more CHIPS WITH EVERYTHING 2018-2022

Chips with everything was a research project facilitated by Household Belfast and their three year community project based in the Sailortown area od North Belfast. Exploring the history and heritage of the area, once a thriving community of dockers and their families that supported Belfasts global harbour, this project worked with two community groups on food related workshops and projects. Interested in hearing the stories and traditions from a community in decline these workshops were designed to get people around the table. Throughout the project I worked alongside Household with a group of young people and an established craft group.

This project was sadly interrupted by covid-19 and came to an end. It is with thanks to all that took part in the project, I hold the upmost respect for the stories and tales that you shared with you and will always look on the streets of Sailortown with fondness and joy.

1. Food based workshops got the young people talking about their experiences of living in Sailortown, an area which at the time had little access to basic services with most families having to cross a series of busy road and underpasses (M3) to access shops. As a result of these workshops we devised an idea for a community pop-up cafe, with the young people deciding on the menu, pricing, entertainment and atmosphere. Helping them to realise the vision, The Captain’s Table opened in the Mission to Seafarers with help from Alissa Kliest, Stephen Miller, Clare Mcquillian and the staff and volunteers of the Mission to Seafarers.

Craft based workshops with an established group in Sailortown were held over a series of evenings where we painted tiles, made tea, ate cake and chatted about the changing state of Sailortown from when it used to be filled with working families to being shipped out on the promise of new affordable housing in the area, which to this day had been had ground broken.

The area slowly declined, the famous Rotterdam Bar at the end of ship street closed after being an intergenerational haven outside of the sectarian dangers of the troubles and then the closing of St. Joseph’s church on Ship Street by the bishop which was the proverbial last nail on the cross. An attempt to reignite investment in the area has been slow.

After a year working with the women of Sailortown, we were facing the affects of covid-19 and communication slowed then stopped with the community. All of the work that makes up Pass The Baby Under The Donkey* was inspired by the stories of these women, and was supposed to be the set of a public event sharing all the recipes we had collected, shared and enjoyed. This event was postponed. *a supposed remedy for whopping cough, one of many old wives tales told to me during my time in Sailortown