Archive (31 life histories found)
'...when I opened the door and came in I knew it was right for me. I always seem to have a sixth sense about houses.'
I returned home to Belfast towards the end of May 1997. The first morning after my arrival I bought my present home XXX Oldpark Road Belfast. My sisters, Cecilia and Jacqueline, had found this place for me after a lot of searching. I was limited to…
'It was difficult to find decent accommodation in Francistown even though we had been promised housing as part of the deal.'
It turned out that I knew his wife already, but had never met Andrew Banda since he was always in Botswana. Andrew kept me up to date with everything because the others did not like to speak English, and staff meetings which might have begun in…
Tags: accommodation, bedroom, Home
'People at home had been extremely generous to me and I had a few hundred pounds with me, and believe me, it was more than needed where I was going!'
There were few farewell parties for me and when I was ready to travel, Cecilia and Fr Ciaran Dallat accompanied me to London, where I stayed with Aidan O'Kane in Conway House (an Irish Centre Housing hostel for men in QuexRoad, Kilburn) for a couple…
Tags: Home, Mercy Order, Missions
'...my father started cleaning the windows, something he had not done since the day I was born. He was quite vexed at leaving me in the convent.'
It was during my year teaching in St Malachy's, that I entered the Sisters of Mercy on the Crumlin Road. My father and mother left me there on 24th September 1972. My mother told me that when he returned home again, my father started cleaning the…
'Mrs Murphy's whistle'
If we were too long away from home or didn't go back for our lunch etc. my mother would blow a pea whistle which she had and believe me it was shrill and it could be heard by all the neighbours who would know it was Mrs. Murphy's whistle. After long…
'I was born Ita Murphy on 12th of October 1956.'
I was born Ita Murphy on 12th of October, 1956, in Carleton Maternity House Portadown, Co. Armagh. My parents were Patrick Murphy, from Ballyards, an Insurance Agent and Sheila Kelly, from Lislea, Ballyards, a Linen factory worker in the nearby…