Archive (4 life histories found)
'Their house was always spic and span and of course like many of the houses around, painted and done up for the twelfth of July each year.'
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'…
Tags: Catholic, children, neighbours, playing, Protestant, street
'The question of whether you were a Protestant, a Catholic or a Jew mattered not, as if anyone needed help, it was always forthcoming from both old and young.'
My childhood memories are all centred on 17, Skegoneill Drive, Belfast, where I lived with my parents and sisters, Violet and Phyllis. I have no recollection of Gainsborough Drive, where I was born, but the good fortune I have enjoyed all my life…
Tags: Belfast, Catholic, Jewish, neighbours, Protestant
'I am back as a little girl peeping out through the curtains, looking at the men staggering under the enormous drums, battering them until their wrists bled'
I suppose Cloughmills was a special place in that in the Northern Irish context, for most of the time, there were harmonious relations between the people. Our parish of Dunloy and Cloughmills had three centres of population. At one end was Dunloy,…
Tags: Catholic, community, drum, Marches, Orange march, Protestant
'Protestants had a reputation of being better workers than Catholics, deserved or not'
Religion had a huge influence on all aspects of our lives. Being Catholics we were not allowed to associate too closely with Protestants for fear that they might contaminate the purity of our religion. There were a number of protestant families in…
Tags: Catholicism, Protestant, religion