Belfast’s hidden river

The River Farset has been forgotten, but it still flows beneath Belfast’s High Street.

Belfast derives its name from the Irish “Béal Feirste”, which roughly translates as “the sandy ford at the mouth of the Farset”. The city was founded at the point where the ford and the Farset crossed; today you’ll find St. George’s Church on this spot, at the corner of High Street and Victoria Street.

The River Farset was a key feature of Belfast for centuries, providing a route for merchant ships and a development area for busy quaysides. It is estimated that around 50,000 people worked in the mills that were built along its banks during the nineteenth century. Without the Farset, Belfast as we know it today simply would not exist.

The River Farset disappeared around 175 years ago but, incredibly, it still exists. Many Belfast residents are completely unaware that beneath the busy High Street this ancient river still flows. It’s one of the city’s many hidden secrets, like the nine-foot wall built underneath the City Cemetery to keep the bodies of dead Catholics and Protestants apart. 

A few years ago I adapted Tony Macaulay’s memoir Paperboy into a stage musical with the singer/songwriter Duke Special. It tells the story of a young boy growing up on the Shankill Road in West Belfast at the height of the Troubles in the 1970s. One of the songs we wrote for this show was inspired by this story of this hidden river, and it was later recorded by Northern Ireland Opera. 

So, for no particularly reason, I thought I’d share the recording here. It’s very different from our original stage version, and I’m always fascinated by the ways that songs can be reinterpreted. This operatic version is beautifully sung by Catherine Donnelly and Margaret Bridge. 

And for those who are interested, here are the lyrics:

They found each other at the sandbar,
Some years before it turned to fire. 
A breaking frost,
Two rivers crossed,
And fed the town.

A pattern drawn by higher hands,
Fingerprints that linger still.
The time lurched on,
Old friends begun
To teach their sons to kill.    

A river runs beneath us,
We walk on water every day,
All the walls that grew between us
Will soon be washed away.

And where the Farset met the Lagan,
The merchant sought his fellow’s hand.
And through the gale
They took the trail
And ventured west.

Laughter heard through clockwork quays
Might echo in a lullaby.
As spindles turn,
Each soul must learn
It isn’t hard to die.

A river runs beneath us,
We walk on water every day,
All the walls that grew between us
Will soon be washed away.

Music: Duke Special
Lyrics: Andrew Doyle
Performers: Catherine Donnelly and Margaret Bridge
Pianist: Ruth McGinley
Filmed by Causeway Pictures for Northern Ireland Opera