Who remembers it?
ITL Cafe ( A cheap Ulster fry ), Trick Shop, Pet Shop ( they sold pigeons in a box and goldfish in a jampot ), Record Shop ( second hand records with no centre which had been played hundreds of times in Juke boxes ) , Bicycle Shop, Joe Kavanagh ( I buy anything ), the Music Instrument Shop( boys gazing in the window and dreaming of being a pop star ). The secondhand shops inside were dark and interesting and the used Bookshops filled with musty books. Outside the handcarts filled with fruit and veg , attended to by men with red / black or blue / black striped "dunchers". Newsboys selling " Teles ", shouting some strange message, "Desaxt" or something like that.
Donald

I think you must have pressed the vanishing type button Joe!!!!!!!

Liz

Joe
That's probably your most sensible posting in quite a while.

I was only in Smithfield market a few times and remember well the second hand shops and in particular the music shop. In the late 60’s I bought my first new guitar there as the prices were reasonable in comparison to other places, but any savings plus more were spent that afternoon in Billy Napiers and George
Halls celebrating.
Terry

Donald ,LR, et al;
That’s why the wife is The Boss! I wrote some great stuff, but where did it go?
Actually, I wanted to know if Ireland still closes down for Good Friday. Sorry, you lovely religious people, but, as the Yanks say, that bugs me,. I also said that I can hardly believe that Donald remembers all those names of shops etc. I once got a well-deserved smack on the ear for standing on a stinkbomb in The Magic Box, or a shop with a name like that, in Smithfield, Belfast.
At the end of Railway Street, Lisburn, there was a secondhand bookshop, where I used to pay three or four pence a week to borrow books. Tarzan, The Saint, Sudden,(fastest gun alive), I read them all. I was fourteen, and had reached the end of my ‘education’.
How long does it take to drive from Belfast to Giant’s Causeway, and is it worth it?
Is there a restaurant in Lisburn or Belfast, where I can buy Irish Stew? NO, I’m not kidding.
Jim (Collins), have you severed your connection with Niagara?
Joe

Dabbler / Joe
I cannot remember a secondhand bookshop in Railway St, there was the public Libary in the Courthouse building beside the Station, which later moved into the old Post office in Railway St after it became vacant as the Post moved to Linenhall St.?
It,s about an hour,s drive to the Giants causeway, I find the quickest way is up the M1 to Moira, then Antrim, and on to Bushmills, stopping of course for a wee quick "Juke "into the Distillery and a" wee drap aff the crater".
Donald

Go the coast road to the Causeway, through Larne etc. much more scenery.

I agree with Fraser. You must head to Larne and take the coast road. It is only a 50 minute trip to Larne (go to the Via Michelin site and do a map).
The coast road is something to wonder at and you can still do the GC and Bushmills with ease. You can als walk the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge if you have a head for heights, but make sure you go there before Bushmills!!!
Whichever you decide to do, be safe and enjoy it.
LR

Not sure if the rope bridge is erected at Easter, I know they used to dismantle it for winter.
That TV ad for Gallagher cigarettes in the 50s when cigarette advertising was allowed came to mind just now.
It was a verse sung and went " Carrickarede has a rope bridge, you cross it and shake in your shoes, you,ll be needin a smoke when you get there, be sure that it,s Gallagher,s Blues!"
Like Lowroader already said, I,m a mine of usless information.
So everybody, Spring has arrived, the Mrs and I are off to Cloister Andecs this morning, to repent our sins and partake of the good Cloister beer,mature cheese, Pretzels and roast leg of pork ( Schweinshaxen ).
Prosit
Donald

Thanks for all the info folks. I know that the County Antrim that I visit this year will be a very different place from the one I left. The Lisburn that I remember as a ten-year-old was different to when I was eighteen.
But like one or two who have previously posted here, I prefer to remember the nice things, and hope I am not too disappointed.
I was fortunate in avoiding any of the nasty stuff to which Fraser wishes to draw attention, but, reading Lost Lives, I see that I could have encountered even worse, had I stayed.
I must just add that I remember watching, with great excitement, the great Reg Harris.
Joe

Dabbler: The second hand bookshop you were refering to was not in Railway Street but at the top of Bachelors Walk.It was owned and run by a woman called Mrs Avery.

‘mercury’s mate’, thanks for that wee bit of info. It’s a sort of link to long ago.
Joe