'She was a security guard in a big shop in Belfast City Centre where Ann and I stopped for a wee garn when in town '

'She was a security guard in a big shop in Belfast City Centre where Ann and I stopped for a wee garn when in town '

Hugh Duncan remembers a woman named Mary who was a Security Guard in a shop in Belfast City. He desribes her smile and positive attitude to life. She was injured during the Troubles.

Hugh Duncan

Trinity College Dublin

1970

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Hugh Duncan

Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Life Story

Belfast

1970s

Mary was her name. I didn't know her surname. She lived in Cupar Street at the Falls Road end. She was a security guard in a big shop in Belfast City Centre where Ann and I stopped for a wee garn when in town. Always with a lovely smile on her face when we met her. It was during the troubles and then we stopped going to town as bombs went off in several places, with the result that we didn't see Mary for quite awhile.And then we met her in Ann Street, when she was shopping. We were delighted to meet her again and she was limping but still with that lovely smile on her face. I said 'every time I see you, you have a lovely smile for us "And then she came out with this profound remark. 'Well Hugh when the pain in my legs gets painful I say this wee prayer: 'Dear Lord, I thank you for the little pain I have to bear it reminds me of the terrible agony you went through before you went to the Cross and the suffering you experienced while dying there for me'.

00:01:15

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)