Early Years
Bratty first came to attention in his native Ballynafeigh (an area in south Belfast) as a teenage street-fighter battling with local Catholic/republican youths and was responsible for altering the Workers' Party of Ireland slogan "Sectarianism Kills Workers" on the side of Havelock House to "Sectarianism Kills Taigs". Bratty, who was known for his hatred of black people, also appended the initials of the Ku Klux Klan to this piece of graffiti. During his years as a street-fighter, Bratty, who had distinctive oriental shaped eyes, was given the nickname 'Chinky' by his Catholic opponents. Given the proximity of the two communities on the Ormeau Road, Bratty had grown up alongside Catholics and as such had for a number of years been accused of terrorising people he knew to be Catholic with beatings and intimidation before becoming involved in murder around 1990.
Read more about this topic: Joe Bratty
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:
“Parents ... are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don’t fulfil the promise of their early years.”
—Anthony Powell (b. 1905)
“We have good reason to believe that memories of early childhood do not persist in consciousness because of the absence or fragmentary character of language covering this period. Words serve as fixatives for mental images. . . . Even at the end of the second year of life when word tags exist for a number of objects in the child’s life, these words are discrete and do not yet bind together the parts of an experience or organize them in a way that can produce a coherent memory.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Let us love nobly, and live, and add again
Years and years unto years, till we attain
To write threescore: this is the second of our reign.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)