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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…
Pat Nolan: Northside, Cork Academy School of Music
Pat is from John Street on the Northside. He was educated at the North Monastery, which was good for general studies but did not teach music. The school environment was harsh. He left school early. His father bought him a second-hand saxophone, and…
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…
O’Gorman’s hat factory and other businesses were cited in the…
Noreen Hannover: South Main Street
Noreen Hanover was born in 1950 and grew up in the South Main Street area until 1975. Her family would have done most of their shopping on South Main Street and she relates the character of the shops there, their different purposes, as well as what…
Noreen Cronin: Shandon, The North Infirmary, Childhood
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…
Noreen Hanover: Christmas, Childhood Games, Cinema, Ghost stories, Milk and Cake Shops, Pawnbrokers, St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Working life,
Noreen grew up during the 1950s in Nicholas Church Place, off Cove Street. She says the house was a tenement house shared with a family who lived upstairs. She went to the South Presentation Convent School. Her father died when she was 10. She left…
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…
Michael O'Callaghan: Togher, Emigration, Summer Holidays,
Michael was born in 1957. Originally from Togher. Michael’s family emigrated to London in 1960. He remembers the ship leaving Cork on the Inishfallen, and people singing and crying at the quayside. They sang the popular song “Now Is The Hour” [Bing…
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…
Maura O’Connell: Orthopaedic Hospital, Working Life, Healthcare
Maura was matron of the Orthopaedic Hospital for 20 years until her retirement in 1997. In this interview Maura recalls the various roles she had in the hospital prior to her being appointed matron.
Maura recalls that the nurses residents on the…
Maura recalls that the nurses residents on the…
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…
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…
Mary O’Sullivan: Travelling Community, Education, Prejudice,
Mary is a Traveller who developed a love of education, which she has tried to instil in others. She talks in detail about her experience of being a Traveller and about the lives of older generations and the history of her community.
Mary was born in…
Mary was born 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…
Marie-Annick Desplanques: Brittany, Breton, Coiffe, Crêperie, Foodways, France, Children's Games.
Marie-Annick Desplanques grew up in Brittany, west France. She moved about frequently as a child because her father worked on the railways. She discusses food, games, Christmas in France as well as moving to Ireland from Newfoundland and the…
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…
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…
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: 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…
She tells a story about…
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…
She got cocoa and buns at her primary school. She tells a story about finding out that…
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…