Rosemary McCloskey

In 1953 Queen Elizabeth the second of England was crowned after the death of her father King George the sixth. There were street parties to mark the occasion and since the weather in Belfast is so unreliable the organisers asked my mother if she would allow them to hold it in our back yard since we had half of it roofed. My mother agreed and trestle tables and planks on cement blocks for seats were set up. The neighbour women took over our scullery for catering, and there was a real buzz until I walked in and announced that there was only one queen and that was the Queen of Heaven. Well, that created an instant silence, until Mrs Majury intervened and said that I had not heard that in my home and that it must have been from the school. "No", I replied, "My Granny told me". It is well I remember that party. All the local children were given tin boxes with a picture of the queen on them and wee folding red white and blue plastic cups. I think there were bars of chocolate inside them and we used them for pencil cases afterwards. We had sanwiches and cakes and plenty of lemonade and sarsaparilla.