Archive (1372 life histories found)

Leaving primary school age was twelve and a half or thirteen years, some went on to secondary school, others went straight into the work force. Economic necessity in many families in the middle 1950s dictated that all who could, contributed to the…

My best friend in those days lived across the road from us, his name was Aloysius Kennedy, nicknamed Alo. We spent all our free time together playing games and roaming the neighbourhood. At a late stage in our friendship, just before we left primary…

I never started drinking alcohol, perhaps because there was a record of hard drinking in my family. My uncle Jack was a famous drinker in the Dublin area. Drinking hours were severely tight and being 'found on enclosed premises after hours' was a…

In St Canices School we were for the first time introduced to the Christian Brothers. One, whose name I don't recall, was a gentle pleasant man. During religion class he particularly emphasised the dictum:  'Love your enemy says Christ, Do good to…

People often died at home with family and friends gathered around the death bed praying and saying Rosaries. The dead person was often buried in a religious habit, Brown for the Franciscans and Blue for mostly young girls. Habits were often worn in…

Recycling was an unknown term, perhaps because nothing was wasted. Clothes were worn until the collars were frayed and then the collars were turned inside out for a new life. Dresses were dyed and also turned inside out for further use. When clothes…

At that time coal was hard to get and gas was still 'On the Glimmer' so my father rented a piece of bog on the Feather Bed Mountains near the present site of the RTE mast at Kippure. He and others cut turf, saved it, placed it in clamps and in…

Swimming in the canal was a favourite pastime for the boys round about. No girls swam, presumably because it would be seen as immodest. We were forbidden to swim in the canal, in the first place because we were unable to swim and secondly because the…

The farmland in Corragh is not great and there is a lot of bogland, so turf cutting and saving was a big part of the activity during the summer. In the middle of one piece of bogland was a raised brilliant green field with a single hawthorn tree in…

Uncle Tom always had a dog which was magically trained to respond to whistles and verbal commands. The dog was dispatched to round up the cows and bring them into the yard and also up the hills to bring the sheep down for dipping and shearing as…