Archive (12 life histories found)

A lone coal fire was the only form of heating in schools then and we took turns to pile on coal to keep it glowing. I was lucky enough to be seated on that side of the room, but usually the teacher's desk and blackboard helped block the heat…

I met my husband Michael at a dance in the Crystal Ballroom in South Anne Street, Dublin. He with his friends and me with mine. We danced quite a lot together over the weeks, resulting in both his and my friends eventually sitting and chatting…

As I look back on my life, or on that part of it that I have lived up to now, I believe that I have been blessed. I have been blessed with good health and we all know that 'your health is your wealth'. I have one or two small irritations associated…

I was 65 on the 30th April, 2010 and, having completed almost 50 years in the retail business, I decided it was time to take things a little bit easier. At that time, I was working with my daughter, Dara and her husband, Brian, in their spar…

I am now in residential care in Corkey House. At 80 years of age I look back over the years when in the early years of our marriage, Ann and I had our ups and downs with regard to our health. Things were going well and we had a son called…

I first met Robert Bradford in 1971 when he was a minister in the Methodist Church at Suffolk on the Stewartstown Road, the Upper Falls Road. He was a friend to everyone on the estate, a man who showed his Christianity in a quiet and caring way. He…

It was my fourteenth birthday and Mr. Mitchell the head forester offered me a job right away working with the foresters on the mountains. This gave me a wonderful outlook on the works of nature for the rest of my life. I appreciate more every day…

Tommy was serving his time as a shipwright and they lived with granny Duncan in Avon Street and came down to Rostrevor at the weekends and Tommy and I sometimes went to Newry by bus and went to the pictures: Savoy, Frontier and another I can't…

The move to retirement was an easy one for me. I did not have to cope with the shock of breaking away from an employer or a job after 30 or 40 years of unbroken service. When retirement came, even if its arrival was slightly unexpected, I was down to…

Photograph of Hugh Duncan and his wife at the Burrendale Hotel Chest Care Group