As a former bread-server in the sixties and up to my Internment, in September 1971, I plied my trade from the Antrim Rd. to the New Lodge, Newington and upper Antrim Road.

My van became notorious for moving "things" around these districts.

One morning coming up to Xmas, 1970, my van was stopped by a joint Brit Army and RUC unit. They dragged me from the van and tore the inside apart.

I had a wry smile on my face. If they had of stopped me the previous day I would probably be still behind bars ...

Feeling cocky I berated them for harassing Catholic workers etc etc.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a soldier opening what looked to be a bottle of white lemonade. My heart sank. It was a bottle of poitin.
Bread-servers and milkmen were sought out by people who were good at finding stuff that had fallen off the back of lorries.

But it was too late. As the soldier took a swig he started to choke and cried out he had been poisoned.

The RUC man I had been giving a hard time to reached for the bottle, took a small swig and then promptly arrested me. In court i was fined £30, which at the time was about the same as a week's wages.

A local paper ran an over-the-top headline which screamed out at its readers: "POITIN RING SMASHED! BREAD-SERVER HELD!"

Joe Mulhearn sang the song regularly and, if i was in the audience, made sure everybody knew who i was ...

Only spotted this on Facebook a few hours ago