Browse Items (56 total)

Noreen grew up in a tenement in Dominick Street next to Shandon in the early 1950s. She went to the North Pres School and worked at the North Infirmary. Her mother used to deliver babies in the area and helped to wash and lay out the dead. Her…

Paddy was born in 1941 in Great William O’Brien Street, and grew up in Narrow Lane, nearby; he describes the area around it which constituted his neighbourhood. He came from a family of 10. His mother was from Watercourse Road, his father from Narrow…

Padraig O’Horgain (Pat Horgan) was born in Church Street in 1951. His father was a Republican and was interned in Britain between 1939 and 1946. His father later worked at Cork Harbour.
O’Gorman’s hat factory and other businesses were cited in the…

Pat O’Brien, talks of various locations on the Northside. Pat describes what activities he would have taken part in as a child in these locations.
He talks briefly about the pub trade. The Holy Hour was observed within the city limits (a break…

Pat Saville was born in 1946. He had a twin brother, Charlie, and an older brother, Ray. He moved from England with his family when he was 4 years old. He grew up in Welsh’s Lane, Blackpool. His father died when he was 10.
He describes the shops and…

Cork Storyteller Pat Speight (b. 1940s) was born near the North Cathedral, known by locals as the North Chapel. His first house in Cork he thinks was a kind of tenement, with three families living in one house; his father later bought out this…

Pat McCarthy (née Byrnes) is from Shandon Street. She grew up in Mahony’s Terrace, overlooking Pope’s Quay which she knew as the Sand Quay. Her father worked as a lorry driver. She remembers Shandon Street having bakeries and butchers. There were…

Pat talks about the Swan and Cygnet pub, Patrick Street, where he used to work. It served a beautiful pint because the barrels were kept in Cork’s first cold storage room. Pubs in the city closed between 2.30 and 3.30 for the holy hour. There was a…

Peggy (born 1930s) grew up in Hartland's Road, near The Lough. She was an only child. Her father, William Power, from County Waterford; he worked at the Munster Arcade and lived through the Burning of Cork by the Black and Tans in 1920; he was…

Pete Newman (also known as Pete Duffy) was born in 1945. He grew up in Orrery Road off Cathedral Road. His relatives came from Broad Lane and moved up to Gurranabraher.
Cyclists going up Shandon Street used to hold on to the back of buses, which…

Sandra grew up in Commons Road, Blackpool. She has little memory of her mother; describes her father as a cranky man. He damaged his hand in an industrial accident and didn’t work again. She describes her home as a tense place. Sandra talks about…

Seán Lane was born in 1942. His parents were both from Blarney Street, where he was raised. His father was a bacon butcher.

He talks about his childhood. Children were always on the lookout for any opportunity to make a penny, such as cow-herding…

Tom was born circa 1950 in a building at the bottom of Shandon Street.
He remembers watching the Cork Opera House on fire in 1955. He recalls childhood games and explains the game of Kick the Can and Pitch and Toss. He talks about the nature of…

Tom is from Shandon Street. In this interview, he remembers a helicopter landing in a field, sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s, which caused great excitement amongst the locals.
He mentions the arrival of televisions to Cork around 1963. Tom…

Tony was born and reared in Low Road. He remembers a story about Jack Lynch who had been presented with a Ford Anglia car by the factory. Lynch hated driving and eventually gave it away.

Una (born 1960) grew up in a guesthouse, a Georgian building on Oliver Plunkett Street. She had two siblings. Her parents had an unusually cosmopolitan outlook. Her father was an engineer with CIE trains. The street was quite residential but she also…
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