Kay Dunne: Childhood, Opera, Camogie

Kay Dunne: Childhood, Opera, Camogie

Life History:

Kay was born in 1942, in Friars Road, Turners Cross. Her mother died when she was a toddler and she went to live with her grandmother and was afterwards raised by her aunt, before moving back to the family home when she was about 12 years old. She lived at home until she got married, in 1966, after which she and her husband lived in Belgrave Avenue on the Northside.
Her husband was in the Irish Army. In 1981 the couple began to manage Sundays Well Boating and Tennis Club, in The Mardyke.
She talks about her love of opera, both collecting recordings and attending live concerts.
Kay was involved in the auxiliary fire service and was in a guard of honour for President Kennedy during his visit to Cork in 1962. (She earlier comments about viewing a fire at Sutton’s warehouse on the South Mall in 1963 and being asked to help.)
As a child, she developed a great interest in playing camogie, and she is still involved in the administration of the game. She recalls her playing uniform and changing her clothes at the side of the ditch.

23 July 1999

CFP_SR00281_dunne_1999

Ireland; Cork; 1900s

Published Material:

Hunter, Stephen (1999), Life Journeys: Living Folklore in Ireland Today, Cork: The Northside Folklore Project.

Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive

Cork Folklore Project

English

Sound

.wav

45min 41sec

Wellington Rd., Cork

Cassette

CC Kay what is your earliest memory

KD It must have been about when I was around two and half to three years or even a little bit before it. Apparently I wander off from my home to my Grandmother’s home which was about a half a mile away. I stayed with her until she died and then my aunt; my mother’s sister reared me then until I was around twelve. I then went back home to Friars road to live again

CC What is your most vivid memory

KD The day that Suttons took fire on the South Mall, I was in town shopping and I met up with a fireman from the Cork Fire Brigade to inform that I was now on duty and whatever I had with me to bring it with me, and leave it where I was and come to the South Mall and help out the extinguishing of the fire at Suttons.

CC So what was your exact occupation at the time

KD A housewife

CC Right ok, where were you born

KD I was born in 20 Lower Friars Road in Turners Cross

CC Have you lived there all your life

KD I lived there all my single life, sorry that’s not true, I was born there in 1942 and I stayed until I was about two, two and a half until I wandered off to my grandmothers and I was there in Evergreen St. until I was about twelve, thirteen. Then I went back to Friars Road until 1966 when I got married June the 25th