The Falls

Description

Vincent Dargan was born and lived off the Falls Road in Belfast from 1944 until the early days of the Troubles.

This remarkable collection of photographs from that time looks back to different days – when everyone knew everyone, when doors were never locked, and when there was a true sense of community.

Vincent Dargan is a street photographer from the Lower Wack, an area off the Falls Road in West Belfast, who went on to work for the Irish News. From the mid-1960s, he took photographs of his local area, featuring his neighbours, the tradesmen, the shops, the houses – the lives of the ordinary people.

This book is an unparalleled collection of more than 150 images of this politically and culturally significant area of the city at a time of great change and conflict. From the playground on the roof of Slate Street school, children with Easter baskets, and prams parked outside the front doors of the terraced houses, to the Free Belfast barricades, the arrival of the British army and the extensive housing redevelopment, this book is a tribute to and celebration of the community and people of the Falls.