It was the latter that I took up when I began singing from behind curtains at the age of 5 in my aunties house in Chatham Street.

Rebel songs by bands such as the Wolfe Tones and the Flying Column were favourites among the teenagers on the streets of Belfast.

The ssong Tom Williams on my Ireland a Troubled Romance album I learned from a rag and bone man who pushed a pram round the streets and would sing for a bag of rags or a penny. It is reputed to have been written by Jimmy Steele Commander of the IRA in Belfast in the early 1970s

It is about a Belfast Republican hanged in the 1940s for his part in the Irish struggle. Buried in a prison grave his body was re-interred in the Republican plot at Milltown Cemetary as part of the Good Friday Agreement. To listen to it go to CDBaby

Living in war torn Belfast had it's ups and downs. The ups were the great camaraderie to be found in the local community and within families. The downs were the daily bombings shootings army raids and the loss of friends or loved ones killed as a result of the ongoing conflict.

On the Music and poetry page there is a poem I wrote under the pen name of P McMahon that sums up what life was like for children in Belfast during those dark days. The song Watch the bullets at the foot of the poem is taken from those experiences.

When I wrote it I could not help but think of the children worldwide caught up in war and civil conflict in particular those living in Iraq, Beirut and the Middle East.

Belfast had many characters who were great ambassadors for the city. John Joseph Monaghan better known as Rinty Monaghan was the world flyweight boxing champion in the 1940s. He retired through illness undefeated in the 1950s and took up singing as a career.

One of the first Irish boxers to sing in the ring he died in the 1980s. I remember him coming into the Milky Way cafe on Belfast's Royal Avenue for an Ulster fry to the shouts of "com on Rinty give us a song"

I wrote the Ballad of Rinty Monaghan last year (click on music stave for lyrics )

For a review of my music click on Harpmagazine

Click on the title Rinty Monaghan for a version played on BBC radio Wales and is used with the kind permission of the BBC. For information on the Celtic Heartbeat show that featured the song go to BBC Radio Wales

I was born in Belfast and grew up at the height of the troubles there in the 1970s. I attended Saint Paul's Primary school on the Falls Road and Saint Gabriel's in Ardoyne.

I grew up in Beechmount and Ardoyne in North Belfast. Music I listened to at that time was whatever was in the charts and home grown Irish rebel and Traditional.