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Marie McAllen: Ballyphehane

Marie was born and raised in Ballyphehane, before and after development of corporation housing. Her Mother’s family name was Cronin and her grandmother was Halloran who owned Halloran’s orchard where the Ballyphehane Church now stands.

Mary Mulcahy: Grattan Street, Healthcare, The Marsh

Mary grew up on in a tenement on Grattan Street where there was a toilet in the yard strong sense of community. She attended school in St. Maries of the Isle as most children from The Middle Parish did and Came home for lunch. Played children’s games…

Tags: Alcohol, Baths, Candy Apples, Children’s Games, Christmas, Class, Class Attitudes, Coal Quay, Confession, Cork Boat Club, Diphtheria, Division of Housework, Drinking, Elite, English market, Fasting, Fitzgerald’s Park, Food, Franciscans, Friends, Friendship, Funerals, Gerald Griffin Street, Gratitude, Grattan Street, Gresham Rooms, Happiness, Happy Memories, Health, Holidays, Illness, LDF, Lee Fields, Lent, Local Defence Force, Marriage, Massgoing, Medicine, Memories, Middle Parish, Neighbours, North Cathedral, Offal, Philosophy of life, Polio, Pub Culture, Pubs, Quakers, Religion, Religious Observation, Role of Men, Role of Women, Routine, Sanitation, School, Sex, Sheares Street, Shopping, Shops, Showbands, Singing, Skirts and Kidneys, Slang, Songs, St Francis Church, St Francis Hall, St Maries of the Isle, St Peter and Paul’s Church, St. Francis Hall, Sweets, Swim, Swimming, Tenements, The Arcadia, The Marsh, Traffic, Train, Transport, Tripe, Tripe and Drisheen, Work, Working class, Youghal

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…

Tags: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, Black and Tans, Cork 2005, Education, Food, Ghost stories, Kenmare, Mary O’Sullivan, Music, Pecker Dunne, Prejudice, Racism, Storytelling, Traveling Community, Travellers, War of Independence

Michael Creedon: Bradley's

Michael Creedon relates some of the history pertaining to Bradley's, a 4th generation shop established in 1850 on North Main Street. He discusses the changes that have taken place during that time in the area and the importance of supporting local…

Tags: 1800s, 1850s, 1900s, Bonfire Night, Bradley’s, Business, Dairy, Farmhouse Bakery, Food, Ice Cream, Kilgrews, Kings Jewellers, Lions (Rugby), Michael Creedon, North Main Street, Rugby, St Francis Church

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…

Noreen Geaney: Childhood Games, Céilí, Halloween, School, The Stations.

An account of growing up on a small farm in the Cork countryside and the simplicity of life in the 1950s.
Noreen was born in Cuileann Ui Chaoimh in Co. Cork. She had three sisters and one brother. She attended Owen na Bui National School. She lived…

Tags: 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, Céilí, Celebration, Childhood Games, Cork 2005, Corporal Punishment, Dublin, Farming, Fish, Food, Funerals, Halloween, Noreen Geaney, School, Teachers, The Stations

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…

Pat Speight: Northside, Childhood Games, Schooldays,

Cork Storyteller Pat Speight (b. 1940s) was born near the North Cathedral, known by locals as the North Chapel. His first house in Cork he thinks was a kind of tenement, with three families living in one house; his father later bought out this…

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…

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…

Philomena Cassidy: Grattan Street, Healthcare, The Marsh

Phil grew up in a tenement on Grattan Street and worked in O’Gorman’s Hat Factory and Dunlop’s before getting married and starting a family. She gives a very detailed description of the lanes, houses, shops and families on Grattan Street and the…

Tags: Altar Boys, Arcadia, Bicycles, Bikes, Catholics and Protestants, Céilí, Chemist, Childcare, Children, Children’s Games, Christmas, Churches, Churchgoing, Class, Clothes, Community, Cycling, Dancehalls, Dances, Dancing, Diphtheria, Dispensary, Doctors, Dunlops, Employment, Family, Father, Food, Formality, Forms of Address, Grattan Street, Grattan Street Medical Centre, Graveyard, Hat Making, Home, Home Ownership, House, Houses, Housing, Landlords, Lanes, LDF, Living Conditions, Local Defence Force, Massgoing, Meals, Measles, Mechanic’s Hall, Medical Costs, Medicine, Middle Parish, Money, Mother, Munster Arcade, Music, Neighbourhood, O’Gorman’s Hat Factory, Parents, Pawn Shops, Pawns, Pharmacist, Pharmacy, Plays, Prescriptions, Pride, Protestant, Pub, Quakers, Rationing, Rations, Religion, Rent, Respectability, Role of Women, Sanitation, Sarsfield’s Court, School, Sense of Community, Shandon, Shop, Sick Pay, Sickness, St Francis Church, St Francis Hall, St Peter and Paul’s, St. Francis Hall, Stew, Streets, Streetscape, Sweets, Tanora, TB, Tenement, Tenement life, The Marsh, Time, Timekeeping, Traffic, Transport, Treat, Tuberculosis, Vouchers, Water Pump, Wellington Boots, Work, Working, Working life

Robert Fourie: Hiberno-English, Holy Communion, Language, South Africa,

047 Rob aged 4 with first love Ducky Doo his pet duck.tif

Robert talks in detail about growing up in South Africa, and makes some observations about Cork places and people.
Robert (b. 1969) is from a gold-mining town in South Africa. He talks about mining conditions there. He comments that South Africa has…

Tags: 1990s, 2000s, Catholicism, Celebration, Celtic Tiger, Conversation, Cork 2005, Education, Food, Hiberno-English, Holy Communion, Language, Religion, Robert Fourie, South Africa, Spirituality, UCC, University College Cork

Sandra Byrne: Commons Road, Tucker's Field, Family Life.

Sandra grew up in Commons Road, Blackpool. She has little memory of her mother; describes her father as a cranky man. He damaged his hand in an industrial accident and didn’t work again. She describes her home as a tense place. Sandra talks about…

Tags: 1980s, 1990s, Bonfire Night, Commons Road, Food, North Presentation school, Sandra Byrne, Schooldays, Tucker's Field

Sean Higgisson: Grattan Street, Healthcare, Working Life

CFP_PH00706_Higgisson_2019 Sean outside Grattan Street.jpg

Sean grew up by the Lough in Cork city and spent holidays in Ardmore. Describes his family home and memories of his grandparents. Talks about playing football and the game Red Rover as a child. His mother was not allowed to keep her job in the public…

Tags: Admin, Administration, Adrmore, Ardmore, Atmosphere, Aunts, Baking, Ballincollig, Ballincollig Regional Park, Ballyphehane, Bedroom, Bishopstown, Bon Secours Hospital, Bons, Book, Books, Bread, Brothers, Building, Building Maintenance, Buildings, Built Heritage, Camera, Car Theft, Career, Career Choice, Career Decision, Career Options, Childhood, Childhood Games, Children, Children’s Games, Class, Clothes, Clothing, Coláiste Spioraid Naoimh, Colleagues, Community Welfare, Community Welfare Officer, Cork, Course, Courses, Crime, CSN, Death, Decision Making, Decisions, Disrepair, Duties, Dying, Elderly, Emigrant, Emigrant Experience, Emigration, Engineering, England, Family, Family Life, Floods, Food, Football, France, Free Time, Games, ghost, Ghosts, Gift, Gifts, Grandfather, Grandmother, Grandparents, Health, Health Centre, Health Services, Healthcare, Heating, Hill, Hill Walk, Hill Walking Club, Hills, Hillwalk, Hillwalking, Hillwalking Guide, Hobbies, Hobby, Holiday, Holidays, Home, House, HSE, Independent, Ireland, Irish Language, Knitting, Latin, Leaving Cert, Leaving Certificate, Leisure, Life, Liverpool, London, Lough, Mahon, Maintenance, Mardyke, Marriage, Mass, Mercy Hospital, Middle Parish, Mother, Mountain, Mountain Ranges, Mountains, North Main Street, Northside, Nurse, Nursing Home, Outdoors, Outlook on Life, Outook, Paint, Painter, Painting, Paints, Parents, Patient, Patients, PBC, Perspective on Life, Photographs, Photography, Playing, Porter, Pres, Present, Presentation Brothers, Presents, Public Amenities, Publish, Publishing, Quakers, Redemption Road, Responsibility, Role of Women, School, School Days, Schooldays, Science, Scool, Siblings, Social Media, Solitude, Sport, St Joseph’s School, Staff, Stories, Taxi, Taxis, Teacher, Teachers, The Lough, The Marsh, Training, Uncles, Vaccination, Vaccines, Walk, Walking, Women, Women in Work, Work, Working life, Worklife, Workplace

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

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