The Boys' Brigade in Belfast was born in turmoil and has lived bravely in turmoil ever since. The pioneer was William McVicker, a young man who wanted to do something for the boys of a poor part of Belfast where he was secretary of a Mission Sunday School. He read about William Smith's success with the B.B.in Scotland, so he took ship to Glasgow to meet Smith himself and learn how to do it. McVicker called the Founder 'a man it did me good to shake hands with', and the two men sat late at night talking of what might be done in Ireland. When he came home again, McVicker and a few enthusiastic friends drew up plans for a Belfast Company, following the example and advice of his good friend William Smith.

It was then the trouble started. The city magistrates would not hear of it. Anyone in Belfast trying to form a religious youth movement was asking for trouble, especially if it involved drill with rifles! The authorities quoted the Whiteboys Act and told McVicker to give up his idea. The Whiteboys were a secret Irish patriotic society of earlier in the century. They wore a green ribbon and campaigned against landlords, Orangemen and authority in general. The law of the land had declared them illegal some seventeen years before. But memories are long in Ireland, and there must be no excuse for further religious trouble, especially among young people.So, no B.B., which sounded very like another outlaw society, with its drill and bands and parades.

These were fighting words to William McVicker, and he was not to be daunted. He argued and persisted day after day, taking the matter eventually as far as the Lord Lieutenant himself. At last permission was granted, and the lst Belfast Company of The Boys' Brigade was enrolled with forty Boys on the last day of the year 1888. But there were to be no rifles! The Company was connected with St. Mary Magdalene Parish Church, with William McVicker as Captain. He was to be Captain for more than 25 years, and his son William H. McVicker was Captain after him. Together they were to do as much for the B.B. in Ireland as William Smith and his sons did for the Movement at large.

The district of Belfast where the B.B. began was very poor, with large families and much overcrowding. Clothing was a problem.McVicker and his friends had a lot of debate about putting the Boys into a plain navy blue jacket to wear as a uniform as well as the accoutrements of cap, belt and haversack. They decided it would not do to give some Boys a jacket and expect others to buy it, so the idea was dropped.

Route marches for recruitment and the brave sound of a bugle band made the B.B. popular. Within three years there were thirteen Companies in Belfast, enough for a Battalion, and nine others in Ulster.William McVicker used the Glasgow pattern as a model, with drill, P.T., Bible Class, and the Boys' Room, with football and cricket for out-of doors. The Boys' Room for games and books and magazines was the most popular feature of every Company in days when there was no cinema or T. V. and no space for a restless boy at home.

But the early years in Northern Ireland were not easy.Perhaps this was because the parents were not greatly interested, or were suspicious of a movement that had been outlawed at first by the authorities.The more prosperous Belfast citizens were cautious. They did not supply the powerful leadership which Glasgow city merchants and churchmen gave so enthusiastically and where almost every B.B. Captain was also an Officer in the Volunteers. Many Companies in Northern Ireland did not survive, and were disbanded.

'Drill is rather a weak point with us,' McVicker had to confess. Only three Companies in Belfast have an unbroken record since 1890. Nevertheless, there was courage and a good spirit. One harmonious feature was that the Irish Companies were widely interdenominational, representing the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, and Moravian Churches. The Officers knew that their first loyalty was to 'The advancement of Christ's Kingdom among Boys'. Field Days, Battalion competitions and Camp all fostered esprit de corps, and the Annual Inspections display. It was a proud day when the Battalion was reviewed by Field-Marshal Baron Roberts, V.C., of Kandahar and Waterford, Commander-in-Chief in Ireland and the supreme hero of the British Empire.

William Smith came frequently to Northern Ireland to see how this lively offspring was getting on. There was an Irish happy-go-lucky attitude in some Companies which did not always accord with the Founder's strict standards. For instance, it was minuted by the Belfast Battalion Executive in 1910:

The Commanding Officer of the Battalion is hereby given power to summon any Companies he thinks fit to a preliminary drill and, if necessary, to order any incompetent Company not to parade at the Battalion Inspection.

A young Dublin clergyman came to Belfast in 1891 to visit a friend. He came across 'the little red book' on the study table in his host's house, and sat down to read the B.B. Manual from end to end. He went south full of excitement, and the lst Dublin Company was the result.It was the beginning of one of the truly excellent Battalions of The Boys' Brigade.

The years of World War I were difficult for the Belfast Battalion, first because of an epidemic of scarlet fever which closed down church halls, and later when the military authorities decreed that every Company which used drill in its programme must have a permit to do so. In the political disturbances of the early twenties there was danger at every street corner and a curfew which ordered everyone indoors by 10 p.m. '

But there were flashes of sunshine in the general gloom.The Battalion bought a twelve acre farm at Ganaway in County Down, and that was to bring golden memories of Camp to one generation of Boys after another.And Belfast proudly sent a thousand Officers and Boys to the Jubilee Review at Hampden Park, Glasgow, in 1933, by way of Larne and Stranraer at an inclusive cost of ten shillings and sixpence a head.

In World War II Belfast was right in the firing line.In the Spring of 1941 enemy bombers dropped incendiaries, high explosive bombs and parachute bombs all across the city, damaging or destroying the dock area, churches, hospitals and the work-places and homes of ordinary people. For many weeks on end, ten thousand men, women and children used to trudge out of the city every night to seek shelter in barns, under haystacks, even in drains in the surrounding countryside. Everyday B.B. activities were continually interrupted and rationing of food, petrol and clothing made daily life dreary.

The seventies brought political unrest again, and the end of that is not even in sight. It is dangerous to go out at night and several members of the B.B. have died or suffered grievously from gunshot wounds. Bursts of gunfire bring sleepless nights, the city sky red with the glow of raging fires. There are rows upon rows of derelict buildings and rubble. Brigade House has been set on fire, repaired and redecorated, and set on fire again. It is hard indeed to be 'Sure and Stedfast' in endless days and nights of violence and civil unrest. But The Boys' Brigade in Belfast stands fast. Blow, bugles, blow!

Belfast Boy handing out 'First for Boys' leaflets in the shopping centre.