Episode 6 The Estate

This programme contains some strong language.

Ballysally, not far from the centre of Coleraine.

Home to almost 3,000 people,

many out of work and on benefits.

ALL trying to keep their heads above the rough economic water.

This is the story of a year on the estate.

DOGS BARKING

Today is Emma's day.

Emma, do we just go in after you?

-Emma...

-Yes, go yous in behind me.

Usually, she's found looking after alcoholics on the estate,

but today she's taking a break to get married.

APPLAUSE

I just think, "My goodness."

I didn't think it would happen... I don't know, don't feel different.

It's just weird I'm not going to be Emma Kennedy anymore.

-Aye, it is, after 25 years.

-Yeah.

Jim is one of Emma's success stories.

Ohh!

Couple of days growth there.

Probably need a machete!

Her first client on the estate,

she's been working with him for nearly a year.

Can't really get much prettier.

It's...eh...I need a towel.

The girl's helped me so much, like.

God, compared to two years ago I'm a changed man.

I could have been dead, for God's sake, if I hadn't met that girl.

She's the best thing happened to me in a long friggin' time.

She's saved me life.

With Emma going on honeymoon,

Jim will have to battle alone to keep the drink at bay.

I don't know, I just couldn't live in an absolute tip.

I just can't do it. That started when I had Shaya.

Single mum Emma's waiting for a delivery.

She's bought some wood for a new fence.

Bet my neighbours are thinking, "What the heck's this woman getting delivered now?"

There's no way I could leave this sitting in my back yard now, after all this.

Definitely have to get it put away now.

Not because of where I live, but I think, just, in general

you couldn't leave something like that out.

Fresh wood...!

That'll be high enough to keep the good in and the bad out, wont it?

Emma just needs to find someone to build the fence for her.

I've got the stuff, but how long's it going to sit in my house for?

What about ye, lad?

Not too bad.

Unemployed joiner Noel's dropped in to see Kyle.

You up? Ach, you havnae got a fucking dog?

You cannae look after your fucking self, and you get a dog?

Kyle's bought a new dog called Poppy to keep him company.

It gives me something...

a bit of responsibility, like.

It's not so good whenever it's fucking up early hours of the morning,

you hear it getting up off its wee bed, its wee cushion in the room.

As soon as you hear it getting up off that you've to be up like a shot and take it out.

Look at that wee sad face of his. Wee sad face on him.

Pish on him. Pish on him!

-What's wrong wi' ye?

-It's like a wee fucking gerbil.

To give him something to do,

Kyle's joined Noel's band.

We'll get a week or two and then we'll maybe start band practice?

Mmm... They definitely need it.

But with band season over, boredom's setting in.

Ach, there'll be something else'll pop up, like.

Denise has taken time off work

to bring daughter Lauren to hospital.

Just before she was even born, they asked us

what we wanted to do.

Can I text Daddy, see what he's doin'?

And they sent this... I remember they sent this man in

and he started to talk about...

..terminations. Terminations.

There was just no way, because we'd waited for her for so long.

And there was no way...

-That wasn't even an option.

-Mummy, can you show me...?

And thank God.

Can you show me how to get the mess...to text messages?

Lauren was born with spina bifida and needs regular medical checkups -

at least one appointment a month.

Today she's having her kidneys checked.

-No, no, no, no!

-OK, Lauren.

-Shh.

-No! No!

-Lauren?

-Lauren.

-Lauren... Shh, it's OK.

No, Mummy, no. I don't want it, Mummy!

It'll be really quick. Come on, you've had this before.

-It'll be fine.

-Still as a statue.

-You've had this before.

-Be a good girl.

-I don't like it! I don't like it!

-Lauren, listen, this has to be done.

-I don't want this today.

-Well done.

-That was better, mm?

SHE MOANS

All done! Good. There!

-It's sore, now.

-Is it sore?

-Yeah, my left arm.

-Which arm's sore?

-That one.

No, there!

As a parent you'd rather have the pain

or the discomfort yourself rather than putting her through it.

Mmm? If only. If only we could do it that way.

Want to go back in for some lunch?

That's my ma.

This is me in Donegal.

My dad was born in Donegal.

That's a fine wee boy.

Blond hair, the life in front of him.

With Emma away, Jim's still managing to stay sober.

A couple of years ago, I couldn't have held that like that, you know.

He's struggled with alcohol most of his adult life.

You don't realise you are an alcoholic

till you actually hit rock bottom and it's not a nice place to be.

It's a very dark, dark place to be.

Jim's drinking reached crisis point

after a bad break-up with a girlfriend.

I was looking for help, but,

I never got further than the first bar really.

There'll be always that thing in the back of your head saying,

"Go on take a wee drink." But no!

I'm going to make this the first year without a drink.

It's good now,

when I get a year, wow, the world's your oyster, I reckon!

Sure look at that there, look at the beautiful sky.

Today, I actually get the whole morning to myself until I go to work.

That's very uncommon!

That doesn't usually happen.

It's hard to think it's Ballysally, like,

and you're living here and going surfing and stuff. Not a bad life.

All you'll see is me falling on my ass.

Emma moved to Ballysally with daughter, Shaya,

after her marriage in Canada broke down.

And that's how it goes. Emma never fully reaches her potential(!)

Whenever I left Canada, I lost everything.

Car, savings, money, everything. Job...

Yes, I did come out with Shaya and that's awesome, like.

But I learnt my lesson now. I'll never do it again.

After months on a waiting list,

Emma was eventually given a council house.

Three years on, she's just beginning to settle in to life on the estate.

I was a wee bit worried

that I would have horrible neighbours,

that they would party a lot,

that it maybe wouldn't be a good situation for Shaya.

Yes, I'm surrounded by kids and other families, but...

maybe its not opinions that I want my daughter to have.

That would be something that would concern me, but not as much anymore

because I think it's more so up to me now what she's exposed to

no matter where I live, whether it's in Ballysally, or not.

Right now, I'd like a fence in my front yard.

I want to know who's talking to my child,

not I don't want my three-year-old to be running the streets - at four or five, even -

I want her in a controlled environment,

where I can supervise her, see who she's playing with,

where they're from, who their parents are before...

That maybe seems a wee bit over the top, but to me, it's not.

Are you going to ring what's-her-name and drop the price?

No, we'll go and look at this first and see.

Jimmy and Denise are among the few on the estate who both work

and own their own home.

But they need to move to a bungalow for the sake of their daughter, Lauren.

I would like to move house,

because I'm always knackered going up them stairs.

So I am.

They've found a house in their price range.

Hello. I'm phoning about the house in Coleraine.

I'm looking to get a viewing for it.

But it's not ideal.

Is it a repo?

Some people are funny about buying repossessions.

We need a bungalow, so...

Too bad.

Their own house has been on the market a year

but there's no sign of it shifting.

We need to move. She's getting bigger and heavier.

And those stairs are killing us.

It's just the waiting.

Waiting, waiting, waiting, for somebody to come along and say

"Yes, we love your house. Here you are, here's the money".

I WANT to move house TODAY.

You'd be lying in the house doing nothing.

Or else you could be out here fishing, something to do.

Get's boring, lying in the house for so long.

'Kyle's been unemployed for three years.'

You've some good weeks and then other weeks

you've fucking bad weeks and you've no money at all to do nothing.

You can't even get out fishing because you've no money.

I'm kind of fed up with not having money.

With plenty of time on his hands

Kyle is starting to regret a squandered youth.

I've a brain in there somewhere

but I just never really stuck at school too much

to stick around and get my grades.

It sort of holds you back in a job, just.

I kind of regret it now, like.

Still count as grades, like, even if they were crap ones.

I was down, signing on, there on Friday

couple of jobs were there,

but you needed too many GCSEs and stuff for them, which I don't have.

There was only one other one and that was McDonalds

so I thought I would try it.

It's not something I would really like to have went for before.

It sometimes takes starting off in a crappy job

to end up getting a good one,

so you just have to persevere with it.

Money's money, but if you're earning it, it's better.

If you put your mind to something,

it's achievable, you know what I mean?

Jim's still off the booze

and now he feels strong enough to tackle the smokes as well.

Will power - that's what it takes, you know.

I'm going to roll a cigarette.

You can't start the patches till tomorrow anyway, you see.

There's very little tobacco left, in fact, it's dust.

John Wayne used to roll them on the horse,

and do it with his... you know, one handed roll.

I used to be able to do that but I can't do it anymore.

The drink's made me shake too much.

The doctor says the shakes might never go away

but, you know...

They're not as bad as they were.

Yeah...

Tomorrow.

Went in for an interview in McDonald's.

Like he says in the interview, like,

there was probably about 200 people in for it, but...

he says he'd be letting me know.

There was ones in with degrees and stuff, for it...

Like, they have to look at it as if...

them boys are only going to stay there until they get something better.

So they were kind of looking an average person for it.

He says he would get back to me,

I think it was three or four days after it, and I never heard a word.

Despite this setback, Kyle's not giving up.

I was a lorry mechanic about two or three years ago

and the place went bankrupt, so it put me out of a job.

Before that, I was a steel erector as well...

But it was...

It was too stressful working at that.

I can't really go to anything too stressful cos of my anger problems.

I can't listen to anybody shout at me too much.

Yes, I can get told what to do, but...

Can't listen to somebody down your throat all the time.

There's fuck all in this.

They're all temporary.

There's nobody wants to come off the dole onto a temporary job

that you're only going to be at for a couple of weeks.

Then you've to wait another 13 weeks to get back on the dole again.

It's stupid.

Ah, be nice to get my frigging corridor back, I'm telling you!

Emma's finally found someone to build her fence.

Thanks a lot for doing this again.

It's been a struggle trying to get someone to do it.

She hasn't had to look far.

Noel from two doors down has offered to build it for her.

Going to take this opportunity to bond with my neighbours.

Sure looks like he knows what he's doing, doesn't he?

Here you are. Doing a good job there.

-I always do a good job.

-Aye.

I know. Wonder why that is!

-You get nothing done.

-You're a bad man.

-She looks after you well, doesn't she?

-Oh, aye.

That's amazing.

He only had three boards up less than two minutes ago. Now he's up to ten.

That's going to take him no time at all.

He's so easy to work with.

He doesn't make you feel like he's doing you a big favour.

He's making it seem like "It's nothing, it's nothing."

But it's his time and effort

and he's the one sweating the bit out out there for me too.

How many next door neighbours would do your fence for you? Not many.

Why'd you never go into business for yourself doing joinery?

Really?

It'll be so nice to let the wee'un out and not worry about her beelining or being in my neighbours' house.

It's just better this way, it really is.

-VOICEMAIL:

-'You have three new messages.'

That's not too bad.

Three, I thought it was going to be like ten.

Emma's honeymoon is over.

Oh aye, married now, yeah.

That'll do. Sure, I'll speak to you later on in the week, OK?

Bye, bye.

And it's back to business as usual on the estate.

I wonder what Jim's doing today.

OK.

-Hello, how are you?

-Hello, Mrs, uh...

Jim's had a setback in his battle with the booze.

Are you still on the Antabuse, not on the Antabuse?

Off the anti, I can't. I've been drinking, Emma.

Have you?

And are you going to stop?

-This is definitely it. I can't drink.

-Because you're looking really well.

Paula... Do you think so? I think I look fucking awful.

-No, I think you're looking really well.

-Do you?

You look great, you look really well.

-I thought I looked terrible.

-No, you're looking really well,

-but you're feeling terrible, Jim.

-This is definitely it.

It's a big step for you, you know, to recognise this is enough.

When can you start your Antabuse, then? Thursday?

-I've no idea what day it is!

-Neither did I, Jim, so don't worry.

See when you're off a couple of days,

I was thinking it was Friday there for a minute.

A lot of people I work with have absolutely no-one

and would have had nobody until I came along,

and although maybe yes, they're still drinking,

they're maybe not drinking as much or they're doing wee extra things

that to us, we just get up in the morning and just do,

like cleaning the house or even just personal hygiene,

small things like that.

It's good to go out and know you're helping people.

It's just an open yard.

There's no gates, it's not exactly high enough to keep a cat in,

let alone a three-year-old kid.

So this, obviously, three-foot fence will definitely keep her in.

It's not like I'm putting cages on the windows or anything.

Then I'd need some serious help

but I'd be devastated if anything happened Shaya.

Emma and her Canadian husband

were expecting another daughter before Shaya.

But there were problems with the pregnancy.

They sent me away for testing for Downs Syndrome

and it came back positive for that.

So they didn't know what the outcome was going to be,

whether she'd be disabled, mentally, physically,

whether she was going to form correctly, all that kind of stuff.

It took a long time for it to sink in that there was something wrong.

I think I was just a bit naive. I was just so excited to be pregnant.

Despite doctors' advice to have an abortion,

Emma continued with her pregnancy.

Her daughter was born five weeks early, and they called her Emily.

She'd red hair and she'd brown eyes...blue... I don't know.

It was hard to tell the colour of her eyes cos she was premature.

She was quite, she'd a good length on her, she was quite tall like Shaya is

so, just like a normal baby!

On the fifth day, they said, "We think your daughter's going downhill.

"Do you want to continue treatment or let nature take its course?"

I really regret the last few hours of her life

because they took her away for a CT scan

and they were moving her

and it was just so unnecessary, like.

Instead, I should have been sitting there.

I should have been sitting in the rocking chair with the wee'un

with a wee blanket round us and sitting cuddling her

and I didn't get to do that. It's a bit shitty.

We bathed her and dressed her

before she was sent off to the crematorium and stuff,

but it was horrific.

You know, I had one opportunity,

after the C-section was done and they took her to the Special Care Unit,

to hold her, but she'd so many tubes coming out of her and everything

I said, "No, I can't.

"I don't know how to hold her because it's my first baby

"and all these tubes and stuff," and it's so...overwhelming

and you don't want to hurt them, like.

I guess that's things you've got to live with. Those choices.

Sometimes I guess, like, I might be a wee bit OTT

but I don't think this is over the top.

I didn't come all this way and do all this

and have a second opportunity with my daughter to mess it up now.

Denise and Lauren are back at hospital.

Which number was it in?

I think it's the first door, darling.

Walking is getting harder for Lauren.

She's in line for a new wheelchair.

-Right, let's see.

-Where's your belt?

Where is it? Oh, there it is.

You'll hear the click,

so just you try pressing that and see if that's opening OK.

Great.

You need to push a bit harder than that to get over the lip.

That's it.

When you go up the town, who will be pushing your wheelchair?

-Me.

-Good, good.

-Who's not going to be pushing the wheelchair?

-Daddy.

Yeah, it's good. Much lighter.

I prefer the wheels on this one.

I'm putting stickers on that. Justin Bieber stickers.

SHE LAUGHS

-Now, remember we have a slope. Let's see how you do.

-Ooh...

Control it now. Control it, Lauren! Control it!

That wasn't very controlled, was it?

I can't do it.

GIGGLES

That was a bit bad!

You're going to do a lot of pushing on your own this time.

I'm trying to flip.

Yay! You did it.

Look at that.

You've only just got your new chair and already you can flip.

Good. Good girl.

Mum, I want to do it again.

One more. Then we'll go and get you in.

There! That was brilliant.

With Lauren's mobility getting worse, though,

the need to move house is becoming critical.

THEY LAUGH

Things are looking up for Kyle.

He has a new girlfriend, Annie.

Sort of started chatting through Facebook.

Then she was down in Coleraine every now and again

so we just agreed to meet up.

Annie's convinced him to turn his back on his bachelor ways.

She's sort of the most down-to-earth person you've ever met.

Whereas all the other wee girls are out every weekend

fucking slutting about and whatever

and constantly at your throat and won't let you do nothing...

Basically, what he's trying to say is, I'm faithful. He can trust me.

Yeah, it's all about trust.

I could never trust anybody.

I'm 23 and she's 16.

All my friends have been settled down for years.

I was always the girl that liked to go out and party and enjoy myself

and not get settled down

but after a while, that started to get a bit boring.

I used to go out every weekend and party and not come home

till maybe the Sunday or the Monday,

but the last couple of months,

I haven't even really been drinking the last couple of months.

Most guys I've been with

have been cheeky and ignorant and don't really care.

Whereas he's different.

He's actually nice.

-Sometimes.

-Sometimes!

I can't believe how quickly you did it, to be honest.

Now I know you're a carpenter, you're done for.

I've got a curtain pole I need put up.

Aaron! Curtain pole. You're the expert.

EMMA LAUGHS

If you get me two hinges and a lock, I'll have your wee gate on tomorrow

-and that'll be the whole lot done.

-Sweet.

Shaya has arrived to inspect Noel's handiwork.

What's he doing?

What do you think, Shaya? Is it big and tall?

You try and climb that fence now, missus.

No, no. Get off that.

She'll hardly break it.

What do you think?

-It's pretty.

-Is it pretty?

I bet that's just what Noel wanted to hear, it's pretty.

SHE LAUGHS

TIN WHISTLE PLAYS

I think we got the thumbs-up from the boss.

SHAYA GIGGLES

Next time on The Estate...

I'm glad someone's coming to see the house.

Try and make the house look a bit neater

and make the rooms look bigger!

We've so much junk in this house!

We're hiding it in my car.

-I'm not all right, Emma.

-You will be OK, Ben.

I've a Stanley knife in the house. I'll cut my jugular to fuck.

I better not do that. I've so much hairspray in my hair!

Yep.

And it was down in price too!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd