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Belfast City Library
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In Belfast City Library, 1963
Amongst the other scholars he was there - an old man, wrapped in an ancient raincoat, with unkempt hair - bent over his work. The books he borrowed remained unread. His notebook was made of pages torn from here and there and held together by elastic bands round a piece of strawboard. He wrote in pencil - line upon line - a lilting slant like the best Vere Foster. But this was his own language...no A or B or C or any other letterform imposed itself...no full stop or comma interrupted the flow. These were lines complete from beginning to end tracing life like the pulse of a cardiograph. In that old library I like to think he wrote his story - while keeping warm.
In 1963 the red sandstone exterior of the Library was still pocked-marked from the blitz of 1941. The steps leading up to the doorway slowed you down to a pace more in time with the Victorian grandness of the interior. The reference room had a great central dome and was heavy with mahogany and leather; a palpable silence hung over the shoulders of the readers.
c. Marshall Mateer, 2006
Links
:: Belfast was blitzed during the Second World War in 1941. The Library stood opposite an area that was heavily bombed and later cleared for new building after years as car parking space. The Belfast Blitz, 1941.
:: Vere Foster was an educationalist and philanthropist who produced a popular series of writing copy books:
:: Vere Foster copybooks in Shapesoftime.
:: Vere Foster schoolbooks, by Public Record Office N.Ireland.
:: About Belfast Central Library.
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Shapes of Time
Copyright - Copyleft
Shapes of Time
Time stood still.jpg)
