Archive (334 life histories found)

The first of November was always a holy day of obligation and we all went to Mass. We were off school of course, and often I was in Dungiven.The second of November, All Souls' Day saw us at the church for hours, making visits for the Holy Souls in…

We had three meals a day then. There was porridge for breakfast and often when we were at morning Mass, Daddy would buy fresh baps for us on the way home. Every day we had potatoes in one form or another. If we did not have spuds, we felt that we did…

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…

In Belfast, during term time, I had a few friends in the neighbouring streets. There was Margaret McCusker and her twin sister June, who lived at 54 Rosapenna Street. Their father worked in the aircraft factory and was also a member of the 'B'…

All school holidays and occasional weekends were spent in my grandmother's house on Main Street Dungiven. When I was only a small baby, my parents agreed to leave me with my grandparents and Aunt Rosalin, for a week, to give my mother a bit of a…

A few of us in my class were chosen to sit the eleven plus examination which would qualify us for places in grammar schools. There was a lot of time, effort and energy expended both by Miss Malone and by ourselves. We also learned dressmaking and…

The teachers whom I recall were Miss Bernadette Higgins, Miss Una McGuinness, Miss Eileen Murphy, Miss Rosaleen McPhillips, Miss Peggy Loughran, Miss Kitty Byrne, Miss Tessa McManus, Mrs McMullan, Miss Patsy Malone who ruled with a rod of iron and…