Paperboy: An Enchanting True Story of a Belfast Paperboy Coming to Terms with the Troubles

Paperboy: An Enchanting True Story of a Belfast Paperboy Coming to Terms with the Troubles
Tony Macaulay

It’s Belfast, 1975. The city lies under the dark cloud of the Troubles, and hatred fills the air like smoke. But Tony Macaulay has just turned twelve and he’s got a new job. He’s going to be a paperboy. And come rain or shine – or bombs and mortar – he will deliver…Paperboy lives in Upper Shankill, Belfast, in the heart of the conflict between Loyalists and Republicans. Bombings are on the evening news, rubble lies where buildings once stood, and rumours spread like wildfire about the IRA and the UDA.But Paperboy lives in a world of Doctor Who, Top of the Pops and fish suppers. His battles are fought with all the passion of Ireland’s opposing sides – but against acne, the dentist and the ‘wee hoods’ who rob his paper money. On his rounds he hums songs by the Bay City Rollers, dreams about outer space and dreams even more about the beautiful Sharon Burgess.In this touching, funny and nostalgic memoir, Tony Macaulay recounts his days growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, the harrowing years which saw neighbour fighting neighbour and brother fighting brother. But in the midst of all this turmoil, Paperboy, a scrappy upstart with a wicked sense of humour and sky-high dreams, dutifully goes about his paper round. He is a good paperboy, so he is.Paperboy proves that happiness can be found even in the darkest of times; it is a story that will charm your socks off, make you laugh out loud and brings to life the culture, stories and colourful characters of a very different – but very familiar – time.

Tony Macaulay

Paperboy

An Enchanting True Story of a Belfast Paperboy Coming to Terms with the Troubles

Contents

Cover

Title Page (#u911c26fe-89aa-56f6-8526-94cd482736af)

Dedication (#u0201ef59-e557-5fcd-8171-781295422238)

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Recruitment and Induction

Chapter 2 - Hoods and Robbers

Chapter 3 - The Belfast Crack

Chapter 4 - Secrets at School

Chapter 5 - A Rival Arrives

Chapter 6 - Three Steps to Heaven

Chapter 7 - Tips and Investments

Chapter 8 - Good Livin’

Chapter 9 - Wider Horizons

Chapter 10 - Paper Mum

Chapter 11 - Scouts, Bombs and Bullets

Chapter 12 - A Final Verbal Warning

Chapter 13 - Sharing Streets with Soldiers

Chapter 14 - Save the Children

Chapter 15 - Peace in the Papers

Chapter 16 - Puppy Love

Chapter 17 - Musical Distractions

Chapter 18 - Across the Walls

Chapter 19 - Winners

Chapter 20 - The Last Round

Acknowledgements

Biography

Copyright

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my parents, Betty and Eric Macaulay, their good friends, Ella and Harry Maguire, and all the voluntary youth leaders who kept young people off the streets and safe in Belfast in the 1970s.They are the unsung heroes of the Troubles.

Introduction

I was a paperboy. This never made it to my CV. So, just for the record, the dates of employment were 1975–1977. The place was Belfast.

I delivered the evening Belfast Telegraph – forty-eight Belly Tellys each night in the darkness. Belfast in the seventies was like the newspapers I delivered. Everything was black and white, albeit Orange and Green. Everything got smudged and ruined, like dark ink from the stories that dirtied my hands every day. But there were chinks of colour too, like in the weekly glossy magazines I provided to the more affluent customers of the Upper Shankill.

I was a paperboy. Aged twelve. Thin and easily crumpled. Blown around the streets by greater forces. More smart than tough. Yearning for peace, but living through Troubles.

And yet, as you will learn in these slightly less fragile pages, I was happy with my calling. I was a good paperboy. I delivered.

Chapter 1

Recruitment and Induction

I was too young, so I was. You had to be a teenager to be a paperboy for Oul’ Mac. He gave my big brother the paper round in our street when he was thirteen. By the time I was twelve I was jealous of the money and the status. I couldn’t wait an extra year to get my foot on this first rung of the employment ladder. So one wet Belfast night I persuaded my brother to introduce me to Oul’ Mac and to inform him of my eagerness to enter his employment.

My first job interview was a nerve-wracking experience.

‘Have you any rounds going, Mr Mac?’ I asked. (You never called him Oul’ to his face.)

‘Aye, alright,’ said Oul’ Mac, ‘but no thievin’, or you’re out!’

I concluded that my application for the post had been successful. He hadn’t even asked if I was thirteen yet, so I didn’t have to tell lies. Lies were a sin back then.

So, at the age of twelve, I set out on my career as a paperboy. My fear of age exposure gradually dissolved as I approached my thirteenth birthday, when I would become completely legit. I no longer had nightmares about being arrested by the RUC for underage paper delivery.

No sooner had I taken up my new position than my big brother decided that paper rounds were only for wee kids and he summarily left the arena of newspaper delivery entirely to me. I did nothing to dissuade him. I was delighted. Now the papers would be my exclusive territory. My wee brother was still more interested in Lego and Milky Bars and Watch with Mother, but I could sense that he envied my new career and was longing for the day when he too could follow in the family tradition.