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"Mary": Grattan Street, Healthcare, Working Life
‘Mary’ grew up on a farm in county Limerick, part of which was rented to a mental hospital to be worked by patients. By interacting with these patients she quickly learned who you could trust and who you couldn’t.
Mentions her brother’s physical and…
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,…
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…
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,…
Patrick Varian: Stonemasons, America, Trades
Patrick, originally from Greenmount, Cork city, at the age of 15 in 1957 started his apprenticeship. After a few years of working on sites in Cork city, Patrick emigrated to Boston Massachusetts, U.S.A. Where he continued working in the trade. In…
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…
Joesph Fahy: Masonry, Working Life, Family
Joesph starts off the interview by talking through his work history. From working for Sisks at 16 to his job as a foreman for the Cork city council. Joesph mentions some of the building projects he has been involved in, from the churched in Blackrock…
Lorraine Twomey: Orthopaedic Hospital, Family Life
Lorraine grew up on the grounds of the Orthopaedic Hospital. Her father was the Gate Porter. Her father moved into the gate lodge in 1955 and a year later he married and it became the family home till his retirement in 1991.
Lorraine was one of…
Lorraine was one of…
Dr. John Curtin: Orthopaedic Hospital, Working Life, Healthcare
John, worked at St Mary's Hospital from 1972 to 2003 when he took early retirement. Initially he worked as an orthopaedic register but from 1978 he was consultant.
He remembers thinking St. Mary’s was a very progressive hospital but the layout…
He remembers thinking St. Mary’s was a very progressive hospital but the layout…
Breda McNamara: Orthopaedic Hospital
Breda details her earliest memories. She says her family moved to Templeacre when she was 1 or 2. There were not many houses around then. The houses were new and surrounded by lots of fields. The Orthopaedic Hospital was up the road in a field. They…
Noel Dempsey: Orthopaedic Hospital, Working Life, Healthcare
The interview explores Noel's memories of working at the Orthopaedic Hospital, nature of work, Sisters in charge, surgeons, theatre work, night shifts, carrying corpses to the mortuary, reflections on working at the hospital, new developments. …
Barry Murphy: Cork Civic Trust
Barry Murphy, originally from Bantry Co. Cork. From 1959 until 1970 Barry lodged in the historic building that later became the home of Cork Civic Trust. He remembers the house and its inhabitants.
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…
Tom Jones: Shandon Street, Murphy’s Rock, Television
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…
He mentions the arrival of televisions to Cork around 1963. Tom…
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…
Patricia McCarthy: Shandon Street, War of Independence, Trades
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…
Tom Jones: Shandon Street, Emigration, Childhood
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…
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…
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…