Eurovision last night was a slick show and the system of marking much improved. Austria’s JJ was a worthy winner with his offering Waste Love although I didn’t think it would come out on top as it’s not really a song you came away humming but what a voice.
LOOKING BACK AT A LONG LIFE
Painting of High Street after the Blitz by T. Leckey.
Earlier this month in the Irish News I wrote about the historic photographs of thousands flocking to Belfast City Hall in Tuesday May 8th 1945 to celebrate the end of World War Two. If you’d looked carefully, off to the bottom left, just out of camera range was 13 year old Tom Hanna and his mates. They’d walked into the city from their home in Irwin Street West Belfast, their sprits were high and life was good.
We were talking in his Ballymena home. The craic was great, he’s a character, good company and full of fun and at 93 has many stories to tell. We began with the current topic, the War years.
“We were a family of ten, sadly I’m the last one left to turn out the light. We’d a small three bedroomed house off Cullingtree Road close to St. Peter’s Cathedral, you can imagine, it was a tight squeeze. My first memory of war time was the Americans coming to Belfast. Dad worked on the Titanic before she sailed and my sisters were out and about in town dancing in the Plaza, Winnie worked in Langford Lodge airfield which was used by both the RAF and American military, and she’d bring GIs home for tea with mum, There was rationing, powdered eggs, not bad, and spam, awful, sometimes a banana but our visitors brought butter and sugar and that was a real treat.
“The Americans weren’t popular with the boys, they were glamorous and the girls loved that. In our part of town when a boy and girl were walking out they’d link arms but the Americans favoured an arm over the girl’s shoulder and soon our boys were copying them!”
Bombing Of Belfast
Tom remembers the blitz, McKenna & McGinley bottlers on Divis Street being hit and the house shaking. “The sky was lit up every colour. When it was safe we went down into Castle Street where shops were bombed, we found toys of every description so we’d carry home as many as possible.” He paused and smiled, “I sold mine,” he admitted, “sixpence for a little lead soldier!”
Quite the mini entrepreneur who, when an American would slip him a dollar would race down to Thomas Cook and exchange it for stirling. He had a shoeshine business outside the Ritz cinema in Wellington Place and as a teenager worked in the Guinness brewery and he says, in those days he was always on the go taking work where he could get it. I get the impression he could charm the birds off the trees and nothing has changed in 93 years.
Tom was nine when Pearl Harbour was bombed. “The Irish News was always in the house and that’s how we got the details. But despite all that was going on it was a happy childhood, playing football in the street from morning to night. We were a gang of five, the same gang that danced at the City Hall on VE Day. I was only twelve but I’d never before witnessed people singing and dancing, thousands of them doing the conga; the magnificent edifice was floodlit for the first time in six years, there was a tremendous cheer when the illuminations were switched on at 10.30 p.m.” It’s obviously vivid in his mind’s eye. “A cathedral like silence fell during Winston Churchill’s speech relayed from London, I just wanted him to keep quiet so we could get on with it.
“People came from all parts, I remember a woman in a Woman’s Royal Naval Service uniform and she was crying, a chubby wee face but like others she was weeping and I realised there was great sadness too. When the heart is too full it’s time for tears.”
In a long life of course here are regrets, one goes back to five years of age and his first day at school. “I hated it so I kicked the teacher, Miss Campbell, pulled her hair, climbed a wall and ran away and didn’t go back for six weeks.” Although we laugh I knew the feeling I tell Tom I had to be taken home on my first day as I cried myself into a faint. A fellow feeling. “But I wish I could tell her how sorry I am.”
First Love
“My first love was Anne Smith who lived ‘two roofs down’ and was in my class at St. Comgalls school on Divis Street. We were the same age, we’d meet at the chip shop on the corner.” There’s a silence for a moment. “I was broken hearted when she died, only 13. I cried my eyes out.”
At school he credits Mr. Gerald Armstrong as a brilliant teacher who taught him compound fractions before he left when he was 14 years of age, a subject that aided him later in life when he worked for the Department of Agriculture and is proud to say he was recognised when, of eleven centres, Ballymena was the only one that balanced the books to perfection.
Tom and Phillis Hanna. photo by Mal McCann reproduced from Irish News newspaper.
Tom has always had a thirst for knowledge. “Readers Digest was the bible in our house, and despite Mr. Churchill, I learnt to love listening to speeches.” Who’s the best? “The best I think is Obama.” And Trump? “I would’t believe a word he’s saying. I’d be ever fearful with a man like that in charge.”
Stories come thick and fast interspersed with a song now an again, Young Willie McBride puts in an appearance, Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters aren’t far behind. The wartime songs feature and I join in, it’s quite a party.
That brings us on to people he’s met and there are many but one in particular. “I was sheltering from the rain near Havelock House when Ivor Mills came past. He took off his Pack-a-Mac raincoat and gave it to me and when I thanked him and said I’d return it, he said ‘Don’t worry throw it into me anytime.’ A gentleman.”
Looking back to those happy days, Tom is the only one left of his boyhood gang. “But I till keep an interest in football, Liverpool is my team. I was very athletic, full off pep and although I’m 93 I can dance down the street – in my head, unfortunately my body won’t play ball!”
Phillis was making sandwiches as we talk but hears his every word. “My longevity is due to my good woman beside me.” She nods in agreement. How did they meet? At a bus stop. “It was love at first sight, she got off the bus with her friend Bridie and that was it. Then I discovered she lived only a few rooftops away from me and I’d never met her, you go where your destiny takes you.
“There’s a lot to be thankful for and the memory of that beautiful evening in May 1945 will never diminish, it was truly euphoric.” There’s a stillness in the air. “I know I should be pleased at being spared to share this momentous occasion with you Anne, instead I’m left with these depressive and ominous thoughts pondering as to whom will be around to record the next VE Day in the event of a full scale nuclear War?”
