A Place Apart

Traditionally this is a city of masterful women. For generations the main local industry was shirt-making and while wives went out to earn, husbands stayed at home with the children. One can still clearly see the results of this in many families where women vigorously insist on their menfolk either supporting or not supporting the Provos. As The Troubles have progressed, from the first fine careless rapture of necessary self-defence to the founding of an efficiently run underworld, more and more women, even in strongly Republican families, have tried to restrain their sons from ‘joining the lads’.