Book excerpt: The Other Belfast is the story of a boy's life between 1933 and 1953 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, before "the troubles" officially began and Belfast became known internationally as a terrorism hot spot. It is the story of a child's struggle to bond with a distant father, to survive the schoolyards and streets where boys emulated "hard men" role models, to understand the divisions between the Irish people, and to simply be a child in a rough and tumble world. From the sublime joys of love and friendship to the terror of nighttime bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe during World War II, The Other Belfast is a journey of the spirit into a long-forgotten world as seen through the eyes of an adventurous and irrepressibly joyful child.