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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…
Tony McGillicuddy: The Low Road, Jack Lynch, Ford's
Tony was born and reared in Low Road. He remembers a story about Jack Lynch who had been presented with a Ford Anglia car by the factory. Lynch hated driving and eventually gave it away.
Patrick O’Brien: Patrick Street, The Swan and Cygnet, Seamus Murphy
Pat talks about the Swan and Cygnet pub, Patrick Street, where he used to work. It served a beautiful pint because the barrels were kept in Cork’s first cold storage room. Pubs in the city closed between 2.30 and 3.30 for the holy hour. There was a…
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…
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…
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…
Pete Newman: Shandon Street, Unemployment, Machoness,
Pete Newman (also known as Pete Duffy) was born in 1945. He grew up in Orrery Road off Cathedral Road. His relatives came from Broad Lane and moved up to Gurranabraher.
Cyclists going up Shandon Street used to hold on to the back of buses, which…
Cyclists going up Shandon Street used to hold on to the back of buses, which…
Una Lyons: Oliver Plunkett Street, Cinemas, English Market
Una (born 1960) grew up in a guesthouse, a Georgian building on Oliver Plunkett Street. She had two siblings. Her parents had an unusually cosmopolitan outlook. Her father was an engineer with CIE trains. The street was quite residential but she also…
Jim Horgan: Pouladuff, Theatre, Superstitions
Jim (born 1960) grew up in Croaghtamore Cottages, Pouladuff. His father was a draughtsman with Cork City Council. He was also an amateur film-maker, who made films with Jim and his siblings as actors. Some films required significant splicing by…
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…
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…
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;…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
He remembers Blarney Street, and women who…
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…