There is urban and industrial folklore as well as the stuff about thatching houses, stooking corn or making St Brigid's crosses. And Belfast has it in spades; not all pleasant reading, and perhaps at its toughest in the shipyards in times of high tension. But they did build the Titanic there, and; from the present film hullabaloo, it seems that this ship will be looked at historically as second only to the Mayflower, which carried the Pilgrim Fathers to the New World.
In 1986 David Hammond published a book Steelchest, Nail in the Boot & The Barking Dog; all three terms are nicknames from the yard. The book consists of recorded direct speech from named and pictured workers there, as in the film of the same name he produced too. About the middle of the last century Edward Harland and Gustav Wolff started the most famous yard. The workers in Hammond's book, are "descendants of the fresh-faced countrymen who walked down the Lagan to find work from the Holywood Hills ... from Comber, Moneyrea ... small farmers, hedge carpenters, landless labourers, bringing little with them except the clothes on their backs, their strength and intelligence ... They were transformed into riveters, and riggers, joiners and shipwrights."
They brought their families with them, their "townland values" and mostly settled near their new work. Building ships in the open, often in the early days without proper, or any, safeguards, led to loss of limbs or death in many cases, and ruined the health of others. It makes sad reading at times, but also shows the endurance and even the humour of the people of Belfast. There are references to some of the dreadful sectarian and political savageries, starting with 1886 and the onset of the Conservatives' "Orange Card" campaign.
The early 1920's saw atrocities in the yard, too. But Joe Tomelty, who worked there in the 1940's told this: "I remember one day I forgot my piece and a man gave me a ham sandwich. It was a Friday. I'm not allowed to eat meat on a Friday,' says I; `I'm a Mick.' The other says, `All right. Take the bloody ham out of it.' So I took the ham out of it and I ate the bread. They were a decent crowd and I never heard any talk about my religion."
The monologues or interviews are presented as spoken, bad grammar and all. Invaluable history and entertainment. Splendidly illustrated. Published by Flying Fox Films, Belfast in 1986 at the then price of £9.95. A fruitful source of what Davy terms "the rich and disorderly pattern that is called folklore." Y