Archive (334 life histories found)
'I didn't get to visit Dublin until I was in my teens and Aunt Lizzie brought me back for a week. She bought me a lovely pair of blue shoes'
A great source of interest in the village was the trains which ran from Sligo to Inniskillen. They were people in the village who would go to meet the train and then relate who got on or off or if packages arrived for different people. It was the…
'During the war things were very tight. The tea was very scarce so my mother used to buy it blackmarket from someone she knew'
In those days there was no such word as diet as I think we never suffered from too much food. We got good wholesome food. Bread was baked every day and that is why flour was bought by the big bags which were utilised for sheets. On special…
Tags: black market, food, food shortage, fresh products, war
'It always seemed to be beautiful and sunny with the perfume of stock through the air. We would come home with loads of produce from their garden'
Relations on my father's side were the Mc Namara's . They lived about four miles outside. My earliest recollection of them visiting us was when they came on a big side car and when the visit was over they had lanterns which had to be lit - I…
Tags: garden, gramophone, produce, relatives, vistis
'When war was declared seemingly the concensus in the village was that no one supported the Hotel, but Daddy donned his hat and walked down the main street and into the Hotel as if nothing was wrong'
We played a lot around the barracks and were a bit afraid of the black hole - the cell. After a fair if somebody was the worse for drink the sergeant gave him lodgings for the night. At that time there were five garda and one sergeant in the…
'He said he had seen her and she was wearing something light. They all had a good laugh over that'
Daddy loved books and music and hearing of faraway places. I think at one stage when he was young there was a band in Dromahair because he was learning the flute. He knew all the notes and he was forever saying it was the most wonderful instrument. …
'TB in that period was rampant and everyone was terrified of it'
There was a great sense of neighbourliness in the village. Patrick Oates who used to run a hackney service got a stroke and was sick for quite a while. Mammy used to take turns with other women to sit up all night with him. She would arrive in…
Tags: community life, neighbourliness, radios, sickness, TB
'Somehow, without them seeing, she got a hold of the big scissors and started to chop'
We had cousins living in Sligo an Aunt in Bridge Street Auntie Maggie (a dressmaker) and Aunt May Teeling St. I visited the house in Teeling St. once that I can remember. I can visualize the long hall and then the living room and my Aunt May. I…
Tags: Aunt, Cousin, curls, death after childbirth, holidays
'I was sleeping in the little room off the kitchen and I could hear all the muffled sounds of the men carrying the coffin in through the kitchen'
There was always something happening in the village. The turf man came with a cartload of turf which we would buy but then we children had the awful job of bringing it into the shed as he would just empty it in the lane. How I loathed that job. …
'Preparations would be going on for days as the house had to be cleaned and major cooking had to be done to make sure all the helpers were fed'
The day of the Threshing was a great day as from early morning in Granda's house the place became alive with people coming and going. Preparations would be going on for days as the house had to be cleaned and major cooking had to be done to make…
'I have a picture of myself looking into the flames, my grandfather singing and the sound of the plink plonk of the milk falling into the bucket as my mother milked the cows'
As my grandfather lived outside the village and they had no woman in the house when her sister Lizzie left for work in Dublin my mother would go out to his house every night and do another day's work. When the porridge was cooked on the range and…
Tags: baked brad, cows, fresh milk, grandfather