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James 'Jim' McKeon: Northside, Sport, Writing,

Jim (b. 1940s) remembers that his father worked for the railways and had a tied cottage in an area known as Kilbarry Cottages, or Railway Cottages. Then the family moved to Paddock House, Fairhill. The house was at the top of Washbrew Lane, and came…

Tags: 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 2000s, Animals, Brus, Cal Herlihy, Cork, Eucharistic Procession, Fahy’s Well, Frank O’Connor, House Shops, Jim McKeon, Kilbarry Cottages, Northside, Paddock Hill, Paddock House, Travellers, Working life, Youghal

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

Pat O'Brien: Northside, Pubs, Childhood,

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…

Tags: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Blackpool, Cork Docks, Fair Hill, Fairfield Green, Farranree, Mc Curtain Street, Murphy’s Rock, Nash’s Boreen, Pat O’Brien, Pubs, Ringabella, Ross’s Wood, Swan and Cygnet, Waterloo, Waterloo Woods

Eileen Jones: Blackpool, Shawlies, Sunbeam,

Eileen Jones (b. 1931) was born in Millfield Cottages. When she was 4 years old her family moved to Welsh’s Lane in Blackpool; members of her extended family lived nearby. Her mother was born in 1896. Her father was a builder’s labourer.
There was…

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…

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

Helen Prout: Fairhill, World War 2, Worklife,

Helen established the Cork Youth International Film, Video and Arts Festival in 1980 and has spent her life voluntarily teaching thousands of young people about film and the arts in workshops all over Cork.

In this interview, Helen recalls life in…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Cork Youth Film Video and Arts Group, Employment, Helen Prout, Matchmaking, Millstreet, Millstreet Horse Fair, World War II

Donnie Walsh: Gardiner's Hill, Sport, Republicanism,

Donie was born in 1948. His family lived in Stream Hill, and then in Gardiner’s Hill. He used to visit his grandmother’s house in Carrigadrohid, which had no running water nor electricity. He talks about going to the well and collecting…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Bonfire Night, Catholic Church, Coca-Cola, Donnie Walsh, Electrification, IRA, Puck Fair, Sport, The Curragh, Well’s

Margaret Newman: Greenmount, Cures, Working Life,

Margaret (born circa 1920) grew up in Greenmount, near The Lough. There were 4 in the family; her father had passed away and her mother, Kate, went out to work.
She got cocoa and buns at her primary school. She tells a story about finding out that…

Tags: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 2000s, Christamas, Cures, Dancing, Food, Greenmount, Herbalism, Margaret Newman, McKechnie’s, Social Care, St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Working life, World War II

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

Kevin Leahy: Gurranabraher, Irish Army, Docklands,

Kevin was born (circa late 1930s) in Kelly’s Lane (later Boyce’s Street). His father was in the British Army and later the forces of the Irish Free State. When Kevin was 14 he went to work as a plumber.
He remembers Blarney Street, and women who…

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…

Tags: 1800s, 1900s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, Christmas, Flax mill, Margaret Newman, Nicknames, Sunbeam, Sweet shops

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.…

Tags: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, Bandon railway, Blackberry-picking, Cash’s, Clay Pipes, Dowden’s, Gurranabraher, Laneways, Margaret Newman, Shawlies, Shawls, Southside, Travellers

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

Padraig O’Horgain: Church Street, Funeral Customs, Republicanism,

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…

Michael O’Connell: Faranree, Politics, Childhood,

Michael was born in the 1950s and grew up in Farranferris Ave below the Church of the Redemption in Farranree. He came from a family of 13 children. He was a student at the North Mon. His mother was a great GAA fan and a sporting person who played…

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

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…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Bernie McLoughlin, Childhood, Cork Opera House, Ford, Schooldays, Sullivan’s Quay, Turner’s Cross, UCC, University College Cork

Derrick Gerrety: Douglas Street, Loafers, Dublin,

Derrick was born in 1950. He grew up in St Joseph's Square, Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, in a working-class enclave within a middle-class area. He describes his childhood as idyllic. The houses in the square were rented from the Sisters of Charity;…

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