you wouldn't have went out of the district.

That's a memorial there to people have lost their lives,

just from the Ardoyne. On the end there.

We were growing up to know that Protestants are bad.

If you look at it, it's, they're just the same people.

They do their... They live their life the same way,

they don't do anything different.

The IRA run this area for 35, 40 years.

You were engulfed in all that. I'd seen people shot dead,

shot dead in their houses by the paramilitaries.

Soldiers shooting people dead. The IRA shooting soldiers dead.

You know. And I've seen all that.

I mean, that was part of my life.

Know what I might do when I'm older?

I'm going to sit in the house all day, all right,

go out in my wee Nike Air Max. Get a cap!

-Go to Tesco and get your vodka.

-All my drink and all.

-All the cheap drink.

-I know someone who's on the brew and here,

-she's living a great life!

-Who?

-£60 a week.

That gets your food, pay for your bills, pay for your rent.

-Gas, electric.

-Have you ever heard of boyfriends?!

My life's going to be better than that.

-It's because your mummies and all pay.

-Shut up!

-LAUGHTER

-When you all turned around and looked at me!

Cos you're the one that's saying you can live on £60 a week!

-Not even a fortnight! Maybe!

-No.

-I want to be a midwife.

-What's that?

-You deliver babies.

-I couldn't do that, I'd just be sick.

-I know.

-Push! Push!

Get this thing out of me!

Ah! Jesus!

Hit him.

-It's Daniel, my nephew. My wee nephew. It is.

-He's my uncle.

He takes care of me a lot. I'm actually serious, he really does.

If Mummy and Daddy was going out and he was really enjoying himself

with his mates, he would just leave them and come with me and meet me.

That one.

-That one there, he got.

-Why do like that one?

Cos, like, it's colourful.

I don't like if he gets ever hit, if it was allowed,

I'd be jumping and pushing the head of the other guy.

What can you play?

Nothing. Just I have to do it on the D string.

Is this the first time he's gone boxing?

He went before, but he was a bit too young,

so he's just starting back today.

He's far better than me. I know that.

-Get in there.

-Right, see you later.

Eannas is the coach now.

He'd really like tell me when all the fights and all are coming up.

-Or when I have to start training more hard or more intense.

-Accuracy.

You have to pump it out. You've got to work. You're nearly there.

This last ten, as hard as you can.

Give me ten, nine, eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two, one.

Keep going, that's it. Keep going. You're nearly there.

He comes down to the house and he sneaks in and he steals the fags.

Nanny never has any, so we have to run down and grab the fags off him.

And by that time, he's already got the fag out of it.

He's never in. When he gets up, he'll be away.

How often would you stay at your granny's then?

Just whenever Mummy's away. But he stays every weekend.

Every Saturday night, and he goes down to his Aunty Mary's and all.

Where are you for the night now?

-Out with my mates.

-Who with? Where?

-Oldpark.

-Oldpark. Aye.

-What are you going to do? Nothing?

-Walk about.

That's kind of boring.

Well, I'd rather go out there than you sitting in the house.

When is your daddy back?

He was supposed to be back today, but he's not coming back until tomorrow.

How often do you get to see him?

Like every couple of months, or every couple of weeks. Depends.

-Where are you going?

-What?!

-Where you going?

Wipe that thing.

With schoolwork, I'm not the best,

that's why I'm trying to focus on the boxing.

Cos I'm not really that good at anything else.

You'd like him to stay and get work here,

but I don't think it's here, like.

If he has to go somewhere else, he has to go. You know.

Well he's doing all right. No complaints.

-I want a can of Coke.

-A can of Coke, Thomas.

-And one of them tenners you steal out of the till!

-THEY LAUGH

That's about seven cars I seen going round there.

Raiding the house, I bet ye. There must be a raid.

-It has to be.

-What?

-A raid.

It's them policing us. It's a culture of them and us.

This is a police ghetto.

Oh, there'll always be trouble here. Always.

I think marching season, you see, it starts to get them going.

I just, like, I like peace and quiet all the time, all right,

but sure, most of the time you do get it here now.

It's not as bad as it used to be.

I don't know anything about the Troubles, so, well,

I know wee bits and pieces, but not the whole ramifications of it.

-Do you know about the Troubles?

-No. Not really.

I ended up in Magilligan Prison for three years. So...

Protestants and Catholics fight and throw stones and stuff at each other

and march up and down the roads. And that's all I know.

I was arrested in the house for guns, ammunition and Semtex.

But I got charged with withholding information.

Because I hadn't rang the police and said, there's

guns in my house, come and get them, blah blah blah,

because I was under threat, you know what I mean?

And the football teams as well. And that's it.

Celtic and Rangers or something.

-So it doesn't matter to you, any of that stuff?

-No, not really.

Cos my mummy is a Protestant, my daddy is a Catholic,

so I don't really know.

Anne's from the Shankill, I'm from Ardoyne. It's a mixed relationship.

Bethany, she's got her own life.

She'll grow up, she'll get married, have her own kids.

And that will be it, you know what I mean? It'll be move on from that.

And then it's up to her whatever way she wants to bring her kids up.

I'm not her daddy, I'm her step daddy, like,

but she knows I love her.

-Hurry up, please. A pound change.

-No.

-Yes. Just give me one pound.

-No.

Please. Please, please, please. Thanks.

I think they've got life easy.

They've got money, every time they ask for it, they get it.

They go and do whatever they want to do and, well, within reason.

-Who do you think is going to win? Who's going to win the fight?

-Conor!

-I've already betted me odds.

-Have you?

-What price is he knocking down in the first?

-2-1.

-2-1?!

-2-1!

-CHEERING

Hello, love.

Over at Mickey's. OK.

I'm getting a video, right now, so it's a bad time.

Can you leave a message after the tone. Beep. Right!

-Right, right, right, bye, bye, bye!

-Who's that, your mom?

-My ma.

That's what we do. I just annoy Pee Wee. That's what I love doing.

-Why is he your mate?

-He's a legend. Sound.

Since Pee Wee is small, Pee Wee would have to depend on us

to back him up, but he would stand up for himself, but for bigger

people, we would have to step in and make sure no-one would hurt him.

Because he's my wee child.

-Who is it?

-The wee one in the green kit. The wee small one.

-That's who you're fighting.

-With no kit on?

-No kit on.

Looks all right there for us. No height difference.

You'll be shaving soon!

Let him see you're up for it. Into his face, let him know you're there.

Don't just turn up and be there.

Let him see that you are here for it

and you're going to take it, OK?

CHEERING

SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

That's it!

SHOUTING AND CHEERING

BELL RINGS

CHEERING

-Look at my hands! All burnt.

-I think Conor must have won!

That's our champ now, isn't it?

By unanimous decision,

the judge says the winner is Lavery in the red corner.

CHEERING

No way. That wasn't on. Sit down!

Cheat! CHEAT!

I wanted it to be Conor who won.

That's cat, that. Absolutely cat.

I don't believe it.

That's just the home town this season.

You did your best anyway. We can never ask for any more than that.

THEY SHOUT OVER EACH OTHER

SINGING AND CHEERING

FIREWORKS WHISTLE AND CRACKLE

Aye.

They're not a bad lot now, they're not.

A hell of a lot of decent kids about.

A lot of them.

THEY CHANT PEE WEE'S NAME

THEY LAUGH

HE WHISTLES

# Everybody's gotta live

# And everybody's gonna die

# Everybody's gotta live

# I think you know the reason why

# Some time the goin' gets so good

# And then it gets pretty rough... #