Archive (14 life histories found)

Norma's grandmother and grandfather

All school holidays and occasional weekends were spent in my grandmother's house on Main Street Dungiven. When I was only a small baby, my parents agreed to leave me with my grandparents and Aunt Rosalin, for a week, to give my mother a bit of a…

My grandfather built the house at Ballyards, Armagh where I lived as a child. He and my grandmother along with their two children, my father Patrick (Paddy) and my Aunt Mary had returned from Scotland where they had lived since after their marriage…

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…

We didn't possess any balls for playing with but when the evenings got dusk and the electricity had arrived we would play around the lampposts and had great fun dancing on our shadows. One year there was a big fall of snow and there was a marvellous…

A picture of Rosemary McCloskey's maternal grandparents, Rose and James McMacken taken in their garden in Dungiven

A picture of Rosemary McCloskey's maternal grandparents, Rose and James McMacken

There was always a dog in my Granny Carlin's house and of course lots of animals in Granny McGovern's in the country. The strange thing was that my mother wouldn't allow a pet in the house.

I loved going to stay with my Granny McGovern who lived in the country. I suppose it was the freedom of being able to run through the fields. We had lots of new friends there. They called us 'the Townies'.

My most memorable favourite place was my maternal grand - parent's house. My family were visiting their place every year in summer holidays when we used to get the longest time off. My grandfather was very well off and had a very big house and a…