Away back about 1956, I would have been about 12 years of age, myself and my father rode on bikes from Ballymurphy over the Hightown Road to the Village of Mallusk. It was just to be just another excursion on a sunny Sunday, one of many which we would have taken, but this trip was to be different, it was to leave a lasting impression on me and indeed influenced my life. After having bought ice cream at the tin hut that passed for a shop/kiosk, we wandered into the nearby old Cemetery, nothing new in this, we often looked at old headstone inscriptions on similar treks, we had been to Ballycarry to the grave of the Ballycarry Martyr, young Willie Nelson and indeed , viewed in the same graveyard the tomb of James Orr, “The Ballycarry Bard“ . We had been to Templepatrick to see where the noble William Orr resting in the grave of his beloved sister “Ally“. as I have said, this trip was nothing different, but it was it was to leave a life long impression in me.

“Here is the grave of Jemmy Hope the 1798 man, his wife Rose and sons, Robert Emmet Hope and Henry Joy McCracken Hope, in that grave lies his other son, Luke”, said my father, “and just there is the grave of the Biggar Family”. Somehow my eyes became transfixed on the stone to the right of Jemmy Hope‘s.. to that of his son Luke‘s. It seemed sad to me that he was buried there alone while all his family were together under the other stone. And what was this Rushlight mentioned on his gravestone. It was later that I learned that “The Rushlight” was the name of a paper Luke published of Luke Hope may be viewed by many as a failure, and yet, This “failure” gained him the highest respect from his friends?. I was puzzled and impressed by the success of the failure of “this simple mannered man” and his humble “Rushlight”, named after a form of candle used by the working class. I read the inscription on his stone and was to return there many times over the years to read it again and again, later, I brought my own children and my grand children…..it reads…

Luke Hope, a compositor, launched his “Rushlight” on Friday, December 3rd 1825 from Clarke & Hope’s General Printing Office, High Street, it was an eight page paper and sold for 3 (old pence). Luke’s dream faded with issue number 41 on September 9th 1826 after only 10 months, this issue carried, “The Last Will And Testament Of Rushlight”. In this will Luke wrote that although no coaxing or canvassing was made for unsolicited patronage for the journal , “the encouragement received, however above our deserts, has been insufficient to ensure our success . After an “ephemeral” existence, our paper, is this day extinguished; for want either of intrinsic merit, or adequate support”.. and so the Rushlight was sadly extinguished . Luke Hope went to work for a while at “The Northern Whig” but was dead soon after, at the young age of 33. It seems Luke partook a little too much of the old “Water Of Life” , yes Luke may have had a fondness for strong drink, but he had a dream, and as a drunk once said, “I may be lying on my back in the gutter, but I am looking up at the stars“, things may not always be as they seem. One issue of Rushlight shortly after Luke's death appeared on the streets of Belfast, "THE GHOST OF RUSHLIGHT", a one off publication, was published in memory of Luke by his friends. And so, Rushlight was unheard of until I resurrected it as, Rushlight The Belfast Magazine , in 1972 , I had also incorporated the name of Dr. William Drennan’s, Belfast Magazine, which only lasted six years, and since then used it as a sub title. I still visit Mallusk regularly and place flowers at the grave of the Hope Family and these days my mind often wander back to that simmer of 1956 when  as a child stood there with my late father.