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Over
the last few days of wonderful weather my partner
and I who both hold a keen interest in the environment
and nature have enjoyed our local facilities. With
a ten minute walk from our home we can sit on the
side of a beautiful mountain and overlook the city
of Belfast. Five minutes and a lazy dander from our
door in another direction we are then inside a large
open park which holds an array of tended flowerbeds
and shrubbery. Then at the bottom of the park and
across the road, is a nature reserve. In it one can
find many varieties of wildlife settled around the
lake from the swans to other families of various water
birds busily getting on with their tasks. While on
the other hand when walking around its surrounding
meadows you can explore the numerous types of foliage
at hand. Yet I do not live in a leafy country village
but in the heart of West Belfast. This is the other
often unacknowledged (outside of its community) part
of ‘the West’. It is indeed the other side
of West Belfast, a side that can bring satisfaction
to those that seek to explore it and acknowledge it.
The
nature reserve just of the Falls Road is a place where
one can just chill out and take in the pleasure of
nature in motion. Or alternatively one can walk around
the ‘bog meadows’ - such a name though could
conjure up more unpleasant images given the local
lingo. Yet such a local and well kept reserve is a
part of ‘the Falls’ that brings happiness
to many. Across the road from the reserve’s entrance
is the Falls Park while each side of the road holds
cemeteries, These cemeteries hold an immense history
and both of us (without seeming morbid) finding pleasure
and intrigue touring them through, seeing and discovering
a whole local history emerging. Again much of what
was hidden amongst overgrowth is now starting to be
unveiled due to work being done. Seeing some of the
masonry and the monuments from yesteryear tells of
yet other stories. Over time I have found that if
one lifts their heads above head level another whole
history emerges through the architecture and buildings
all around and above us.
Yet
as I begin to acknowledge, and both of us begin to
find a growing interest in such, it is the mountain
on which we sit that brings both inspiration and at
times contentment. On many occasions my partner and
I sit on Black Mountain, my partner sketches as I
pen articles while we over look the city of Belfast.
Much of what I had written of yesteryear has found
both inspiration and memories while sitting there.
I had remembered as a child during the mid to late
seventies my grandfather or my uncles and I going
from the ‘Murph’ (Ballymurphy) and up onto
Black Mountain. While today when I have friends from
elsewhere visiting, the view driving up the Springfield
Road and seeing Black Mountain coming into view always
raises comments of admiration. When such comments
are raised it always brings a smile over my face.
Yet Black Mountain, that beautiful mountain, is being
destroyed through quarrying. Like me, as for many
it holds so many precious memories and even today
continues to give one inspiration.
For
many years environmentalists and leading campaigners
such as Terry Enright have been at the forefront to
save Black Mountain from destruction. Business and
profit with 30 year (unprecedented) contracts, have
been given this ability to dictate from afar, so as
to cause that continued and immense destruction on
such a unique part of our city. Those who benefit
are a few, those who lose out are the people and the
generations of our children to come. This situation
should end. There are many persons who like those
who have for many years been the backbone of the campaign
to save Black Mountain that are deeply concerned about
this still continual destruction.
Nature,
Back Mountain, and all the pleasure it has brought
and should bring to future generations should not
be lost for the monetary benefit of a few. Such natural
beauty should not be destroyed for the whim of a quick
pound.
The
campaign to save Black Mountain is ongoing and intensifying
with a number of events to highlight this injustice
organised for the near future. There are many persons
and organisations who would of course agree with such
sentiments to save the mountain but what is needed
is continued and united pressure to end this destruction.
Those who have fought long and hard to save Black
Mountain should be supported in whatever way in their
quest to save our precious mountain as so many more
generations (as have many past and present) can continue
to feel the pleasure and satisfaction that it and
nature brings.
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