Cultural Loss and Preservation

Finn regrets the loss of her childhood world. The Belfast that she once knew has vanished, and she recalls it in loving detail. She remembers the candy store where she bought a tin of barley sugar as a present from her grandmother for her father. She recalls the color of the tin and how it was wrapped. She also recalls her days spent playing in the park; the sights and sounds of the bacon shop where she waited for someone to escort her across the road; and the skipping song which named the streets of west Belfast.

Those streets contained the whole world for her. As the police walk her down a block where there used to be a babyclothes store and an undertaker, she observes: "Everything from birth to death on that road. Once. But gone now—just stumps where the buildings used...