'It was two o'clock in the morning Margot woke me and said 'there is somebody coming up the stairs, Mary'. I don't know where we put her as we had only one double bed. Oh Happy times.'

'It was two o'clock in the morning Margot woke me and said 'there is somebody coming up the stairs, Mary'. I don't know where we put her as we had only one double bed. Oh Happy times.'

Margaret recounts her first flat she shared with a friend and the freedom that it entailed.

Margaret McLoughlin

Trinity College Dublin

1952

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Margaret McLoughlin

Adolescence and Early Adulthood

Life Story

Dollymount, Dublin

1960s

We didn't go much to the dance halls even though we were surrounded with the in Parnell Sq. We did attend the afternoon dance in Conaghies on a Sunday. It was there I met Kevin who was a medical student. We went out for a while. We would go to the Theatre Royal to the god's one and six it cost and he would buy me a packet of Dolly mixtures. In the legion I also went out with a few lads. One of them wrote poetry for me. I could never find out which of them it was. We walked and cycled everywhere we even cycled to Glendalough. After a while in the hostel Margo and myself decided to get a flat. The first one was in Clonliffe Rd. It consisted of two rooms Living and bedroom. Margo worked in the GPO so we decided to get bikes. One of my friends in Aldborough bought us the bikes and we paid him back. It cost 19' Margot cycled home for lunch every day from the GPO. We had a good system going as every week one of us would do the shopping and cooking for the week and the other the cleaning and then reversed the procedure. While we were in Clonliffe Mary who had come to Dublin with her friend Jean after spending a few months in Kevin's got a flat in Westland Row. One night Mary was out late and couldn't wake Jean so she walked to Clonliffe and put her hand in the letterbox of our flat and pulled out the key. It was two o'clock in the morning Margot woke me and said there is somebody coming up the stairs ' Mary. I don't know where we put her as we had only one double bed. Oh Happy times.My first holiday was to Scotland . Margot and myself sailed from the docks and went to Glascow and then on to a Catholic Youth Hostel near Linlithgow near Edinburg.. It was beside a Castle where Mary Queen of Scots lived. We had a lovely time as we travelled around . We went to Loch Lomond and Oban and did loads of trips. It was wonderful.

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

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)