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Belfast Born, Bred and Buttered By Joe Graham

Chapter 15

The Squatting of the Campbell Family

Speaking about housing problems earlier, it was around this time. that I walked unknowingly into a housing problem, concerning one family, which could easily have been resolved by the Belfast Corporation (Council) Housing Department but instead became a whole civil rights issue and cause of many violent riots. I was returning home late one night from Ardoyne, about midnight, and I stopped at “Lena’s”, a then well known late night wee shop on the Falls Road at the corner of Colin Street. As I got out of the car I noticed a lot of activity in Colin street, a tiny little street of a dozen or so houses, council men were digging up the pavement outside a house and a couple of peelers were leaning against the wall of a house opposite.