Archive (237 life histories found)
'...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…
'The Troubles were in full fling at this time and we learnt not to allow the children out to the toilet unaccompanied, as they would be off to loot, if they heard a bomb going off.'
My next job was in St Malachy's Boys' Primary school on the New Lodge Road where I had a Primary One class. This job was an answer to my mother's prayers. I got it because Fr Brendan McMullan who was a curate in St Patrick's at the time, could not…
'Didn't the sisters in Granard convent come to the conclusion that I was in the notion of entering the convent in Belfast!!!!'
Sr. M. Angela Deignan was very good to me that summer. She invited me to her home outside Granard for a week. We had a wonderful time of it travelling around Longford and Roscommon and seeing parts of the country I had never seen. I would accompany…
Tags: convent, mass, Mercy Order, Nuns
'I remember the little shrines in the classrooms, where the children would bring flowers for Our Lady.'
The principal of the school was Sr. Marie Therese Laverty, and she ran a first class establishment where everything was in order and where the pastoral care of staff and pupils was paramount. The Sisters of Mercy believed in the philosophy of the…
Tags: Catholic, primary, Sisters of Mercy, teaching
'It is only when one is faced with real life situations, that one realises that there is so much more to learn, and this is where the voice of experience is needed as a back- up.'
My father purchased a bar called The Old House, in Albert Street the year I went to St Mary's.(1965) Because of his good nature and generosity he almost bankrupted himself and so he leased it out, before it was eventually knocked down in slum…
'Those were the days!'
From about age 13 - 16, I spent a few summers picking strawberries for a local farmer. The wages weren't good but the craic was great and many new friends were made. The man who recruited the young ones from our area sometimes picked us up in a small…
Tags: Checkpoint, Romance, Strawberry, Summer, Van
'I started Nurse Training on 10th March 1975'
I started Nurse training on 10th March 1975 at Craigavon Area Hospital - Southern Area Group School of Nursing. There were almost fifty in our intake, girls and fells from both sides of the border, mostly from Armagh, Monaghan and Louth. I made many…
'I started my first job August 8th 1949'
I started my first job August 8th 1949. I reported to the GPO Princes Street and worked there for 3 months. I remember the first day because I was staying with an aunt in Merrion Avenue, Blackrock and not being used to traffic, I had to keep an…
'When a vacancy came for Brussels and as our son was there I applied and got it '
My daughter left the Civil Service and went to Australia and when she came back worked in an Accountancy Firm. She then decided to go to Saudi and I took over her job. I had also applied for a job in the Passport Office so I went there. It was…
Tags: archivist, Brussels, civil service, Fance, Holland, Luxembourg
Irish Centre Housing
Tags: Emigration, Irish Centre, social care