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Billy McCarthy: Quaker Road, Public Baths, Childhood
Billy was born in 1941. His mother, Mary Ann Cronin, was from Mayfield; her father, William Cronin served with the British army during the First World War, and later became a postman. His father’s family came from Dunmanway, West Cork. His father,…
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…
Denis P. Long: Working Life; Balckpool; Austrailia
Denis grew up in Blackpool. His father was a train driver.
He worked for the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) but wanted to earn better money and went to Australia in the 1950s. He tells a funny story about visiting a rocket range and meeting someone…
He worked for the ESB (Electricity Supply Board) but wanted to earn better money and went to Australia in the 1950s. He tells a funny story about visiting a rocket range and meeting someone…
Eibhlís de Barra: Northside, Gender, Childhood Games
Eibhlís was born on the Southside of Cork. Her husband was from Blarney Street, on the Northside.
She recalls childhood games such as The Chaineys, and The Gobs, and Scaa, the latter two played with small stones. She quotes some of the skipping…
She recalls childhood games such as The Chaineys, and The Gobs, and Scaa, the latter two played with small stones. She quotes some of the skipping…
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…
Dan Jones: Stonemasons, Family Life, Poetry
Dan, who describes himself as the ‘third oldest [stone]mason left in Cork’ at the time of this interview - outlines his youth in Bandon and Cork city, family background, married life and his wife’s early death, jobs, bowl-playing, ballroom dancing,…
Mary O’Sullivan: Masonry, Family Life,
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…
Alice Delay: Togher, Country Life, Childhood
Alice remembers visiting her grandmother in Togher, which was the country, and eating bread and home-made butter. Her grandfather was a farm labourer. The house had an earth floor, and a ceiling made of sewn flour bags. Someone described the house as…
Fergal Crowley: Patrick Street, Munster Arcade, Black and Tans
Fergal worked in the Munster Arcade, Patrick Street. He describes the shop. His father started work there in 1901. After the building was burned by the Black and Tans during the Burning of Cork, the British government paid to have buildings on one…
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…
Joseph Lane: Gurranabraher, Milk and Cake Shops, Pranks
Joseph grew up in Gurranabraher. He remembers three pawnshops of Cork. When people left Ballymacthomas to move into new corporation houses, they left their old houses behind, still complete with furniture and fittings.
Joe recalls a childhood…
Joe recalls a childhood…
Creena O’Connell: Gurranabraher, Shawls, Allotments
Creena was born in 1932. Her family were one of the first to get a house in Gurranabraher, an estate built in 1934. Her father was able to get part-time employment with Cork Corporation working on the roads; he died when he was 58.
She recalls a…
She recalls a…
Bernard Casey: Cathedral Road, Childhood, Cork Jazz Festival
Bernard, at the time of this interview, was the chairman of the Cork Jazz festival.
He recalls air raid shelters in Cork during the 1940s. He talks about his routine as an altar boy. The first housing developments of Cathedral Road. The countryside…
He recalls air raid shelters in Cork during the 1940s. He talks about his routine as an altar boy. The first housing developments of Cathedral Road. The countryside…
Liam Ó hUigín: Henry Street, The Marshes, Childhood
Liam grew up in Henry Street during the 1940s. He talks about the marshes of Cork and Pike’s Marsh, named after a Quaker merchant family.
He recalls the practice of adding “a” to the end of some placenames, such as Pana for Patrick Street. There…
He recalls the practice of adding “a” to the end of some placenames, such as Pana for Patrick Street. There…
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…
Bernie McLoughlin: Turner's Cross, Ford's, UCC,
Bernie was born in 1939 and reared in Turner’s Cross. His mother had been a bookkeeper and his father was a supervisor in the post office. He had an older brother and an older sister, and he spent a lot of time with his parents.
He remembers queues…
He remembers queues…
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…
As a child, she had to wear…
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…
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…
Margaret Newman: Shawlies, Blackberry-picking, Laneways,
Margaret Newman [born 1922] talks at length about the shawls women wore, where they were bought, the types of shawl, and their uses.
She talks about the Bandon railway line, which was so slow you could lean out of the windows and pick blackberries.…
She talks about the Bandon railway line, which was so slow you could lean out of the windows and pick blackberries.…
Margaret Newman: Sunbeam Factory; Christmas, Nicknames,
Margaret Newman was born in 1922. She explains that before the Sunbeam factory there was a flax mill, which employed some children in the late 1800s.
How children ordered their presents from Santa.
Note: This is one of 4 interviews conducted with…
How children ordered their presents from Santa.
Note: This is one of 4 interviews conducted with…