Archive (11 life histories found)

I was the third of six children one died at a few months. We were always told we had a brother an angel. Daddy was a tailor and employed another man Jim Dolan (a lovely man) who lived down at the lake. He would bring us a big bag of apples when…

This was awarded to Rosemary McCloskey who worked in the Irish Centre Housing organisation in London.

This is a picture of the house that Rosemary bought when she lived and worked in Nuneaton. She lived there for almost two years then sold it and returned to Belfast.

We got an odd newspaper from England but us children were not allowed to read it. I usually got my hands on it (News of the World) and read it thoroughly. All I could see were one or two pictures of so called glamour models.Then within a few years…

University was never mentioned as nobody had the money to go. Secondary school was even fee paying. For people with large families this wasn't an option. Out of school at 14 years and into a factory mostly. Sewing was the main occupation, or…

Lindsay, Ryan and Connor. Lindsay was born in Belfast and when she was born, she lived in Wedderburn Avenue on the Erinvale Avenue at Finaghy. It was heartbreaking when Thomas and Margaret decided to go to Vancouver. Ryan and Connor became the…

As best I can recall I worked in six or seven jobs in the three or four years after I left Cathal Brugha Street. As I said before, jobs were easy to get and the pay was reasonably good. I recall that I worked in The Gresham, The Dolphin, The…

The metalwork teacher at one point told me that I should not plan on making my living out of metalwork. It's ironic that for many years in later life I made a good living out of making, selling and designing aluminium window systems. I often wonder…

My husband was very busy working as a Senior House Officer and Registrar day and night and sometimes night duties including the weekend calls. Everythign was so different in sixties and seventies than now. The standard of living and the salaries…

It seems like the other day when I landed at Heathrow Airport in a beautiful summer day on 3rd of June 1961. Both of us were young with two small children and very little experience of life and specially about the western world.My husband was a…