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Tommy Rooney: Second City Jazzband, Cork Academy School of Music

Tommy Rooney was born in 1931. He was reared in Crosshaven and was the eldest of nine. His father’s family were from Dublin. He joined the army in 1945 at the age of 14 and remained in the service for 12 years. He played music during some of that…

Sean Lucey, Terry McCarthy: Blackpool, Dixies Showband

Seán Lucy was born in 1936. Seán is from a family of four. He started work as a radio and television repairman in 1950, before becoming a professional musician in 1960. He played the clarinet. He played with the Butter Exchange Band, a brass and reed…

Seán Lane: Blarney Street, Butchers, Bowling,

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…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Allotments, Blackberry-picking, Blarney Street, Bowling, Bowls, Food, Ogilvy and Moore’s, Seán Lane, Slaughterhouses

Peggy Kelleher: The Lough, Marriage, World War 2

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…

Pat Walsh: Barrack Street, Custom House, Dundanion Castle, Elizabeth Fort, Railways, Sculpture Factory, Trams, Transport,

Pat Walsh talks about some of the transport histories of Cork, including the railway and tramway systems and their associated infrastructure; and about the history of Elizabeth Fort.
He talks about the channels of the River Lee within the city and…

Tags: 1940s, Albert Road, Barrack Street, Blackrock, Built Heritage, Custom House, Dundanion Castle, Elizabeth Fort, If the Walls Could Talk, Material Culture, Pat Walsh, Railways, Sculpture Factory, Trams, Transport

Pat Saville: Blackpool, Working Life, Sport,

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…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Alice Frain, Allotments, Blackpool, Bonfire Night, CIE [Córas Iompair Éireann], Cremin’s Piggery, Lucey’s Piggery, Pat Saville, Piggeries, Sport, Thomas Davis Street, Welsh’s Lane

Noel Magnier: Gerald Griffin Street, Shops, Box Cars,

Noel has written a book about growing up in Cork in the 1940s and 1950s, called Is That You, Boy? He was born (1939) and reared in Gerald Griffin Street. He has 4 siblings. He recalls the shops and businesses on the street.
Denny’s cellar was a…

Michael Murphy: Worklife; Murphy's Brewery; Childhood

Michael was born in 1941. He was born in Francis Street. He had 6 brothers and 5 sisters. His earliest memory is of his grandfather’s funeral, with a hearse pulled by two horses, in 1945. His mother’s pregnancies and the arrival of newborn children…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Childhood, Funeral Customs, Funerals, Jews, Murphy’s Bacon Factory, Murphy’s Brewery, Shandon Street, Working life

Mary Sheehy: Gurranabraher, Street Traders, Bonfire Night

Mary was born in Washington Street in 1948; when she was 6 her family moved to Gurranabraher. Her mother was a trader in second-hand clothes in Kyle Street and a barmaid, her father worked for Cork Harbour Commissioners.
As a child, she had to wear…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, Bonfire Night, Childhood Games, Coal Quay, Community, Cork Harbour, Funerals, Ghost stories, Kyle Street dealers, Rubber Dollies, Schooldays, Street Traders

Mary Montgomery-McConville: Shandon Street, Peter and Paul's Church, Coal Quay

Mary was born in Shandon Street in 1930. She talks about winter on Lavitt’s Quay. Mary also mentions an Easter custom where on Good Friday they would tie the figure of Judas to a crane and set fire to it. Her grandfather made the confessional boxes…

Tags: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Cinema, Coal Quay, Lavitt's Quay, Mary Montgomery-McConville, St Peter and Paul's Church, The Savoy

Mary Marshall: Blackpool, Childhood, Hunting,

Mary grew up in Thomas Davis Street, Blackpool. Both her parents were from Blackpool. Her mother liked to use Grand Parade library, and her father was an avid reader who told stories from Greek mythology. At the time the area bounded onto the…

Tags: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, Blackpool, Childhood, Childhood Games, Goulding’s, Goulding’s Glen, Gypsy Lee, Hunting, Mary Marshall, Otter hunting, Piggeries, Tomas Davis Street, Traditional Songs, Welsh’s Lane

Mary O’Sullivan: Masonry, Family Life,

CFP00581 Mary O'Sullivan 28th July 2016 crop.jpg

Mary begins the interview by talking through her earliest memories of Bantry, walking to school and robbing apples and nice and cross teachers. Mary’s then moves on to describe her family, and how she left school at 14, her father was a farm labourer…

Tags: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Bantry, Cork city, Dances, Family Life, Mary O'Sullivan, Rationing, Stonemasons, The Emergency, West Cork, Working life, World War II

Marie Crean: South Parish, Cinemas, Black and Tan’s

Marie was born (in the 1950s) and reared in High Street, in the South Parish, off Douglas Street; she thinks the street was formerly Quarry Lane. Some of her area was altered to make a new road. She went to school in South Presentation.
She recalls…

Marie Finn: Barrack Street, Blackberry-picking, Catholic Church,

Marie (b. 1938) grew up in Barrack Street. She left school at 16 and started working.
She talks about the games she played as a child and recites part of a rhyme. You could pick blackberries and sell them to a sweet-makers. Oranges and bananas as…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Barrack Street, Blackberry-picking, Catholic Church, Childhood Games, Dancing, Food, Marie Finn, McKechnie’s, Milk and Cake Shops, Pubs

Margaret Newman: Blackpool, Housing, Childbirth,

Margaret was born circa 1920. She talks about her pregnancies and the births of her children. She lived with a relative and describes her housing situation at the time; she looked after her relative after he became blind.
She tells a story about…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Alcoholism, Blackpool, Childbirth, Housing, Mount Farran, UCC, University College Cork

Margaret Farmer, Catherine McCarthy, Helen Donovan: The Emergency; The Black and Tans;

Margaret remembers that her father used to shout “Up the Mollies” when he had drink taken. [Note: These particular Mollies were agitators controlled by Joseph Devlin MP in opposition to William O’Brien]. She recalls the days of the Black and Tans; on…

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