Ahoy for Joy Read Online Free

back and snooze, feigning disinterest hoping that they would avoid becoming the victim of a concerted attack, perhaps where personal resentments that had built over time were settled.
    Such resentments did exist, for besides the usual arguments and disagreements, BB members came from all different backgrounds and in terms of social class, almost every group was represented. The church from which the company mainly recruited was situated in an area where the demographics were changing fast. The families of some members had been attending for generations and were drawn from the affluent classes of merchants, factory owners and managerial professionals that used to live in the large residences close to the city centre. These people had long since deserted the area and moved to the leafy suburbs with more modern housing, improved law and order and the calmness and serenity of tree lined avenues, neatly trimmed hedges and flowers and shrubs blooming in the gardens. But traditions hang heavy in Belfast and many would still travel across town to attend church, offering generous financial support in return for Christian witness and perhaps an element of stability in an uncertain world.
    By the late 1970s, the area surrounding the church had become further run down and ravaged by sectarian violence and social unrest. Many houses were empty. Some were grand ornate residences of yesteryear that now stood still and silent, their windows boarded, now home only to a town fox or two. Others were squatters’ pads, occupied more by drunks and outcasts than Bohemians and revolutionaries where the muffled sounds of nonsense chatter could still be heard in the dead of night. The shops in the area were now mainly of a specialist nature, selling car parts or second hand furniture and there was also a huge cinema, the subject of a bomb blast several years earlier, that stood on the corner of the main road, a burnt out shell, like a giant monument to a society that had gone horribly wrong.
    There was only one shop, a general store, that served the local community in any way and it sat grey and lonely with dim lights inside and windows protected with huge mesh trellises, more resembling an army barracks than a retail outlet. While a stoic working class still existed, the area was now predominantly home to the downtrodden of society, those without the means to move out or to others, underperformers, social misfits, or those who just sought low cost housing. Unemployment was high, prospects dire and the streets dangerous. Still the church persevered with an unwavering resolve, a combination of Christian commitment and dogged determination not to let the gangland culture win. As a result new members were found from amongst these groups. For many young men of the day, the Boys’ Brigade represented a perilously thin line between a life of honest endeavour, albeit a challenging one and one of misplaced political action, or just good old fashioned crime and punishment.
    This lead to a diverse membership, almost irrational in its range, from the privileged elite of Belfast society who would go on to attend the top universities throughout the British Isles, with the prospects such an education offered to others whose life opportunities would be limited to humble occupations, or more often unemployment. This fractious mix of society would meet and function on a weekly basis pursuing activities including regimented drill, team games (volleyball was popular) and badge classes.
    Michael had never been that sure where he might fit in such a diverse group, but he did know he was different, quite different from most or even all of the boys there. His tacit intellect and thoughtful sensitivity was like a red rag to the rougher kids more adept at functioning in high spirited, streetwise environments, who considered him privileged and accused him of pretending he was
better
than them. This was far from the truth for while he had won a scholarship to a good