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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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<p>Grattan Street Stories: Memory of Place</p>
Subject
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Occupational Lore; Life History; Built Heritage; Health; Ireland; Cork; Middle Parish
Description
An account of the resource
<p>This collection focuses on a building on Grattan Street which has served as a Quaker Meeting House, a public Dispensary and as the Grattan Street Health Centre. The project was a collaboration between the CFP and the Cork North Community Work Department, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Health Services Executive HSE. </p>
<p>The interviewees fall into two main groups: those who worked in the building and those who lived in the surrounding area and availed of the services provided in the building.</p>
<p>This project follows on from the collaboration with the HSE in the “<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a>”. There is a further connection between the two projects as many of the staff and services once provided in the Grattan Street Health Centre have now relocated to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. This topic of the relocation of services is also covered in some staff interviews. <br /><br />To date (October 2021) 13 interviews have been completed for the project.<br /><br />Interviewees discuss the Grattan Street building itself in terms of its historic significance, its benefits and drawbacks as a workplace. Broader themes related to or inspired by the building are also touched on including: personal relationship with the building, staff camaraderie, the problems with parking, memorable incidents at work, patient experiences and descriptions of the people and services for which the building catered.<br /><br />Healthcare professional interviewees detail their training, career progression and comparisons between Grattan Street and other workplaces. Their testimonies also provide a link with the community of patients they served giving further insight into attitudes to healthcare, diseases, vaccines, description of social conditions and the changes in medicine and technology in their working lives.<br /><br />Non-healthcare professional interviewees describe childhood experiences in or around Grattan Street (The Marsh or The Middle Parish), the social, cultural and economic conditions of the area, tenements, businesses, attitudes to and experiences of healthcare, vaccines, diseases, medicines and medical professionals as well as observed changes in these areas over time.<br /><br />Interviewees also reflect on the possible future uses of the Grattan Street building.<br /><br /><strong>Related Reference Sources</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Barrington, R.<em> (</em>1987) <em>Health, medicine and politics in Ireland, 1900–1970</em>. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.</li>
<li><span>Butler D.M. (2004) <em>The Quaker meeting houses of Ireland</em></span>. Dublin : Irish Friends Historical Committee.</li>
<li><span>Byrne, J. (2004) <em>Byrne's dictionary of Irish local history.</em> Cork: Mercier Press.</span></li>
<li>Cooke, R. T. (1999) <em>My Home by the Lee</em>. Irish Millennium Publications: Cork.</li>
<li><span>Dempsey, P. J. & White, L. W. ‘Childers, Erskine Hamilton’. <em>Dictionary of Irish Biography</em> </span>[Accessed 18 October 2021]</li>
<li>Harrison, R.S. (1991) <em>Cork City Quakers 1655-1939: A Brief History</em>. Cork.</li>
<li>Houston, M. (2004). ‘Life before the GP’. <em>The</em> <em>Irish Times. </em>Available at : <<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599">https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599</a> > [Accessed 18 October 2021]</li>
<li>Keohane, F. (2020) <em>The Buildings of Ireland Cork City and County</em>. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.</li>
</ul>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-2020
Contributor
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<p>Interviewees: Edith O’Regan, 'Mary', Sean Higgisson, Aoife O’Brien, Eileen Kearney, Imelda Cunning, Jane Ward, Liam Ó hUigín, Joe Scanlan, Mary Mulcahy, Philomena Cassidy, Don Morrissy, Derek O’Connell</p>
<p>Interviewer: <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=2&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Kieran+Murphy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kieran Murphy</a>, (<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a>)</p>
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
<p>Cork, Ireland 1940s-2020s; Waterford, Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; Limerick, Ireland;</p>
Relation
A related resource
<p><strong>Exhibition</strong></p>
<p>Artist Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave (also an interviewee for the project) created a visual artwork based around the Grattan Street Medical Centre building itself, as a workplace and health centre. The artwork incorporated direct quotations from the oral history interviews conducted for the project, and also included brief historical paragraphs about the building researched, written and edited by the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. This exhibition was launched on 6<sup>th</sup> February 2020 in “St Peter’s” on the North Main Street where a “Listening Event” was also held to mark the occasion.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"><br /><br /><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" alt="Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" /><br /><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"></p>
<p><strong>Presentation and Listening Event</strong></p>
<p>To coincide with the launch of the Grattan Street Stories Exhibtion on 6<sup>th</sup> February 2020 a listening event and presentation of the history of the Grattan Street Medical Centre building and description of the project was given by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy.<br /><br /><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/427A7714-1.jpg" alt="427A7714-1.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>Presentation</strong></p>
<p>In 2019 at the OHNI conference the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy discussed social media and oral history which included audio excerpts from the Grattan Street Stories Project along with photographs of the building.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%;"><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" alt="Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>Audio Visual Presentation</strong></p>
<p>An audio-visual slideshow was produced featuring oral testimony from the Grattan Street Stories Project and combined with suitable images of Grattan Street and from Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave’s exhibition. This was created by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy.<br /><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnjEtQeOb3I&t=1s&ab_channel=CorkFolklore" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Audio Visual Presentation Available to listen and view here.</a>
<p><strong>Health and Vaccines Oral History Research<br /></strong><br />Many of the interviews conducted for the Grattan Street project formed an integral part of the testimonies and research for the innovative<br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">'Catching Stories'<span> </span>of infectious disease in Ireland </a>project funded by the Irish Research Council.<br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" alt="Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" /></a></p>
<strong>Social Media</strong> <br /><br />Numerous suitable audio excerpts from the oral history interviews have been edited and shared on CFP's social media channels.<br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736</a>
<strong>Orthopaedic Hospital</strong><br />Cork Folklore Project in collaboration with the HSE conducted an oral history project focussing on the Orthapaedic Hospital in Gurranabraher. <br /><br /><span>Many of the staff and services once provided at the Grattan Street Health Centre site were moved to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. </span><br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a>
<strong>Swimming Article</strong><br /><br />Kieran Murphy and James Furey co-authored an article about<br /><a href="https://tripeanddrisheen.substack.com/p/swim-city?s=r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swimming in Cork</a> which appeared in the online magazine Tripe + Drisheen. This article features a number of interview extracts collected as part of the Grattan Street Stories Project.
<strong>Related Interviews<br /><br /></strong>CFP_SR00756_Quilligan_2019;<br />CFP_SR00758_Broderick_2019;<br />CFP_SR00670_OShea_2018;<strong><br /><br /></strong>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Cork Folklore Project
Rights
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Cork Folklore Project
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Audio
Format
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16 .wav Files
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Philomena Cassidy
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Kieran Murphy
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
65 Minutes 2 Seconds
Location
The location of the interview
Cork Folklore Project Hub, North Cathedral Visitor Centre, Roman Street
Original Format
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.wav
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
24bit / 48kHz
Time Summary
A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.00.00 - 0.00.22</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Intro</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.00.22 - 0.02.23</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Tenement House Growing Up- Conditions and facilities</strong></p>
<p>Grew up in 44 Grattan Street, a tenement house. 4 or 5 families in the house. 6 children in her family, and 6 in another family. Another family with 2. 14 children in the one house. Very happy, great neighbours.</p>
<p>Shop underneath their house: “shop on the lap” they called it. It sold sugar, milk, tea. The people who ran the shop lived in the shop as well. A 4-storey house including the attic. The people who lived in the attic had their kitchen on the ground floor. They had no sink, there was one toilet shared by the house and one tap in the yard. There was no electricity, or gas. They used oil lamps, primus store and a coal fire. Everyone lived like that so they “didn’t know any better”.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.02.23 - 0.06.27</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Neighbours, Shops and Streets on & near Grattan Street</strong></p>
<p>Next door in 45 Grattan Street was Gamble the tinsmith. Similar type house arrangement.</p>
<p>46 Grattan Street was O’Callaghan’s Pub, even though the owners got married they had their whole family living above the pub. Phil doesn’t think that arrangement could be called a tenement because the house contained all one family.</p>
<p>Then there was Peter’s Street, and the Mechanics’ Hall where the Community Centre is now. Fr Lynch from St Peter and Paul’s was good to the poor and he gave the children of the parish a party in the Mechanics’ Hall where children were given a suitable present, eg. a doll. The children looked forward to that each Christmas.</p>
<p>Beyond that there was the quarry all the houses previously there were gone. After the quarry there were 3 or 4 tenement houses before you came to Henry Street. Same type of houses. There was also Bobby Lloyd’s shop on the corner sold pots, pans and kitchen utensils.</p>
<p>Then Henry Street, and across the road from it was Henrietta’s Shop run by Johno (Johnno) where they got milk or bread.</p>
<p>There was a lane behind that with a terrace of houses. There were two pubs beyond that one called Crosses and the other was Kellehers. Beyond that was Francis Street with Randy Hourigan’s shop on the corner.</p>
<p>Beyond that was the corner of Bachelor’s Quay where the Doll’s House was with steps up to it which was also a tenement.</p>
<p>Around the corner was formerly Dolly Perry’s Nursing Home but was turned into tenements when Phil knew it.</p>
<p>Then there was Grenville Place where George Boole had lived, and that area had tenements.</p>
<p>Then you returned to Henry Street. The old part of the Mercy Hospital was also there.</p>
<p>Then there was Moore Street, Coach Street, and back to Grattan Street.</p>
<p>All that area was the circle in which the children were allowed to play. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.06.27 - 0.07.52</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Playing Children’s Games</strong></p>
<p>Played tops and whips. Cat and Dog. Piggy. Skylockers.</p>
<p><strong>Skylockers:</strong></p>
<p>Long strip of crepe paper with some sand in the centre and tied with string. And put string onto the end of it and threw it up in the air and hope that it would come down again and not get caught in the electric wires.</p>
<p>Had to make their own enjoyment not like today where people can just press buttons.</p>
<p><strong>Chaineys & Playing Shop</strong></p>
<p>Used broken coloured glass (calls it mixed spice) to play shop on the footpath. Everyone was the same and everyone joined in. People pretended to be buying some of their shop items which were the pieces of broken glass.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.07.52 - 0.10.49</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>More Neighbours, Shops and Streets on & near Grattan Street</strong></p>
<p>Phil runs through the buildings and streets on Grattan Street from her house but going in the other direction to which she did before.</p>
<p>No 43 Grattan Street’ The People’s Dairy which had eggs, milk, buttermilk, bread.</p>
<p>Beyond that was a wholesale place called O’Connors and he had shoes for the shops he was wholesaler for. Above his place was a tenement.</p>
<p>No 41 Grattan Street: The M Laundries (M Laundry) with a tenement above it with 3 families.</p>
<p>No 40 Grattan Street was the fire station and everyone knew it, and the firemen because they were local.</p>
<p>No 39: Barber shop with tenement above it.</p>
<p>Next was another barber: Gerry Kane, with tenements above it.</p>
<p>Next Roddis which sold pots, pans and tin things.</p>
<p>Next was another shop.</p>
<p>Then Broad Street and on the other side of it was another tinsmith, another Gamble. There were 3 Gamble brothers from Grattan Street, all of them tinsmiths.</p>
<p>After that was a quarry and the houses were gone.</p>
<p>Across the road was the old St Francis Church.</p>
<p>Coming back down Grattan Street from there was the Third Order Hall.</p>
<p>Then a laundry with more tenements.</p>
<p>Then another tinsmith.</p>
<p>Then Moll Hog’s Mrs Hourigan, a sweet shop at the corner of Broad Lane.</p>
<p>Then the Rambler’s Inn, a pub. When that was vacated the Franciscans took it over for their accommodation and they took over the fire station when the new church was being built.</p>
<p>Then there was a shoemaker called Rice with tenements above it.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.10.49 - 0.11.35</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>The Dispensary/ Grattan Street description of the building and who lived there</strong></p>
<p>And then “the Quakers” or the dispensary now Grattan Street Health Centre.</p>
<p>The Morrissy family [see <span><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/252">CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019</a></span>;] of the chemist on one side of the arch on the dispensary facing onto Grattan Street, and the caretaker lived on the other side, her name was Nellie Long but she was known as Mrs Healy.</p>
<p>Morrissy family had two girls and a boy and Phil “mixed with them”. </p>
<p>Phil’s family had no garden so they played in the courtyard in the dispensary, which she describes as “a big airy place” there was lots of space compared with where Phil lived.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.11.35 - 0.14.28</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>More tenements after the dispensary, continuing tour of Grattan Street.</strong></p>
<p>Then “Moll Murph’s” (Moll Murphy) the potato lady.</p>
<p>Bridgie on the corner selling sweets.</p>
<p>Then Peter Church Lane, down which there were tenements, even though they were only small houses. The McCarthy’s were the only ones to have a house.</p>
<p>The grandmother of Terry McCarthy lived down the lane. Terry had recently died at the time of the interview. He sang with the Dixies and sang with Michael Ring junior.</p>
<p>Then there was the graveyard [St Peter’s Cemetery] which they knew as “The Proddy Woddys”, down the lane from that was a school and St Peter’s Church which is a centre now on the North Main Street. Phil says they “never mixed with them” ie Protestants.</p>
<p>After that was Buckley’s builder’s yard over head was the Manning’s family with some families members married.</p>
<p>After that another tenement with Murphy’s on the ground floor and Buckley’s on the first floor. Then more people above them.</p>
<p>After that another tenement with the Healey’s lived.</p>
<p>Then the quarry and then Coleman’s Lane which had houses and the Kenny’s lived in the first house. Tiny houses.</p>
<p>Back on Grattan Street there was Looney’s Shop which sold everything: butter, eggs, bread etc.</p>
<p>Then there were two more houses Frankie Scannell lived next to Looney’s Shop and worked in the Fire Station.</p>
<p>After that another tenement with 3 or 4 families and then it came to Adelaide Street.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.14.28 - 0.17.41</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Memories of the Dispensary </strong></p>
<p>“But the Quakers was nice, it was an airy place” big, huge high ceilings. The garden was inside a bit. [Phil refers to the Grattan Street Health Centre/ Dispensary building as ‘the Quakers’]</p>
<p>The big door was never open, the side door was open, but there was a bell on the door and you could ring the bell.</p>
<p>Inside were the doctors. The dispensary had about 8 doctors, 4 on either side, in a big hall with rooms off of it. Benches outside each doctor. No appointment. Every area had its own doctor. Phil had Dr Cagney. There was a Dr Moran for another area.</p>
<p>You got medicine on the way out from the chemist, in a little hole in the wall. If you wanted cough bottle you brought your own bottle. It wouldn’t surprise Phil if you received tablets in a matchbox. You had to queue up to get that.</p>
<p>You’d bring your bottle with you from home.</p>
<p>Two or three benches outside each doctor’s door. It was like one big dance hall. There was no appointment but you knew what time he would be there at. And if you had to call the doctor he would come to you at home.</p>
<p>Dr Cagney was abrupt but a very good doctor. Mark Cagney who was a presenter on TV3 [now Virgin Media One] was related to Dr Cagney. Phil says Dr Cagney was fabulous, but abrupt: “you’d be afraid like”, “you wouldn’t ask him questions” “the glasses would be down there” [Phil puts her glasses at to the end of her nose and looks over them doing an impression of Dr Cagney.]</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.17.41 - 0.19.00</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong><span>LDF (Local Defence Forces) Training & Uniform</span></strong></p>
<p><span>The LDF (Local Defence Forces) used to train in the dispensary building [during WW2]. They had a “browny” uniform and a hat with a slit in it. Something like the Slua Muirí.</span></p>
<p><span>They may have trained in the courtyard because there was space in “the Quakers”. They had to dress up in their uniforms.</span></p>
<p><span>Mr Burns (or Byrne’s) who lived in Phil’s tenement was in the LDF.</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.19.00 - 0.19.26</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Sense of Community, Safety and Togetherness</strong></p>
<p>Everyone went to school together and brought each other. There was great harmony, great neighbours and a very happy childhood. It was safe to walk the streets then in a way it is less so today Phil thinks.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.19.26 - 0.20.47</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Daily Routine, School, Shopping, Streetscape</strong></p>
<p>Had breakfast and their mother would bring them to school St Maries of the Isle. She would walk with them as far as across the street from the courthouse [on Washington Street] and after that there were no roads to cross so they could walk on their own from that point. Their mother would meet them again at that point for lunchtime to take them home.</p>
<p>There was much less traffic than today, mostly horses and carts. The horses and carts with milk churns came to the Nolan’s next door. You brought your jug to the dairy, Nolan’s Dairy and filled it up with milk.</p>
<p>During school they went home at 12:30 for their dinner. And her mother would meet them and bring them back at the start and end of lunch.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.20.47 - 0.22.07</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Father, Work, Parenting and Strict Timekeeping</strong></p>
<p>Phil’s dad was working in the Munster Arcade as a draper’s porter. Everything was within walking distance. He had to wake up at 6:45 to be in work for 8:30, he was a great timekeeper. When Phil and her siblings started to go to work her father said “one call now and one call only for the morning.” (meaning that he would call/wake them once only in the morning.) They had to go to Dunlop’s for 8am. Mother would bring the younger children to school. He would do the “first shift” for the working children. He was very strict, “you wouldn’t get around him. If he said no that was it.” A good father. She thinks it was possible to say no to one’s children back then but that is no longer the case today. Her mother was a bit softer. You dare not miss your call because you didn’t get paid when you were out of work. You didn’t get paid even if you were out sick.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.22.07 - 0.23.22</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>No Sick Pay, Simple Remedies for Sickness</strong></p>
<p>Recalls a young man feeling sick at work. Someone suggested he go home but he said he couldn’t because his mother would kill him! So if you were out of work you were out of pay, so there was very little sickness as a result! “If you were sick you got your Tanora and your aspro” [Aspirin/ Disprin/ Panadol] that was the medicine they had from the chemist.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.23.22 - 0.27.43</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>After School, Food, Dinner, Rationing</strong></p>
<p>After school they would eat or go out to play. They had dinner in the middle of the day, when they came home at lunchtime from school. Might have bread and jam later- if you got jam you would be delighted. They were never hungry.</p>
<p>Dinner would be stew. Something in a pot big enough for the whole family 6 children and the two adults 8 altogether. They didn’t have chops or steak. They had tripe and drisheen. You ate it whether you liked it or not because there was nothing else.</p>
<p>Ration books from 1939-1945 butter was made up in 12 ounces. 16 ounces in the pound. The rations allowed 12 ounces for 2 people, 6 ounces each for a week. Tea was rationed. Mr Burns went to England (where Phil thinks the rationing may not have been as severe?!) and he was able to bring back the Van Houten’s Cocoa and his wife Mrs Burns would always share it with Phil’s family whatever they had- it was like Christmas.</p>
<p>Doesn’t think that eggs were rationed- if you had the money you could buy them. Cannot say whether bread or milk was rationed.</p>
<p>Sugar, tea, butter were rationed. There were vouchers for shoes issued by the Health Board. And you would get the vouchers from the Dispensary, (“The Quakers”).</p>
<p>Phil’s mother would know about the vouchers, Phil was only a child at the time so wouldn’t know much about it. She says that if they did get vouchers they wouldn’t tell anyone because they were “very grand” she says in a joking posh accent. She says that her mother was a proud woman and “it was bred into us I’d say.” She didn’t want people to know that she was getting the vouchers, even though everyone else was in the same situation.</p>
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</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.27.43 - 0.30.53</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Visiting the Doctor. Siblings with Diphtheria. Relatives with Measles</strong></p>
<p>Phil says “you’d have to be nearly dying” you’d have to have the measles or diphtheria to go to the doctor. You wouldn’t go for a cough or a cold. You’d go if there was something wrong with your ear or your eyes. Otherwise you’d get “Tanora and an aspro” and then you got better.</p>
<p>Went into the Dispensary for her ear- doesn’t remember going to the hospital.</p>
<p>3 of her siblings got diphtheria. Her brother Paddy had to be hospitalised. Dr Cagney was their doctor for that. Diphtheria and whooping cough were prevalent at the time. Then injections were made available.</p>
<p>Remembers other people in her family getting the measles, light was kept away from their eyes to prevent them going blind although Phil says she doesn’t believe that that is what would cause the blindness. But they kept sufferers in a dark room. It was a 9 day disease- 3 days coming, you had it for 3 days and then 3 days recovering from it. Measles and diphtheria were contagious but she doesn’t know about whooping cough. There was a three-in-one vaccine for those three diseases. Phil’s mother made sure that they got it from the dispensary.</p>
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<p><strong>0.30.53 - 0.32.44</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>Worklife: O’Gorman’s Hat Making and Dunlop’s</strong></p>
<p>Worked in Dunlop’s “in the packing” and worked in O’Gorman’s making the berets the hat factory in Shandon maybe in the old butter market. Phil thinks it was a shopping centre or souvenir shop after it was O’Gorman’s Hat Factory. They started up the “berett” (beret) part of the business. Phil describes the hat as a being similar to a “Tammy-Shanto” (Tam O’Shanter) a hat worn by Scottish men, except that it did not have the tassel on it. She worked there for three years and then went to Dunlop’s because there was more money there.</p>
<p>In the hat factory they made/knitted berets and shrunk them to the different sizes: 8 and a half, 9 and a half and 10 and half. They were knitted on a machine and put into something to shrink the wool which tightened up.</p>
<p>Phil was involved in the setting up of that process and ended up being a supervisor. She then went to Dunlops to do the packing.</p>
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</tr>
<tr>
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<p><strong>0.32.44 - 0.38.06</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>Working in Dunlop’s, Wellington Boots, Timekeeping Discipline, Stopping Work once Married, Reflections on Staying Home to raise Children.</strong></p>
<p>Phil was an “inspectress” (inspector) in the packing section in Dunlop’s. She inspected the wellington boots to see if there was any flaw in them which needed to be repaired. Then they were packed into the boxes and sent out.</p>
<p>The men made all the wellingtons and they arrived as a finished product when Phil got to inspect them. There were no women making the wellingtons. The men made them “down the dips”. Phil was inspecting the boots at the top of the heel where there might be a gap which needed to be filled in with some soft rubber. And if it wasn’t done properly she would send the boot back again for repair. She was strict because if there was something wrong with the boot the shop would send it back in any case. And you would be in trouble if it was sent back from the shop as it indicated that you had not been doing your job. “You’d be just called over the rope!”, “and if you were out sick you didn’t get paid while you were out either”.</p>
<p>You had to clock in 8am, clock out at lunchtime, clock in after lunch, clock out going home 5pm. If you were five minutes late you were docked pay for quarter of an hour. Phil says that this discipline is good, though it is less common today: “it’s bred into you. You just accept it. You wouldn’t do it today!”</p>
<p>That’s where the time keeping her dad had instilled came in useful.</p>
<p>Cycled to work down the Centre park Road four times a day because they would go home for lunch- lunch was one hour.</p>
<p>She worked for 3 years in Dunlop’s and 3 years in O’Gorman’s.</p>
<p>She was in Dunlop’s when she got married, and she had to leave they would not allow her to work now that she was married. She would have liked to have kept working because she was “with a very happy crowd- very nice people.” Phil reflects that it would not happen today, and that men who got married were able to continue working. At the time Phil says they didn’t know any better because it was the same for everyone. Phil thinks they were better off at home with their children. Many people today would want to be at home with their children but they can’t afford it with the cost of the mortgage and other expenses. Phil feels sorry for people today who can’t be with their children- “there’s no money would pay you for that. You fit ‘em out for the world. And hope for the best after that. I know the best of them like might go astray. But at the same time you do your best.”</p>
<p>“I thought it was lovely being at home with your children- you saw ‘em grow up”</p>
<p>Phil says nowadays people have children before they get married.</p>
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<p><strong>0.38.06 - 0.39.08</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Diseases: TB, Tuberculosis and Recuperation</strong></p>
<p>There was TB at the time though none of her family got it. When you were recovering you had to go to the country to Sarsfield’s Court which was the heart of the country that time. There was Heatherside in Doneraile in North Cork which was a place for recuperating from TB you were there for 6 or 9 months until the TB was gone. Phil says thank god none of her family got TB she jokes that they “must have been well looked after with our bread and butter and our eggs.”</p>
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<p><strong>0.39.08 - 0.42.55</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>Houses, landlords, house ownership, shared water pumps, class distinctions, comparative wealth, protestants, graveyard, relations between Catholics and Protestants</strong></p>
<p>All McCarthy family lived in the one house in Peter Church Lane though they may not have owned it. Phil says she thought they were very well off but the people who got married were still living in the family home. There was a pump at the top of the lane as they had no taps in their houses, they had to fill their buckets at the top of the lane. Doesn’t think the McCarthys who lived in the first house in the lane had a tap either.</p>
<p>Mr Cronin owned Phil’s family’s house. He was a railway man living in Glasheen. He came every week for his rent. You made sure you had your rent. He was a very nice man. You didn’t feel they were above you. People had their rent there was no ifs and buts. He worked in the railway he had a black uniform and the railway badge. He was only an ordinary worker but he owned 44 Grattan Street. Phil has met some of his family since and says they were all ordinary people- you didn’t feel that they were above you or below you even though they might have a little bit more than you- you never felt that. The have and the have nots. Even mixed with the Nolans of the People’s Dairy. Mixed with everyone except the Protestants (‘the Proddy Woddys’). Phil thinks that there was a caretaker for St Peter’s church living down the lane.</p>
<p>One of the bars in the railings of St Peter’s (Protestant) graveyard was bent so they were able to get in there as children “you’d be hauled over the ropes” if they were caught. They weren’t allowed in there by the Protestants but also their parents did not wasn’t them in there. “Times were different. Sure we think nothing of Protestants now.” “The Catholics and the Protestants were miles apart long go.”</p>
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<p><strong>0.42.55 - 0.44.38</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>Family of the Pharmacist that lived in the Dispensary</strong></p>
<p>Mr Morrissy was the pharmacist that lived in the dispensary he made up the prescriptions. There was a hatch in the wall where people queued to hand in their prescription and wait for the medicine to be handed out.</p>
<p>Never called anyone by their Christian name only as Mr, Mrs or Miss. The owners of Leaders shop on the North Main Street were known as Mr & Mrs and their daughters as Miss. Phil has been to visit one of the daughters recently and she still calls her Miss Leader. Went there for communion and confirmation clothes. Everyone got to know each other and grow up together. Miss Leader knows Phil’s family as “the Walls” she doesn’t know them by their married name.</p>
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<p><strong>0.44.38- 0.48.57</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Pawns and Pawn Shops</strong></p>
<p>Jones Pawn Shop, Kiely’s on Liberty Street where St Anthony’s Stores is now which is opposite St Francis. There was also a St Francis’ Stores on the corner of Sheares Street near the corner of the Courthouse which is a barber shop now.</p>
<p>Jones Pawn shop on the North Gate Bridge, and Kiely’s may have had another shop on the North Main Street.</p>
<p>Put in your clothes on a Monday and took them out on the Saturday. That gave you money for the week but you had to pay then on Saturday when you got the clothes out of the pawn.</p>
<p>“They were hard times but ‘tis what everyone did.”</p>
<p>Imagines her family used the pawn but she wasn’t told about it.</p>
<p>You had to be back for a certain time to collect the items pawned and if you weren’t they kept the item. And that is how they had the old gold to sell.</p>
<p>You could put something in for a month but you had to return on time to redeem it.</p>
<p>The pawn shops “had lovely stuff” they were like antique shops they had such beautiful things in them. Lovely gold watches, rings. “You could admire them in the window but you couldn’t go in and buy them because we didn’t have the money.”</p>
<p>They wouldn’t take shoddy stuff from you, they wouldn’t give you money for them. You could put an item in for 6 months.</p>
<p>Everyone did it, it was nothing to be ashamed of it.</p>
<p>As times got better the pawn shops faded out.</p>
<p>The pawns definitely made money, Phil believes they were always very wealthy. Phil jokes that the pawn owners may have lived in Montenotte but she doesn’t know where they lived.</p>
<p>People that had money were buying things from the pawns. Thick rings.</p>
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<p><strong>0.48.57- 0.50.38</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>A Treat</strong></p>
<p>Sweets. On a Sunday her dad would give them a shilling between 6 children so 2 pence each after their dinner. But they didn’t dare ask for it. Once their dinner was finished on a Sunday the children were wondering “would he ever pay us?!”. He chose when it was time to pay them. There was 12 pennies in the shilling. They got a lot for their penny- ten sweets for a penny in a shop. They looked forward to it.</p>
<p>Types of sweets: Bulls eyes, clove rock, peggy’s leg, black jacks.</p>
<p>You could get a half a penny’s worth of sweets if you liked. There were also farthings- a quarter of a penny.</p>
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<p><strong>0.50.38 - 0.53.24</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>What Happened to the Dispensary?</strong></p>
<p>The dispensary faded out, as people set up their own medical practices. The Health Board took it over, the doctors faded out and set up own places.</p>
<p>Phil’s husband had to go to a doctor and the first visit was €200, though the price was less for subsequent visits. Phil often heard of €100 or €150 for a visit but thought that €200 was too much.</p>
<p>Phil said that you didn’t have to pay going to the doctor or to the dispensary, but evens till they didn’t go unless it was necessary.</p>
<p>The dispensary was a busy place. Doesn’t know where people who had money went to the doctor because they didn’t know anyone who had money.</p>
<p>Lovely looking place inside, it was well done-up. It was “a big hall and you’d have rooms off of it four on that side and four on that side and you had two benches outside each door. You just sat on the bench then and took your turn, and hoped for the best.”</p>
<p>LDF trained there certain nights a week and they had to wear uniform.</p>
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<p><strong>0.53.24 - 0.54.11</strong></p>
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<td>
<p>Meets old neighbours from Grattan Street to this day, eg Byrnes, Mr Byrne was in the LDF, there were 6 in that family who live in the same house as hers. Only 2 of the Byrne’s left, 3 in Phil’s family. Still meet and socialise to talk about old times and the fun they had. They made their own fun.</p>
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<p><strong>0.54.11 - 0.56.52</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Protestant Graveyard at the back of St Peter’s</strong></p>
<p>They went in through the bars. “There were all tombs, like tables: you could have a meal on one of them. They were fabulous!” “There were no small headstones.” “There were headstones, but nothing poor about them”</p>
<p>Fr Walsh from St Peter and Paul’s had the Don Bosco troupe/troop there to do plays for the stage like Father Matthew Hall. There was a place where the school was, “the Protestants were kinda fading out” and Fr Walsh set up the Don Bosco troupe and they had instruments. The Lynches were there: Pat Lynch, and Stevie. They had a hall beside the graveyard. They played instruments, sang songs and practiced there. They performed in small places in Cork, and they did Christmas shows down the lane.</p>
<p>Fr Lynch used to do the parties for the poor children at Christmas. The parties were in the Mechanic’s Hall (now The Middle Parish Community Centre) upstairs where there was a stage.</p>
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<p><strong>0.56.52 - 0.58.54</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Mass, Religion, Dances, Strict Timekeeping</strong></p>
<p>They went to mass in St Francis but they were baptised in St Peter and Paul’s as it was their parish church. All her brothers were altar boys in St Peter and Pauls, and the girls were in the choir in St Francis.</p>
<p>Her mother had the children involved in everything they were never left “go wild”. They were also in the Girl Guides or the Boy Scouts. She kept tabs on them.</p>
<p>When they went to dances in St Francis Hall they were given five minutes to come home from the céilí on Saturday night from 8-11pm. If you went to the Arc (the Arcadia), facing the railway station it’s now apartments where the dance was 8-11 they were allowed half an hour to walk home. It was safe to walk home at that time, there would be no cars or buses after 11pm. If you weren’t there on time her mother would start walking towards them “I often met her!” says Phil. “What kept you?” her mother asked in case she had “been with the fellas”.</p>
<p>That was the discipline that they had which they took with them and tried to instil in their own children “and do the best you can” doesn’t think it is easy to do that today.</p>
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<p><strong>0.58.54 - 0.59.14</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>Christmas Party</strong></p>
<p>Phil doesn’t think that there was a Christmas party in the dispensary, only one in the Mechanic’s Hall [her sister Mary Mulcahy had mentioned a party in the dispensary, see <span><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/250">CFP_SR00729_Mulcahy_2019</a></span>].</p>
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<td>
<p><strong>0.59.14 - 1.02.08</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>Swimming: Outdoor Baths- Storage, Separate Days for Men and Women. Kingsley Hotel Flood</strong></p>
<p>They went swimming in the outdoor baths, they were not allowed in the Eglinton Baths because it was stagnant water. But they were allowed to cycle or walk up to the outdoor baths.</p>
<p>They brought the togs and towel under their arm, and often had a picnic up there were a flask and sandwiches. Phil says she remembers the summers being lovely but that they are probably the same as they are now! Monday, Wednesday and Friday the baths were open for women, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday was for the men. There were boxes all around the pool where you togged off. Your clothes could be stolen and you’d have to walk home in your togs. That never happened to Phil as they always had someone minding the box, or they swam in front of the box.</p>
<p>They built a hotel [the Kinglsey] over those baths, and her husband is mad about that because they could have made a 50 metre pool there. At the time it was 50 metres one way and 50 yards in the other direction. Thinks the only 50 metre pools are in Limerick and the Aquatic Centre in Dublin.</p>
<p>There was a flood in the Kingsley Hotel, which didn’t surprise Phil because that was where the swimming pool was with water from the Lee.</p>
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<p><strong>1.02.08 - 1.05.02</strong></p>
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<td>
<p><strong>Meeting her Husband. Anniversary. </strong></p>
<p>She met her husband in O’Gorman’s hat factory- but she “wasn’t going with him” then. Two or three years later she met him in the dances and “he used to dance me” and then they “became a couple and that was it. The rest is history.” They celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary on the previous Sunday.</p>
<p>They didn’t do anything for the anniversary as Phil didn’t feel ready for it due to a number of family bereavements. But she had a small celebration at home. Later on she will have a bigger celebration, there will be plenty of time for that she thinks.</p>
<p>“60 years with the one man” Phil says “I’m doing a line for 66 years!” [‘doing a line’ is Cork slang for dating someone.]</p>
<p>Phil says that she doesn’t remember when there were Quakers there but it was always known as “the Quakers”. “but what kind the Quakers were now I have no idea.”<br /><br />Outro</p>
<p>[Interview Ends]</p>
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</tbody>
</table>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Philomena Cassidy: Grattan Street, Healthcare, The Marsh
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CFP_SR00732_Cassidy_2019;
Relation
A related resource
<strong>Other Interviews in this Collection </strong><br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/240" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00696_O'Regan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/242" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00704_Collins_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/243" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00706_Higgisson_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/244" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00712_O'Brien_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/245" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00713_Kearney_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/246" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00714_Cunning_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/247" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00717_Ward_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00727_OhUigin_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00728_Scanlan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/250" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00729_Mulcahy_2019</a>;<br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/253" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> CFP_SR00762_OConnell_2019</a>;
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Language
A language of the resource
English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
1 .wav file
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
4 September 2019
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Description
An account of the resource
<p>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 surrounding area of the Middle Parish.</p>
<p>She discusses a variety of childhood games, a strong sense of community and friendly relationships with neighbours that have lasted a lifetime. </p>
<p><span>Phil recalls the dispensary, subsequently the Grattan Street Health Centre. Inside patients waited on benches for the doctor who tended to their area of the city. She also remembers the dispensary caretaker and pharmacist who lived in the dispensary building. </span></p>
<p><span>Her family’s daily routine is described including going to school, family meals and shopping. Her father was very strict about timekeeping, especially when Phil and her siblings were attending dances. This timekeeping came in useful at work where lateness resulted in docked pay, and where there was no sick pay.</span></p>
<p><span>Rationing in the 1940s is described, including the amounts of various foodstuffs allowed per person, and how it was circumvented by a neighbour who travelled to England.</span></p>
<p><span>Phil speaks of the diseases which we common when she grew up including tuberculosis. She also mentions her relatives who contracted diphtheria and measles and how they were treated. Refers to the vaccines for these diseases too.</span></p>
<p><span>Phil would have liked to stay working in Dunlop’s after her marriage as she enjoyed working with the people there but it was not an option. Nonetheless she enjoyed being with her own children at home and watching them grow, something she thinks happens less today.</span></p>
<p><span>Specific pawn shops and their locations are also recalled, how they functioned and their role in helping people make ends meet. </span></p>
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
-
https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/c1f71a078c71c139874eb8e72cd1b3b8.jpg
16b6240fed52be8092b29fd861fcf9ec
https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/9d74501e15908e88b5a3f07d10be10c1.mp3
9dd7a1153be96f478650c1c28b360735
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<p>Grattan Street Stories: Memory of Place</p>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Occupational Lore; Life History; Built Heritage; Health; Ireland; Cork; Middle Parish
Description
An account of the resource
<p>This collection focuses on a building on Grattan Street which has served as a Quaker Meeting House, a public Dispensary and as the Grattan Street Health Centre. The project was a collaboration between the CFP and the Cork North Community Work Department, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Health Services Executive HSE. </p>
<p>The interviewees fall into two main groups: those who worked in the building and those who lived in the surrounding area and availed of the services provided in the building.</p>
<p>This project follows on from the collaboration with the HSE in the “<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a>”. There is a further connection between the two projects as many of the staff and services once provided in the Grattan Street Health Centre have now relocated to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. This topic of the relocation of services is also covered in some staff interviews. <br /><br />To date (October 2021) 13 interviews have been completed for the project.<br /><br />Interviewees discuss the Grattan Street building itself in terms of its historic significance, its benefits and drawbacks as a workplace. Broader themes related to or inspired by the building are also touched on including: personal relationship with the building, staff camaraderie, the problems with parking, memorable incidents at work, patient experiences and descriptions of the people and services for which the building catered.<br /><br />Healthcare professional interviewees detail their training, career progression and comparisons between Grattan Street and other workplaces. Their testimonies also provide a link with the community of patients they served giving further insight into attitudes to healthcare, diseases, vaccines, description of social conditions and the changes in medicine and technology in their working lives.<br /><br />Non-healthcare professional interviewees describe childhood experiences in or around Grattan Street (The Marsh or The Middle Parish), the social, cultural and economic conditions of the area, tenements, businesses, attitudes to and experiences of healthcare, vaccines, diseases, medicines and medical professionals as well as observed changes in these areas over time.<br /><br />Interviewees also reflect on the possible future uses of the Grattan Street building.<br /><br /><strong>Related Reference Sources</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Barrington, R.<em> (</em>1987) <em>Health, medicine and politics in Ireland, 1900–1970</em>. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.</li>
<li><span>Butler D.M. (2004) <em>The Quaker meeting houses of Ireland</em></span>. Dublin : Irish Friends Historical Committee.</li>
<li><span>Byrne, J. (2004) <em>Byrne's dictionary of Irish local history.</em> Cork: Mercier Press.</span></li>
<li>Cooke, R. T. (1999) <em>My Home by the Lee</em>. Irish Millennium Publications: Cork.</li>
<li><span>Dempsey, P. J. & White, L. W. ‘Childers, Erskine Hamilton’. <em>Dictionary of Irish Biography</em> </span>[Accessed 18 October 2021]</li>
<li>Harrison, R.S. (1991) <em>Cork City Quakers 1655-1939: A Brief History</em>. Cork.</li>
<li>Houston, M. (2004). ‘Life before the GP’. <em>The</em> <em>Irish Times. </em>Available at : <<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599">https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599</a> > [Accessed 18 October 2021]</li>
<li>Keohane, F. (2020) <em>The Buildings of Ireland Cork City and County</em>. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.</li>
</ul>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-2020
Contributor
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<p>Interviewees: Edith O’Regan, 'Mary', Sean Higgisson, Aoife O’Brien, Eileen Kearney, Imelda Cunning, Jane Ward, Liam Ó hUigín, Joe Scanlan, Mary Mulcahy, Philomena Cassidy, Don Morrissy, Derek O’Connell</p>
<p>Interviewer: <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=2&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Kieran+Murphy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kieran Murphy</a>, (<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a>)</p>
Coverage
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<p>Cork, Ireland 1940s-2020s; Waterford, Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; Limerick, Ireland;</p>
Relation
A related resource
<p><strong>Exhibition</strong></p>
<p>Artist Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave (also an interviewee for the project) created a visual artwork based around the Grattan Street Medical Centre building itself, as a workplace and health centre. The artwork incorporated direct quotations from the oral history interviews conducted for the project, and also included brief historical paragraphs about the building researched, written and edited by the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. This exhibition was launched on 6<sup>th</sup> February 2020 in “St Peter’s” on the North Main Street where a “Listening Event” was also held to mark the occasion.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"><br /><br /><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" alt="Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" /><br /><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"></p>
<p><strong>Presentation and Listening Event</strong></p>
<p>To coincide with the launch of the Grattan Street Stories Exhibtion on 6<sup>th</sup> February 2020 a listening event and presentation of the history of the Grattan Street Medical Centre building and description of the project was given by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy.<br /><br /><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/427A7714-1.jpg" alt="427A7714-1.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>Presentation</strong></p>
<p>In 2019 at the OHNI conference the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy discussed social media and oral history which included audio excerpts from the Grattan Street Stories Project along with photographs of the building.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%;"><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" alt="Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>Audio Visual Presentation</strong></p>
<p>An audio-visual slideshow was produced featuring oral testimony from the Grattan Street Stories Project and combined with suitable images of Grattan Street and from Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave’s exhibition. This was created by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy.<br /><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnjEtQeOb3I&t=1s&ab_channel=CorkFolklore" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Audio Visual Presentation Available to listen and view here.</a>
<p><strong>Health and Vaccines Oral History Research<br /></strong><br />Many of the interviews conducted for the Grattan Street project formed an integral part of the testimonies and research for the innovative<br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">'Catching Stories'<span> </span>of infectious disease in Ireland </a>project funded by the Irish Research Council.<br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" alt="Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" /></a></p>
<strong>Social Media</strong> <br /><br />Numerous suitable audio excerpts from the oral history interviews have been edited and shared on CFP's social media channels.<br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736</a>
<strong>Orthopaedic Hospital</strong><br />Cork Folklore Project in collaboration with the HSE conducted an oral history project focussing on the Orthapaedic Hospital in Gurranabraher. <br /><br /><span>Many of the staff and services once provided at the Grattan Street Health Centre site were moved to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. </span><br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a>
<strong>Swimming Article</strong><br /><br />Kieran Murphy and James Furey co-authored an article about<br /><a href="https://tripeanddrisheen.substack.com/p/swim-city?s=r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swimming in Cork</a> which appeared in the online magazine Tripe + Drisheen. This article features a number of interview extracts collected as part of the Grattan Street Stories Project.
<strong>Related Interviews<br /><br /></strong>CFP_SR00756_Quilligan_2019;<br />CFP_SR00758_Broderick_2019;<br />CFP_SR00670_OShea_2018;<strong><br /><br /></strong>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Cork Folklore Project
Rights
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Cork Folklore Project
Language
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English
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Audio
Format
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16 .wav Files
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Eileen Kearney
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Kieran Murphy
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
89 Minutes 13 Seconds
Location
The location of the interview
St Mary’s Primary Care Centre, Gurranabraher
Original Format
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.wav
Bit Rate/Frequency
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24bit / 48kHz
Time Summary
A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.00.00 - 0.00.25</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Intro</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.00.25- 0.02.04</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Background</strong></p>
<p>Started in Grattan Street 2002 had been in different positions but haven been there full-time since 2012 as Assistant Director of Public Health Nursing. Covers the nursing staff for the City North-West area population 27,000. 10 area PHNs [Public Health Nurses] community RGN teams (Registered General Nurse). Eileen is PHN, RGN and registered mid-wife. You have to be an RGN to become a PHN.</p>
<p>Worked as an RGN first in the community in North Cork prior Grattan Street. Then did PHN course in Dublin UCD (University College Dublin). Returned to Grattan Street, work as PHN on the ground, in schools, preschools, inspecting in nursing homes, assistant director of PHN since 2009. She was in two other sectors before that. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.02.04 - 0.04.21</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Childhood in Waterford</strong></p>
<p>Born a long time ago! In Tallow west Waterford. From family of 7, has an older brother and four younger brothers and one younger sister. Father was a butcher, family business.</p>
<p>Went to school in Tallow, then Loreto in Fermoy and then to the Mercy Hospital and did RGN training, then Dublin to Hollis Street for midwifery training. [Eileen’s phone rings but she mutes or turns it off and continues the interview]</p>
<p>There were about four butchers in Tallow but now only a Supervalu. She remembers her dad singing and whistling below in the shop when she was in bed in the morning. He and his father were good singers and whistlers. Remembers sawdust in the shop and it going all over the house. Father and mother going to the marts getting sheep and animals coming to the back yard and into the slaughter house. Grew up with it so didn’t see anything unusual in it. Good happy childhood.</p>
<p>Brothers and her all involved in sport. She and parents played tennis. “We were brought up in a tennis court” played some hockey in school. Lots of sports, golf as well. But now doesn’t have time with work.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.04.21 - 0.06.36</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>House at Home Growing up</strong></p>
<p>Two storey house on the street. Shop was attached to it. Downstairs there was a living room, a kitchen and a back kitchen and a room off the shop and four bedrooms upstairs and a bathroom, a big garden, a shed and a slaughter house.</p>
<p>Grew up as an only girl, her sister is 14 years younger. She had gone to boarding school/secondary school by the time she was born. Had lots of friends in Tallow, still has them, still keep in touch. Did a lot of work in the house, as she tells her mother who’s now 92. They were all given jobs to do. She had to hoover the sawdust. She was involved in the weekly bath for her brothers, making sure their shoes were polished every Saturday evening. Thinks that today it is different, perhaps because of parenting. Dad died 10 years ago suddenly from a heart attack which she says was lovely for him. Siblings all alive, one in England. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.06.36 - 0.10.57</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Produce in the Butchers Drisheen, Tripe, Black Pudding. And the making of them.</strong></p>
<p>Meat was sold in the butchers and some onions. Mother made drisheen and black pudding every Thursday to be ready for Friday and Saturday. Sometimes she would get some tripe from the market in Cork and it would be sold in their shop. They didn’t make the tripe themselves but they did the drisheen and black puddings using the serum.</p>
<p>Serum from the blood and milk and pepper was used in it. It is supposedly good for you. And they ate that every Saturday night on top of sausages and rashers and they keep that tradition going but without the drisheen. Very mild flavour. It’s the frying that gives it a flavour. Maybe someone who wasn’t used to it might find a stronger flavour. Doesn’t remember the flavour of any herbs. It was a light grey colour in comparison to black pudding. Possibly some kind of sausage meat added to the black pudding. There was a machine where it would come from.</p>
<p>Serum is separation from the blood when it is allowed to settle and there is a strainer. You use what floats to the top and discard the rest.</p>
<p>Father and sister loved tripe but Eileen never “acquired the flavour for tripe” served “with boiled onions and milk”.</p>
<p>Eileen doesn’t remember the butcher shop selling pork. But she thinks she might be wrong about that because her father kept a pig and he won a trophy for his prize pig when Eileen was about 7.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.10.57 - 0.15.09</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>School, Corporal Punishment, going home for Dinner</strong></p>
<p>School in convent in Tallow. Carmelites enclosed order still in Tallow, they didn’t teach but it was in their area. Boys had a separate school at the time but now it is co-ed: boys and girls. Enjoyed school. Reasonably well-behaved because terrified. Teachers could slap you, corporal punishment. Eileen didn’t get slapped often because she was a good girl. Remembers a small ‘roundy’ stick which would be used to hit children around the knuckles. Some teachers had less patience than others and found it difficult but the students didn’t understand that. She is glad corporal punishment is gone because it lowered self-esteem, and put you at a disadvantage. It wasn’t just the slap, it was that someone had carried it out on you. You felt brutalised. It was very common, right up to the time her children were in primary school, some of the teachers at the ends of their careers there had a reputation for corporal punishment.</p>
<p>Would get a slap if they thought you weren’t paying attention or if you were talking to someone.</p>
<p>Spoke about corporal punishment with her friends subsequently. And she discovered terrible things that happened to people which she wasn’t aware about at the time. Slaps across the face, pulling of ears, hit on the head. “You were an easy target. They had the power.” It was difficult. She thinks that if you were involved in sport you were treated a bit differently, though not if you were academic.</p>
<p>They had outside toilets in primary school- “leaves and cold and wet”. Was able to go home at lunchtime and have dinner. “My wonderful mother had my dinner ready every day. For the nine of us.”</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.15.09 - 0.15.48</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Dinner and Types of Foods</strong></p>
<p>For dinner they would meat that hadn’t been sold in the butcher’s shop. They might have steak for a treat on Thursday night but usually more reasonable cuts of beef and lamb. Always meat, vegetable and potatoes. Mother was a great cook and baker so they always had something sweet to eat as well. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.15.48 - 0.19.01</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Secondary School Boarding School</strong></p>
<p>Boarded in Loreto Fermoy, her brothers went to De la Salle in Waterford. Her parents worked hard to get them that education. Her mother had boarded but her father had left school early. Some of her friends from home went to Loreto as well and she also made new friends there. There for 5 years. Happy enough time. Initially allowed home every third weekend, eventually allowed home every weekend. As an only girl it was good to be around female company, she thinks she would have just been bossing the boys around at home.</p>
<p>First impression was of the structure of the place: all your recreation time was spent in the one place. And you were there with your class, it was all set out for you and you had to fall into line. “I wasn’t unhappy there.” Calls by day, hockey in afternoon- sometimes go to Cork for a match. Every Saturday they were not at home they went for walks, they walked through the town, on parade in their uniforms. Had music at night in the social room listening to records. Abiding memory is of seeing Dana winning the Eurovision. Maybe she saw something about Bloody Sunday as well.”</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.19.01 - 0.20.36</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Career Choice. Nursing. Mother’s education. Role of Religion. Mercy Hospital</strong></p>
<p>“For some reason I always had nursing in my head.” Maybe because her mother said she would have done nursing if she could- she had left school after her Junior Cert and did a year in a technical school where she got her baking skills. Mom was a great worker so thinks she would have made a great matron rather than a nurse because she would have wanted everything done properly. Eileen says she may have some of those traits herself.</p>
<p>After Eileen’s training when she went into the hospital she felt claustrophobic “for some reason it didn’t sit well on me.” She did 3 years in the Mercy. There were nuns there at the time: “Great fun, hard work.”</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.20.36 - 0.22.07</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong><span>Role of religion in the Mercy Hospital.</span></strong></p>
<p><span>The rosary was said every night on the wards. Had to go down on your knees at 6 o’clock and shout out the decades of the rosary. Biggest thing was that they had to know the joyful, glorious and sorrowful mysteries. They went to mass every morning around 7am when they stayed in the nurses home for the first year and a half. Nuns were strict. She was only 17 when she was there so she thinks it might have been good. She didn’t regret doing nursing but she didn’t take it too seriously either. </span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.22.07 - 0.23.18</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Nursing Training in Mercy Hospital</strong></p>
<p>Three years training but only got a certificate. Learned anatomy, physiology and putting it into practice and managing patients/clients, eventually managing a ward. Managing night-time with patients coming in. managing a children’s ward. Dealing with everything: clinical care, surgery, people dying. Children dying. Recalls children dying in St. Anne’s Ward that will never leave me. Delighted to see the Mercy is busy and expanding. She has fond memories of it.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.23.18 - 0.26.55</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Route to PHN and Grattan Street</strong></p>
<p>Did a little bit of work there wasn’t much work for qualified nurses at the time. Went to Fermoy Hospital, a community hospital. Worked there for a few months. Went to Hollis Street and spent a year there- very interesting. Opening into a different experience in the capital. She was madly in love at the time came home frequently. Eventually went back to Fermoy Hospital and got married at 23 in June, and by October of the following year she had her first son and so gave up nursing. Husband was self-employed and was often away and she felt one of them needed to be there they had three children. When the children got older she decided to do a course in fitness and taught exercise classes for 8 years. She had tried to get into PHN but hadn’t enough experience. She met a friend in Fermoy in 1998 and she said why not go into the community they are looking for RGNs in North Cork. She applied, got it and then “got the bug for the community” and applied twice to UCC for PHN course and they didn’t think she was suitable. She was accepted in Dublin and found it challenging. She was 47 at the time. She was up there for three week period. She came home every weekend. She came home on placement for a two week period placed in North Cork. That’s how it operated for the academic year. it was manageable and she had always wanted to do it.</p>
<p>She was going back into a group of nurses who had been working, who knew everything, who knew computers and Eileen could barely send a text message on a phone. She was accomplished at essays by the time she was finished. She entered Grattan Street 2002. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.26.55 - 0.28.25</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Public Health Nursing</strong></p>
<p>Eileen enjoyed the freedom of PHN, didn’t like the constraints of the hospital and the regimental nature of it. PHN suited her. Liked going into clients’ homes and fitting in with them rather than them fitting into a structure in a hospital.</p>
<p>She wonders about the broad, complex, extended and manic nature of what is being attempted in the community now. She hasn’t been out working in 2009 but she has been working managing staff inside and supporting them in client management.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.28.25 - 0.33.06</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Role of Public Health Nurse</strong></p>
<p>Looking after clients from the ante-natal (pregnancy period) to the end of life care. Anything and everything in between that. A huge sphere. Looking after mums to be, babies, mums after birth, young children, acute discharges who need support around wound care, clients with mental health, addictions, disabilities, older adults, dying and palliative care. Thinks it’s now too broad now because the type of discharges are very complex, almost providing a hospital type care within the community. Sláinte Care- clients being discharged into the community. Eileen doesn’t think this can happen until they had sufficient resources to match the numbers being discharged to them, she needs an increased budget. City north west is an area of great disadvantage there are 20 DEDs (Electoral Divisions) in it 15 of which are designated as disadvantaged or very disadvantaged. Lots of complexities around parenting. This leads to children with behavioural issues. Eileen is always advocating for early interventions. Role of PHN was always health promotion and illness prevention. More hands on now doing clinical, assessments, referrals, ordering supplies, reviewing things. So what was formerly the PHN’s main role is no longer their main role. Early intervention is key, it would be very beneficial.</p>
<p>In the city northwest area there are many non-statutory bodies area-based childhood programme, (Atlantic Philanthropy was supporting this for a while now it’s Tusla) they support families, parents, teachers, childcare workers increasing capacity around infant mental health. Springboard run by Tusla which support families. “Niche” in Hollyhill a family support agencies, and Barnardos as well. Eileen is involved with all of them in child welfare and protection. Would like to get the issues resolved at child welfare stage. Everyone that comes to work here gets great experience but no one stays for very long. Lost two staff in April. 1.5 staff were on maternity leave and not replaces and another 2 going on maternity leave. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.33.06 - 0.35.30</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Turnover of Staff</strong></p>
<p>Turnover due to the challenging work. Often chasing people, offering them appointments to bring their children, but they don’t. When you go back they won’t answer the door, or their phone, and change their phone number, or don’t tell you that they’ve moved house.</p>
<p>Not all people they deal with are like that but a core group are because they have had no parenting themselves and the cycle continues of disadvantage, poverty, poor education and housing, unemployment. “Entitlement stage” their parents were entitled to everything. In PHN there is no entitlement which they try to get across.</p>
<p>Eileen thinks that people born and reared in poverty and with poor parenting have no chance of catching up because they don’t realise the level they are at. Eileen doesn’t know where to break that cycle though she thinks that PHN plays some role. Places in Dublin and Limerick also have areas of disadvantage.</p>
<p>Eileen think that sometimes her staff give people what they think the people need but it may not be what they really need and sometimes the staff can’t get that information from people. It’s all about building relationships but it’s hard to build that relationship when people don’t want what you have to offer people.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.35.30 - 0.40.25</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Child Development Problems- Multiple Causes, Complex Solutions</strong></p>
<p>Should they ensure that all children in primary school are fed? Or is that too late? An infant mental health specialist with young Knocknaheeny area child-based programme 0 to 2 years is pivotal in nurturing and bonding and if it doesn’t happen children end up with low self-esteem or behavioural problems. These become bigger problems later as the children have not developed skills in coping because they haven’t been shown them. And if it’s not there by age two they miss out on a lot. Ante-natal period classes with Young Knocknaheeny to build a relationship with the mothers when they have their babies which they have to see until they are 5.</p>
<p>There are a lot of services for people but sometimes they don’t want to be seen as a target for the services, they don’t want to be seen as different. Eileen was initially shocked by that attitude, someone said “another service being thrown at us” and maybe they were saturated with services and it wasn’t something they wanted at all.</p>
<p>If Eileen knew how to break that cycle she would patent it.</p>
<p>She read an article by someone in charge of Bessborough- how can we expect young mums to parent a child when they were never shown and they had no role model. How to build trust and build a relationship because they can be very wary and distrustful of services. Parents think that if they don’t do what the PHN says or thinks is right that there could be child protection issues involved because this happened a lot in the past and sometimes a child was removed. But for social workers the last resort is to remove a child- the child as almost always better with the parents from their point of view. Eileen thinks that approach is a bit unusual, especially if there is no bond between parents and the child.</p>
<p>Sometimes a child is removed for a period of time, and there are health professional meetings, case conferences, families come together and everything is discussed. Sometimes it doesn’t work but you have to try. In those cases there is a health professional meeting or a case conference meeting and the children go into foster care and maybe go back to the parents after a period. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.40.25 - 0.45.40</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Social and Medical Issues in North Cork Area</strong></p>
<p>Most of the moms are single with different partners for the different children. Housing is an issue, expenses for school, dependence on drugs, alcohol, polypharmacy, mental health, self-neglect. A number of clients are alcoholics who come home and expect the HSE to provide services. They can refer clients to the mental health services but the client has to agree to go. And there is a lot of that.</p>
<p>Lots of young people with disabilities which she was surprised at she felt she had been very “sheltered”. When she came from North Lee so many people had disabilities or something wrong with a lot of people. The stats are quite high. North Cork is rural but North Lee is exceptional.</p>
<p>One third fit into that category. Mental health and addiction issues are shocking. Grandparents are minding grandchildren because their children aren’t capable.</p>
<p>She had no exposure to this until she arrived and so she was unprepared for it.</p>
<p>Eileen could retire any time she wants but she likes the work but will retire in a few years. She tries to make a difference.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.45.40 - 0.49.40</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Compares Grattan Street to new St Mary’s Primary Care Centre. Car Park issues.</strong></p>
<p>Get pleasure from the new building in St Mary’s so different to Grattan Street. When in Grattan Street they loved it and linking in with the team and got stuck in the car park. Eileen had a database with all the cars and numbers and if anyone was in a parking space who wasn’t registered they would get a note on their car. The car park nearly broke their hearts. Eileen was in a 7:20 every morning to get the parking space and would dread having to go anywhere because your space would be gone.</p>
<p>When she went there as a novice PHN she didn’t like the outside of the building but once inside she felt comfortable there, and the staff were nice in there. They always knew if someone was sick or had a bereavement.</p>
<p>When she left Grattan Street she had a room there but it is now full with other things and incontinence wear. Jokingly blames Sean Higgisson the porter for this.</p>
<p>Some of the rooms in Grattan Street are beginning to look neglected and old.</p>
<p>Some of the team are not looking forward to moving up to St Mary’s. They are anxious about the move. But many with Eileen were as well before they moved but at least her team are all in the one place now. She feels they are well-settled in St Mary’s now and they like it and she told Sean the porter and Celine in admin this. They’re not really missing Grattan Street.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.49.40 - 0.57.13</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Typical Day in Grattan Street and Changes. Hospital Discharges.</strong></p>
<p>Arriving in Grattan Street first it was similar to what she had been used to in North Cork. (North Lee is from Youghal to Macroom) Was in Mayfield for a year. Was in Glanmire St Stephen’s for 2 years. 2012-2019 in Grattan Street.</p>
<p>A typical day in Grattan Street was getting there early to park the car to be able to get out quickly. When traffic in Grattan Street became one way it really affected staff in Grattan Street- previously they were able to leave and go up Shandon Street but now they have to turn through narrow streets. Doesn’t feel they were told or consulted about that change.</p>
<p>After getting their early she went for a walk because initially she didn’t have a key to the health centre. Walk to the quays, North Main Street into St Francis Church to pray for everyone (and for herself not to kill anyone). Back to Grattan Street, Sean would be there, have coffee, reply to emails, manage staff annual leave, sick leave professional development, pre-discharge meetings. She is on various boards and bodies which entailed various meetings. Would go St Finbarr’s [Hospital] head office once a week. Busy. Trying to find solutions to problems. Would think of something in bed at night but forget it by the time morning comes. Sometimes write a note in the phone and go back to sleep.</p>
<p>In Grattan Street working with clients, working through correspondence, going to meetings: multi-disciplinary teams with more views, suggestions and options. Could be about a client having issues with self-neglecting, a client who deteriorated and needed extra supports.</p>
<p>Mercy today for pre-discharge meeting for a very complicated case coming home. Previously the person had been discharge and within 36 hours he was found on the floor and the door had to be broken down- required the Gardaí, ambulance, nurse and home help. He refused to go to hospital. The following morning he was unwell again and he was sent to hospital. Now they want to send him home again.</p>
<p>Many complexities come from not having next of kin and the nurse shouldn’t have to take on that responsibility.</p>
<p>Capacity bill. Not always safe discharges.</p>
<p>Reiterates connections with Young Knocknaheeny, Niche, Barnardos, Springboard. Try to link in with other groups and social work but feels they need to focus on their own work. Their cases are too big to be involved. Feels pulled and dragged a lot. As a PHN you are a manager of an area of 3,000 population which isn’t huge but the complexities make it hard. In a rural area there might be a population of about 5,000 but they wouldn’t all be active.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.57.13 - 1.01.40</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Social Aspect</strong></p>
<p>Aoife O’Brien is great to get people together, comes up with idea, advertise, follow up, plan order things, get back to people and doesn’t force people and takes photos. Eileen takes pride in the Christmas party and restarting it. It’s the only time they really had events in Grattan Street.</p>
<p>Allows you to have fun, eating and relaxing and speaking about plans. Someone made punch but with the change in driving laws and when that woman left they didn’t have it anymore. Lots of young people in Grattan Street now who go out after work to a bar but Eileen wouldn’t have done that. There was a lot of moving or transferring staff and they would do something for them like a lunch. Mixed well with admin, nursing, podiatry, school nurses, ophthalmology. Everyone knew where everyone was.</p>
<p>When they came to St Mary’s first in early February (5<sup>th</sup> & 6<sup>th</sup> of February after the nurses strike) they really missed the other teams. Expected the other to follow shortly after but they haven’t. When meeting people in the corridor in St Marys there might not be eye contact and they aren’t used to that coming from St Mary’s. Now they are smiling and saying hello. They are integrating into the new building. When people finally come up from Grattan Street it might be easier for them now that Eileen’s team has managed the transition.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.01.40 - 1.07.10</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Everyone loves Grattan Street</strong></p>
<p>Some people wanted to leave but only for parking. Grattan Street reversing out and cars double parked on both sides. Saw a lorry bringing in windows for a school extension. People in the school sometimes try to take their spaces. The lorry reversed in- surprised how good a driver he was.</p>
<p>Teams close together in Grattan Street but separated now in St Mary’s. Podiatry will come up. Home Support Service is in St Marys. PHN have rooms for clients downstairs. While everyone is in St Mary’s they are separate. They are beginning to get used to all the space.</p>
<p>Thinks it’s more productive in St Marys.</p>
<p>Sector 4- City Northwest touches on the Mardyke and Western Road a bit but most of it is on the Northside. It made no sense for staff to be based in town and come up to the Northside and then back down. Grattan Street Health Centre is part of Mayfield Sector 3- City North East. So really they were in temporarily lodgings there. In St Mary’s can respond to thinks more quickly, nurses can do their calls more easily. Can’t think of negative things, maybe the room with 20 of the nurses instead of 2 to 5 people. But people are getting used to it.</p>
<p>Some health centres have a mix of disciplines but in St Mary’s it’s all nursing which Eileen prefers.</p>
<p>Canteen in Grattan Street was homely and functional. But in St Mary’s it’s clinical, not big and equipment is ok but it’s very loud. Eileen goes there when it’s quiet and looks out the window at the trees which has a preservation order on them.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.07.10 - 1.11.08</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Interaction with Surrounding Grattan Street Community </strong></p>
<p>Fraught interaction with the surrounding area in Grattan Street to do with the car park. There’s 6 parking spaces for anyone. And the ones at the back wall and the other side area for HSE. There might not be enough space for residents. And HSE staff would try to get in early enough for a space. They had a good relationship with the school [Education Together] until they started taking the HSE parking spaces. Sean had a good relationship with the school and the locals because he would have more dealings with them. Only the back door of people’s houses were connected with the car park their front doors faced elsewhere. There was a hall. And the area in which Grattan Street is located isn’t covered by the PHN area that Eileen was in, it was covered by Mayfield. So Eileen feels they were a bit disconnected from the Marsh.</p>
<p>Not much interaction with shops.</p>
<p>Raised blood pressure due to the car parking and arguments and they nearly shot each other over it!</p>
<p>Eileen told someone that they couldn’t park there because they weren’t working there and she was shocked at the angry verbal abuse she got after it. Sometimes arguments would start badly but in the end they would be smiling and wondering what all the fuss was about.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.11.08 - 1.14.18</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Describe Grattan Street</strong></p>
<p>A happy place to work. Liked the building and its peculiarities, its rattling windows. Arguing to get a new window where the bottom part was falling out and tin foil was blocking the gap. In her room the wind was coming in and the window wasn’t replaced. Bars on the window. And obscure glass so you could only see out when you open the top.</p>
<p>Thought that the two stairs going to the 2<sup>nd</sup> floor in Grattan Street was cool when she was there first and the gallery all around and the open space it created. An old quaint building being pushed into something it was never meant to house. Glad to hear that there is talk of people going in there.</p>
<p>The gallery made things different. And you could see if someone was waiting for you and have a bit of craic. An opportunistic up and down conversation. Not as easy to catch people in St Mary’s. “We will always have happy memories of Grattan Street. Always. And I’m sure it will become even more embellished with time.”</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.14.18 - 1.18.30</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Why do people like Grattan Street?</strong></p>
<p>Eileen thinks it’s partly because of the people working there. The building lends itself to that. They got something good from the building.</p>
<p>When you entered the building there were no lights on you had to go to the reception area to turn them on.</p>
<p>One morning she heard something flush when she went in. She locked herself in her office. And called Sean (Higgisson the porter) who said the toilet just flushed itself- another peculiarity.</p>
<p>Sometimes people were difficult in Grattan Street and Sean was calm and dealt with it.</p>
<p>Being near town gave you lots of options for places to go which isn’t the case in St Marys.</p>
<p>Someone could come in shouting and verbally abusive and demanding to see someone.</p>
<p>Someone collapsed once and Sean had to get him to the Mercy Hospital in wheelchair.</p>
<p>Try to diffuse the difficult person- Sean would be good at that and might get someone else to assist. Sean gives a relaxed attitude and talks to people. He would keep it from escalating. Eileen thinks she might not be so calm!</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.18.30 - 1.20.02</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Varying Views of Grattan Street Medical Centre</strong></p>
<p>Other people who came to Grattan Street may see it as shabby, or somewhere they didn’t get what they wanted. Or there was no proper queue or waiting too long for something. They might have had trouble parking.</p>
<p>Another person might think it’s convenient in the city centre and an interesting unusual space. “But they won’t ever see it the way we saw it. We felt we owned it. Or it owned us, you know that kind of way. Sometimes it just felt like something wrapped around you.” Felt good there. “Everyone loves Grattan Street. Put that on my epitaph.”</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.20.02 - 1.21.00</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Definition of Patients and Clients </strong></p>
<p>Call people clients when working with them in the community. Patients in the hospital. Clients because they have some need but it is not always an illness. It’s always been like that in the community setting.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.21.00 - 1.23.15</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Anything you would change about Grattan Street besides the carpark?</strong></p>
<p>Could have been painted. Paint the door. Make it more attractive people to get a better sense of the place before entering. Improve the exterior to make people aware they were going someplace nice. The building needs it. Down and outs sleep out the back of it so there is lots of rubbish out there. Some clear glass in the office and take away the bars. Improve the canteen a bit.</p>
<p>St Marys is fresh, new and practical.</p>
<p>Grattan Street not much can be done with it.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.23.15 - 1.24.28</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Unexpected Responsibilities and Workload</strong></p>
<p>Eileen didn’t expect when she started out to be working so hard and carrying so many responsibilities at the age she is now. There was no reflection on where you were going at the time she started.</p>
<p>She always wanted to work in community not hospital.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.24.28 - 1.26.15</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Future of Grattan Street</strong></p>
<p>Would like to see it occupied and whoever was in there was happy in there and the building was looked after. Nearly better to close off the car park. Eileen thinks it can never be sold off. And she would like services to be in there because it is an ideal central location.</p>
<p>H111 European Health Insurance Card is done in Grattan Street. There’s a box shaped reception which was thrown up and is not in keeping with the building she would like to see that changed. Plaster on the walls. Holes in the ceiling.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.26.15 - 1.29.13</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Vaccines, School Nurse, Grattan Street Ghost.</strong></p>
<p>Vaccines- had to mind the fridges when she was a schools nurse. School nurses had to deal with AMO Area Medical Officer now called Community Medical Doctors. The room the fridges were in had no air-conditioning or coolant and sometimes the temperature would get too high.</p>
<p>As a school nurse she would have to take the vaccines in and out and maintain the cold chain in the transfer of the vaccines. In St Mary’s there will be a cold room for those fridges.</p>
<p>Never saw the ghost. And she had plenty of time to appear when she was there alone in the morning.</p>
<p>Grattan Street was special. Met people with different problems.</p>
<p>Outro. Interview ends.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Eileen Kearney: Grattan Street, Healthcare, Working Life
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CFP_SR00713_Kearney_2019;
Relation
A related resource
<strong>Other Interviews in this Collection</strong><br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/240" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00696_O'Regan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/242" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00704_Collins_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/243" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00706_Higgisson_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/244" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00712_O'Brien_2019</a>;<br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/246" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00714_Cunning_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/247" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00717_Ward_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00727_OhUigin_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00728_Scanlan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/250" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00729_Mulcahy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/251" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00732_Cassidy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/253" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> CFP_SR00762_OConnell_2019</a>;
Language
A language of the resource
English
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
3 May 2019
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
.wav
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Description
An account of the resource
<p><span>Eileen grew up in Tallow in west Waterford in a family of seven. Her father ran the family butcher business attached to the house. She recalls him singing and whistling, and the sawdust on the shop floor. Recalls meat and tripe being sold and drisheen being made by her mother, explains this process. </span></p>
<p><span>Describes the family home and routine chores. Speaks about the importance of sport especially tennis in her family upbringing.</span></p>
<p><span>Recalls her school days including instances of corporal punishment and the negative effects it had on people. Went home for lunch, mother prepared their dinner using meat from their butcher shop.</span></p>
<p><span>Describes secondary boarding school in Loreto Fermoy, especially the structure it imposed. </span></p>
<p><span>Speaks of how she had always intended to become a nurse. May have learned traits and habits useful for her career from her mother’s work ethic. Describes her nursing training in the Mercy Hospital and how the rosary was said there every night. </span></p>
<p><span>Describes her path to Public Health Nurse training in Dublin. Talks about her desire to work in the community rather than in the constraints of a hospital. Describes the wide range of PHN duties from pregnancies, births, infants, acute injury support, addiction, disability, older adults to dying and palliative care.</span></p>
<p><span>Discusses her current role as Assistant Director of Public Health Nursing where she advocates for early intervention to prevent behavioural issues in children. Mentions the large staff turnover due to the difficulties of the work. Much of the work involves building relationships.</span></p>
<p><span>Speaks about how poverty, social disadvantage, addiction, alcoholism affect children’s health and create a negative cycle which PHNs have a role in breaking. Speaks of how difficult it is for someone who hasn’t had parental role model to function as a parent themselves.</span></p>
<p><span>Talks about the move from Grattan Street to St. Mary’s Primary Care Centre and how she misses the other medical teams. </span></p>
<p><span>Describes Grattan Street as happy place to work, enjoyed the building and its quirks such as the gallery which facilitated casual conversation and the rattling windows. Believes people enjoyed working there because they got something positive from the building. Mentions the difficulties with parking there and its impact on the wider community. Feels that the building owned them.</span></p>
<p><span>Speaks of her hopes for the future of Grattan Street building once services move out.</span></p>
<p><span>Discusses caring for and moving vaccines as a School Nurse. </span></p>
<p><span>States that Grattan Street was a special place.</span></p>
Acute Care
Addiction
Admin
Administration
Alcohol
Alcoholics
Alcoholism
Animals
Ante-natal
Barnardos
Behavioural Issues
Black Pudding
Boarding School
Building
Building Maintenance
Buildings
Built Heritage
Butchers
Camaraderie
Car Park
Car Parking
Care of Children
Carmelites
Change
Child
Child Protection
Child Welfare
Childhood
Children
Christmas
Christmas Party
Client
Clients
Colleagues
Community
Cooking
Cork
Corporal Punishment
Deprivation
Dinner
Disabilities
Disability
Drisheen
Education
European Health Insurance
Family Support
Farm
Fermoy
Fermoy Hospital
Food
Grandparents
Grattan Street
Happy Memories
Hockey
Hollis Street Hospital
Hollyhill
Home
Hospital
Hospital Ward
Hospitals
House
Housing
HSE
Junior Cert
Kitchen
Knocknaheeny
Loreto College Fermoy
Love
Maintenance
Management
Mart
Marts
Meal
Meals
Meat
Memories
Mental Health
Mercy Hospital
Midwife
Midwifery
Motherhood
North Cork
North Lee
Northside
Nurse
Nursing
Nursing Training
Parents
Patient
Patients
People
PHN
Playing
Polypharmacy
Pregnancy
Public Health Nursing
Religion
Religion in Medicine
Role of Religion
Rosary
School
School Expenses
Self-neglect
Shop
Siblings
Single Mothers
Sláinte Care
Slaughter House
Social
Social Conditions
Social Disadvantage
Sport
St Francis Church
St. Mary’s Primary Care Centre
Staff
Staff Turnover
Strike
Tallow
Training
Tripe
Tusla
Unemployment
Vaccines
Ward
Waterford
Work
Workers
Working
Workplace
-
https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/47998d1b6000a76e70981ad7252a7f04.jpg
e245f89b3e8cbbb2c200a3033ee23a69
https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/859e801dd14591ec7d7a25917a9ecc6c.wav
42cd57234548f74e7bc3b88c245586c0
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<p>Grattan Street Stories: Memory of Place</p>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Occupational Lore; Life History; Built Heritage; Health; Ireland; Cork; Middle Parish
Description
An account of the resource
<p>This collection focuses on a building on Grattan Street which has served as a Quaker Meeting House, a public Dispensary and as the Grattan Street Health Centre. The project was a collaboration between the CFP and the Cork North Community Work Department, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Health Services Executive HSE. </p>
<p>The interviewees fall into two main groups: those who worked in the building and those who lived in the surrounding area and availed of the services provided in the building.</p>
<p>This project follows on from the collaboration with the HSE in the “<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a>”. There is a further connection between the two projects as many of the staff and services once provided in the Grattan Street Health Centre have now relocated to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. This topic of the relocation of services is also covered in some staff interviews. <br /><br />To date (October 2021) 13 interviews have been completed for the project.<br /><br />Interviewees discuss the Grattan Street building itself in terms of its historic significance, its benefits and drawbacks as a workplace. Broader themes related to or inspired by the building are also touched on including: personal relationship with the building, staff camaraderie, the problems with parking, memorable incidents at work, patient experiences and descriptions of the people and services for which the building catered.<br /><br />Healthcare professional interviewees detail their training, career progression and comparisons between Grattan Street and other workplaces. Their testimonies also provide a link with the community of patients they served giving further insight into attitudes to healthcare, diseases, vaccines, description of social conditions and the changes in medicine and technology in their working lives.<br /><br />Non-healthcare professional interviewees describe childhood experiences in or around Grattan Street (The Marsh or The Middle Parish), the social, cultural and economic conditions of the area, tenements, businesses, attitudes to and experiences of healthcare, vaccines, diseases, medicines and medical professionals as well as observed changes in these areas over time.<br /><br />Interviewees also reflect on the possible future uses of the Grattan Street building.<br /><br /><strong>Related Reference Sources</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Barrington, R.<em> (</em>1987) <em>Health, medicine and politics in Ireland, 1900–1970</em>. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.</li>
<li><span>Butler D.M. (2004) <em>The Quaker meeting houses of Ireland</em></span>. Dublin : Irish Friends Historical Committee.</li>
<li><span>Byrne, J. (2004) <em>Byrne's dictionary of Irish local history.</em> Cork: Mercier Press.</span></li>
<li>Cooke, R. T. (1999) <em>My Home by the Lee</em>. Irish Millennium Publications: Cork.</li>
<li><span>Dempsey, P. J. & White, L. W. ‘Childers, Erskine Hamilton’. <em>Dictionary of Irish Biography</em> </span>[Accessed 18 October 2021]</li>
<li>Harrison, R.S. (1991) <em>Cork City Quakers 1655-1939: A Brief History</em>. Cork.</li>
<li>Houston, M. (2004). ‘Life before the GP’. <em>The</em> <em>Irish Times. </em>Available at : <<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599">https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599</a> > [Accessed 18 October 2021]</li>
<li>Keohane, F. (2020) <em>The Buildings of Ireland Cork City and County</em>. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.</li>
</ul>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-2020
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
<p>Interviewees: Edith O’Regan, 'Mary', Sean Higgisson, Aoife O’Brien, Eileen Kearney, Imelda Cunning, Jane Ward, Liam Ó hUigín, Joe Scanlan, Mary Mulcahy, Philomena Cassidy, Don Morrissy, Derek O’Connell</p>
<p>Interviewer: <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=2&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Kieran+Murphy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kieran Murphy</a>, (<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a>)</p>
Coverage
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<p>Cork, Ireland 1940s-2020s; Waterford, Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; Limerick, Ireland;</p>
Relation
A related resource
<p><strong>Exhibition</strong></p>
<p>Artist Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave (also an interviewee for the project) created a visual artwork based around the Grattan Street Medical Centre building itself, as a workplace and health centre. The artwork incorporated direct quotations from the oral history interviews conducted for the project, and also included brief historical paragraphs about the building researched, written and edited by the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. This exhibition was launched on 6<sup>th</sup> February 2020 in “St Peter’s” on the North Main Street where a “Listening Event” was also held to mark the occasion.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"><br /><br /><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" alt="Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" /><br /><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"></p>
<p><strong>Presentation and Listening Event</strong></p>
<p>To coincide with the launch of the Grattan Street Stories Exhibtion on 6<sup>th</sup> February 2020 a listening event and presentation of the history of the Grattan Street Medical Centre building and description of the project was given by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy.<br /><br /><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/427A7714-1.jpg" alt="427A7714-1.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>Presentation</strong></p>
<p>In 2019 at the OHNI conference the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy discussed social media and oral history which included audio excerpts from the Grattan Street Stories Project along with photographs of the building.</p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:150%;"><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" alt="Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" /></p>
<p><strong>Audio Visual Presentation</strong></p>
<p>An audio-visual slideshow was produced featuring oral testimony from the Grattan Street Stories Project and combined with suitable images of Grattan Street and from Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave’s exhibition. This was created by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy.<br /><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom:0cm;line-height:10%;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnjEtQeOb3I&t=1s&ab_channel=CorkFolklore" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Audio Visual Presentation Available to listen and view here.</a>
<p><strong>Health and Vaccines Oral History Research<br /></strong><br />Many of the interviews conducted for the Grattan Street project formed an integral part of the testimonies and research for the innovative<br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">'Catching Stories'<span> </span>of infectious disease in Ireland </a>project funded by the Irish Research Council.<br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" alt="Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" /></a></p>
<strong>Social Media</strong> <br /><br />Numerous suitable audio excerpts from the oral history interviews have been edited and shared on CFP's social media channels.<br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133</a><br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736</a>
<strong>Orthopaedic Hospital</strong><br />Cork Folklore Project in collaboration with the HSE conducted an oral history project focussing on the Orthapaedic Hospital in Gurranabraher. <br /><br /><span>Many of the staff and services once provided at the Grattan Street Health Centre site were moved to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. </span><br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a>
<strong>Swimming Article</strong><br /><br />Kieran Murphy and James Furey co-authored an article about<br /><a href="https://tripeanddrisheen.substack.com/p/swim-city?s=r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swimming in Cork</a> which appeared in the online magazine Tripe + Drisheen. This article features a number of interview extracts collected as part of the Grattan Street Stories Project.
<strong>Related Interviews<br /><br /></strong>CFP_SR00756_Quilligan_2019;<br />CFP_SR00758_Broderick_2019;<br />CFP_SR00670_OShea_2018;<strong><br /><br /></strong>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Cork Folklore Project
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Language
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English
Type
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Audio
Format
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16 .wav Files
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Interviewee
The person(s) being interviewed
Aoife O'Brien
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Kieran Murphy
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
80 Minutes 1 Second
Location
The location of the interview
Grattan Street Medical Centre
Original Format
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.wav
Bit Rate/Frequency
Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio)
24bit / 48kHz
Time Summary
A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.00.00 - 0.00.52</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Role in Grattan Street Medical Centre</strong></p>
<p>Clerical Officer in Grattan Street Medical Centre for 18/19 years. From Cathedral Road originally. Only Northsider working in Grattan Street Medical Centre!</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.00.52 - 0.02.44</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Background, Childhood and Games</strong></p>
<p>Grew up in cul-de-sac terrace called School Avenue.</p>
<p>Primary school: St Vincent’s.</p>
<p>Games: “piggy”, skipping ropes. Convinced her friends that there were fairies in trees by her house. Took over older sister Sinead’s job in Grattan Street Medical Centre. They played together with Sinead as the teacher and Aoife as the student in their grandmother’s room using chalk which got on grandmother’s clothes and she never knew when it came from. Started school with boys & girls she was friends with and still friends with many of them today.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.02.44 - 0.03.37</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Childhood Games: Piggy</strong></p>
<p>Describes the game how it’s made and its rules (also known as hopscotch or pickey) chalk on the road and use a shoe polish tin. Very popular where Aoife was from.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.03.37 - 0.05.06</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Grand Mother’s shop on Churchfield Green</strong>.</p>
<p>Grandmother’s surname was Stephens and people who know Aoife from the shop know her as Aoife Stephens. Had friends up near the shop. Shop closed 20 years ago. Her dad drove her and siblings from school to the shop after school. Her mom worked up there.</p>
<p>Aoife and her friend Paula went to the “Pound Shop” or collected old wool from people’s houses to make ponytails in imitation of Like “Rainbow Brite Dolls”.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.05.06 - 0.07.37</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Grandmother’s Shop- description, shopping notes, fun </strong></p>
<p>Shop was hub of activity. Customers sent up notes with the items they wanted. Children played hiding in fridges. “Light-fingered”- as children they took things from the shop. It was a grocery shop selling: milk, bread, cold meats, sweets, cigarettes.</p>
<p>Recalls a funny incident when her cousin Leonard got a note which had “S. Towels” meaning sanitary towels but he asked his dad “what are stowels?”</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.07.37 - 0.13.23</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Grandmother: Description, her Funeral, Summer Holidays with her, Christmas Day, Caring for others, Cooking Tripe and Drisheen</strong></p>
<p>Aoife thought her grandmother wasn’t patient because she had a quick tongue. Now looking back she thinks she was very patient. Aoife’s sister went to live with their grandmother when granddad died.</p>
<p>Used to stay in caravans down in Youghal. Eventually they rented a house from a woman called Maureen. About 13 children stayed there in Youghal with grandmother for the summer. Grandmother doted on all of them.</p>
<p>At her funeral people had very fond memories of her. She was an agony aunt and confidante. A neighbour could chat in the shop for 3 hours with her.</p>
<p>Family always went to grandmother’s house for Christmas Day. When grandmother sold the house she came to live with Aoife’s family and the rest of the family came to them for Christmas. <br /><br />Grandmother always had an apron or pinnies [pinafores]. She was glamourous at the time. She used to go to the Isle of Man and she used to wear wigs because they were in fashion. Aoife called her grandmother Mrs Bijoux because she had so much jewellery. She would put so much jewellery on for special occasions that she probably couldn’t bend some of her fingers! She had fur coats. A lovely old lady. Grey hair and loved her cigarettes. She never really inhaled them it was just a habit and for comfort. Loved chocolate. Went for a nap after dinner. She woke at dawn and put the washing on.</p>
<p>She cooked tripe and drisheen for Aoife’s dad who worked nights in Irish Steel. Grandmother loved feeding people. Steak and gravy could be cooked in the morning so Aoife’s mom only had to heat it up. “The smell alone would turn me off” the tripe and drisheen. “Fairly gruesome now to be honest”. “she knew by my face not to even ask” if Aoife wanted to taste any.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.13.23 - 0.14.55</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Christmas Day</strong></p>
<p>Start 10am. Aoife’s parents & her 3 sisters. Uncle Jim now deceased. Aunt Geraldine. Grandmother had 2 girls and 2 boys. Neighbours would call in. Everyone in a small kitchen. It was the hub of the family. Fighting over toys and batteries.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.14.55 - 0.16.53</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>School</strong></p>
<p>Enjoyed it. As admin for the vaccinations department in Grattan Street Medical Centre she has goes back to St Vincent’s twice a year for vaccines: HPV (human papillomavirus), Men C (meningitis C) and Tdap (tetanus and low dose diphtheria and low dose pertussis (whooping cough) booster). School still looks and smells the same. Saw her picture on the wall sitting next to two girls who she is still best friends with now.</p>
<p>Liked the subjects Art, French and Business Organisation (“Biz Org”).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.16.53 - 0.20.11</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>After School: Courses and Jobs</strong></p>
<p>Did a secretarial course in Terence MacSwiney Community College and a City and Guilds Course. Work experience in solicitor’s office in Washington Street doing dictation and typing but felt a little bit like it was over her head. Worked in Dovertron Electronics in Dublin Hill which had the contract for the Sky Box where she worked for 6 months.</p>
<p>Worked in Bourns Electronics: 8 months soldering. Saturday job in a butchers in North Main Street- she hated smell of meat lasted 3 Saturdays!</p>
<p>Handed in CV to line manager and staff officers in HSE. Offered job 2 weeks after the interview. Feels like Grattan Street Medical Centre won’t let her go. Feels like part of the furniture.</p>
<p>The secretarial skills course she took included: computer skills, typing, floppy disks, word processing, dictation, typing, telephone manner,</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.20.11 - 0.22.31</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Recalls Grattan Street when visiting her sister before working there</strong></p>
<p>Aoife used to call into Grattan Street Medical Centre to visit her sister who worked there. She attended Michael O’Sullivan in the eye clinic when she was in school. She was familiar with the building. It is strange to be working in the building where she had been as a patient. There was a school nurse who she was afraid of and Aoife became her secretary.</p>
<p>Smoking: Canteen was halved at the time and smokers were on one side of it. People could smoke in their offices.</p>
<p>She stepped into her sister’s job. She felt very welcomed.</p>
<p>Aoife says that she doesn’t take direction very well, she prefers to do things her way. Her sister was very particular.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.22.31 - 0.25.00</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Memories as a Patient- and pretending to need glasses!</strong></p>
<p>Dark room, waiting to be called. As a child she was desperate to get glasses and braces. She used take silver foil from cigarette packets to put around teeth to imitate braces. She wore her grandfather’s glasses which had thick lenses “like jam jars” in the hope that she herself would need to wear glasses. She told Dr (Michael) O’Sullivan that she couldn’t see much of the (eye-test) board. Later on, after a year or two working in Grattan Street Medical Centre, she discovered that she did need glasses.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.25.00 - 0.26.23</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Difficult to leave Grattan Street Medical Centre</strong></p>
<p>Sister loved Grattan Street Medical Centre and was heartbroken to leave. Aoife has been in her office since March 2001. In facy she has been there longer than she has been in her own home. “My whole life story is been in the walls”. Leaving Grattan Street Medical Centre is tough for her and some of the others working there.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.26.23 - 0.32.57</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Description of Role and duties</strong></p>
<p>Every child in junior infants is offered a vision check MMR, booster vaccination and senior infant child is offered hearing check. Aoife and Síle (Sheila?) in Grattan Street Medical Centre cover the North Lee area from Macroom to Youghal, not the city, Glounthaune, Carrigtwohill, Cobh, Midleton area. Aoife works from the city to east Cork, there’s a very big workload so she must be organised. It’s a very rewarding job. It requires building a rapport with primary schools and secretaries.</p>
<p>As part of her work she needs to: send out forms to 58 primary schools and get packs ready for the schools and all the students and get the forms back by courier. The form have to be sorted based on the vaccination date schedule and people removed from the list if they refuse the vaccine. They also check that children weren’t vaccinated before eg. a “repeat student” (a student repeating a class or year) or maybe the student has lived in another country where they were vaccinated so that must be followed up. </p>
<p>They are almost busier in the summer months because the details of every child that has been vaccinated must be inputted into the system.</p>
<p>Aoife gets called a lot because she has been in Grattan Street Health Centre for so long that she has many answers to questions, for instance she buys all of the stationery for the building.</p>
<p>The computer system has changed in the last few years, it’s now a national system. Previously there was one system for Cork and Kerry but a different one for Galway etc. The new system is more time consuming at present but will be easier in the long run.</p>
<p>Cards on the database. Notes written on the cards which are kept as well.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.32.57 - 0.36.55</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Vaccinations in Secondary Schools</strong></p>
<p>Aoife goes to secondary schools providing administrative support as part of the vaccine programme. Visits a school twice: once for 1<sup>st</sup> dose of HPV and Men C and then 2<sup>nd</sup> dose of HPV and the Tdap. Boys aren’t given HPV at present but they will next year (2020) which will make things very busy.</p>
<p>Either Aoife brings the forms or the AMO Area Medical Officer will. Sometimes the school secretary sends 4<sup>th</sup> years (fourth year /transition year students) to help them. Checks that the students have the right consent forms. Ensures that the students get back to class after waiting 15 minutes after the vaccination.</p>
<p>First time the students have been at an appointment or vaccination without a parent. A bit of nerves from them.</p>
<p>Tdap is Tetannus. Men C for meningitis. HPV the cervical cancer vaccine.</p>
<p>Aoife says that nobody wants to get a vaccine but generally it’s fine.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.36.55 - 0.40.30</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Rare cases of people refusing vaccines and possible reasons why</strong></p>
<p>Not many people refuse the vaccinations. Some consent forms are confusing for people, especially if English is not their first languages. Aoife sees form where people sign to accept and refuse a vaccination so those have to be cleared up.</p>
<p>When a child is vaccinated a parent has to be present.</p>
<p>People refuse vaccines for personal reasons- don’t agree with them or have never taken them and won’t start now. Aoife mentions the controversy around the MMR but says that she cannot get involved as an admin. If she or a parent is unsure about something there is a doctor on call to answer any questions re vaccines.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.40.30 - 0.42.52</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>The Building itself in Grattan Street Medical Centre</strong></p>
<p>Aoife thinks that the Grattan Street Medical Centre building has character, it is quirky. It is not clinical like you think a medical centre might be. “There’s probably music in the walls of this building”, “It’s a happy building”. The roof leaks, door hinges break, things crack and things break. She has shared the office with the same girl for a few years and they will be separated when they leave. They know when to talk to each other or leave each other alone.</p>
<p>Pigeon poo has come down from the ceiling onto people.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.42.52 - 0.46.30</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Neighbourhood around Grattan Street Medical Centre</strong></p>
<p>So near town. On lunch can go to the bank. Few houses that live around them know them. Car park has been a source of hatred because so many use it and the school as well. No point in falling out with staff or neighbours over cars. A few people “fond of the drink” would come into the building there was never trouble there were always characters about the area. Could find people sleeping rough at the side of the building.</p>
<p>Will miss the location. Know the people in the local shops and chemists with whom she’s built up relationships. Goes to the furniture shop on North Main Street, they ask when she’s leaving Grattan Street Medical Centre and she says “don’t mention the war! Just don’t talk about it because I can’t talk about it.” Feels it’s the end of an era and it’s sad.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.46.30 - 0.50.41</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Moving to St Mary’s Primary Care Centre Gurranbraher</strong></p>
<p>Aoife’s workplace is moving to the old orthopaedic hospital now the St Mary’s Primary Care Centre in Gurranabraher. She feels institutionalised being in Grattan Street Medical Centre so long. Aoife has organised social aspect of Grattan Street Medical Centre eg. the Christmas party and lunch parties for people leaving. She even once served lunch after she had made the orders. It’s like a family away from home. There’s about 50 staff but never there at the same time.</p>
<p>GPs, mental health, public health nursing, dental will all be up in St Mary’s. Aoife wonders about how they will keep the soul of Grattan Street Medical Centre when they move. Some people are delighted to be moving to a new building. But for Aoife it’s the people that make it.</p>
<p>Change is good even though it’s scary. Will ensure they still do nights out, lunches, Christmas events. Wants to keep something about Grattan Street Medical Centre as well.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.50.41 - 0.54.30</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Social Aspects of Grattan Street Medical Centre</strong></p>
<p>Tradition before Christmas breakup day bring some food to the canteen between 12:30-2:30 big lunch in canteen. A feast- people make the effort. Aoife puts Christmas music on an old CD player. Some people play instruments eg. Violin.</p>
<p>Party night at the airport hotel, plays. You can’t please everyone- you’ll never get the date right or the venue right.</p>
<p>Takes lots of patience and organisation to do the social events. Recommends that people pay for the meal beforehand and she gives the restaurant the money and then everyone pays for everything extra themselves.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.54.30 - 0.56.45</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Organising Social Events and responsibility for money</strong></p>
<p>People think when you work for HSE they may think you get subsidised nights out. Mindful that she’s handling other people’s money. Bad snow one Christmas and only 2 members of staff made it to the party in Oriel House Ballincollig. There was no refund and that may have affected the turnout the next years.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.56.45 - 0.59.20</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Stories from Grattan Street</strong></p>
<p>Wasps coming through the decorative vents in the ceiling one year.</p>
<p>Leaks in the roof.</p>
<p>Boiler broke down and Aoife spotted smoke on the way to work.</p>
<p>Flooding prevented staff from getting to work in Grattan Street.</p>
<p>Professor Drumm (Brendan Drumm) head of HSE was visiting and there was new cutlery arrived and lots of scones from Duggan’s cake shop around the corner. Aoife was giving the scones to people as they were leaving even Prof Drumm.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.59.20 - 1.04.00</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Assumptions about the HSE</strong></p>
<p>Aoife has a pensionable job and works hard for it. And HSE is in the news a lot, eg the cervical test issues. But Aoife can only account for the work she does. Elderly people would always ask her the same two questions; can you get me a medical card and can you get me glasses?</p>
<p>Welfare officers used to be downstairs in Grattan Street Medical Centre there could be an array of different characters. Sometimes there would be uproar with someone trying to skip the queue for the welfare officer.</p>
<p>Gone to look at the style in weddings in the registry office in the front of the building.</p>
<p>First gay marriage in Cork in the registry office.</p>
<p>Everyone gets on there’s never been a major falling out between staff. Nice, friendly place to work even though shabby.</p>
<p>Taken phone calls from elderly people who are looking for a different department and Aoife goes out of her way to help them.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.04.00 - 1.06.39</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Crimes and Old Dispensary</strong></p>
<p>Doctor’s handbag was taken and the thief got disorientated ran into the clinic room not out front door and dropped his mobile phone.</p>
<p>Someone covered Sean (the porter’s) duties and a laptop was stolen.</p>
<p>Aoife’s car was broken into one day.</p>
<p>People had a misconception that Grattan Street Medical Centre was the old dispensary that there was drugs there. Only thing they could get was head lice lotion, bandages.</p>
<p>Says the building belonged to the Mormons [means Quakers] who gave it to HSE to help the poor of Cork.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.06.39 - 1.09.15</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Accidents: Windows and Filing Cabinet</strong></p>
<p>Window have been here for a while. Sign on her office window which said “brrrrrr” and that was the noise the window made when it was windy! The window came away from the fitting one day while opening it.</p>
<p>Hit her head into an open filing cabinet after answering phone once. Went to the Mercy (hospital) with the cut which wasn’t able to be stitched.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.09.15 - 1.11.13</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Cars</strong></p>
<p>Aoife was youngest in Grattan Street Medical Centre for a long time. “The baby of Grattan Street”. Aoife has a thing for cars. Could go out at lunchtime and could come back with a new car. Went to move her car and someone told her to call her parent to move it because she looked so young.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.11.13 - 1.12.00</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Ghost of Grattan Street Medical Centre</strong></p>
<p>Someone had a meeting and something fell and Sean the porter told them it was the ghost. Aoife says the “Ghost is actually real” heartbroken and traumatised by having to leave.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.12.00 - 1.12.58</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Different Dynamics in new Primary Care Centre</strong></p>
<p>Dynamics will be different in St Mary’s: won’t all be meeting in the canteen or chatting</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.12.58 - 1.13.42</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Changes to job in new</strong> <strong>Primary Care Centre</strong></p>
<p>Currently all files and printer are in her office but in St Mary’s those are all centralised. Expects teething problems. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.13.42 - 1.16.32</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Grattan Street can’t let go of Aoife</strong></p>
<p>Would still take the job if she had the time over. Even though Aoife has tried to leave her job a few times something has always happened so that she ended up staying eg. an application form she sent off was blank, once there was a mix up with a panel, another time the job she went for changed from HSE to social work, she lost 6 family members in 6 or 7 years.</p>
<p>Always had someone to turn to, support, friendly ear and chat in Grattan Street Medical Centre.</p>
<p>“Burning the place down so no one can have it!”</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.16.32 - 01.18.40</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Hopes for future of Grattan Street Medical Centre</strong></p>
<p>Disability services, child adolescent mental health, eating disorder clinic. Hate to see it turned into apartments. Lovely community- it should be kept. Food after Christmas parties is brought up to Edel House and food brought to Penny Dinners as well. Lots of vulnerable people in the area and lots of elderly people. Hopes podiatry can keep a room for foot care for the elderly with diabetes etc. prefer to see it remain as something that’s giving to the community.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.18.40 - 1.19.01</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Reflections on Grattan Street as Workplace</strong></p>
<p>Quirky characters. Fun place to work.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.19.01 - 1.19.50</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Fairies</strong></p>
<p>Aoife imagined fairies in the trees at her childhood home. Says she has a great imagination. She perhaps took the idea from The “Secret Garden”, she also loved “The Never Ending Story”.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>1.19.50 - 1.20.01</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Outro</p>
<p><strong>Interview Ends</strong></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Aoife O'Brien: Grattan Street, Healthcare, Working Life
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CFP_SR00712_O'Brien_2019;
Relation
A related resource
<strong>Other Interviews in this Collection</strong><br /><br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/240" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00696_O'Regan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/242" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00704_Collins_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/243" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00706_Higgisson_2019</a>;<br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/245" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00713_Kearney_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/246" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00714_Cunning_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/247" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00717_Ward_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00727_OhUigin_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00728_Scanlan_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/250" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00729_Mulcahy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/251" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00732_Cassidy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/253" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> CFP_SR00762_OConnell_2019</a>;
Language
A language of the resource
English
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
16 May 2019
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
1 .wav file
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Subject
The topic of the resource
Ireland; Cork; Northside; Middle Parish; The Marsh; Occupational Lore; Medicine; Family; University; Built Heritage
Description
An account of the resource
<p><span>Aoife describes growing up on the Northside near Cathedral Road and playing games with her friends.</span></p>
<p><span>Describes her grandmother who ran a shop on Churchfield Green. Her grandmother was a confidante to many locals. Her grandmother eventually moved into their family home, where Aoife describes how she cooked tripe and drisheen. Aoife also speaks about a typical Christmas day with her family and neighbours visiting. </span></p>
<p><span>Recalls her school days and subsequent courses and jobs before her clerical officer role in Grattan Street, taking over her sister’s role.</span></p>
<p><span>Remembers her first experiences of Grattan Street as a child patient wanting to get glasses. Is reluctant to leave Grattan Street as she has so many memories there. </span></p>
<p><span>Explains her work in administration for the schools vaccination programme. Mentions rare cases of vaccine hesitancy or refusal. </span></p>
<p><span>Describes the quirky character of the Grattan Street Medical Centre building and as a happy place to work despite its defects. It’s location in the centre of the city is also beneficial. </span></p>
<p><span>Aoife talks about her role organising social events for the medical centre staff- Christmas parties and leaving parties. Hope to maintain these traditions when the staff move to St Mary’s Health Campus Gurranabraher. </span></p>
<p><span>Recalls stories from Grattan Street including wasps, pigeons, floods, characters and the boiler.</span></p>
Accident
Accidents
Admin
Administration
Apron
Build Heritage
Building
Buildings
Built Heritage
Cake
Cake Shop
Canteen
Car
Car Park
Car Parking
Career
Career Decisions
Career Path
Cars
Cathedral Road
CD
CD Player
Cervical Test
Chalk
Change
Childhood
Childhood Games
Children’s Games
Christamas
Christamas Dinner
Christmas
Churchfield Green
Cigarettes
Clerical Officer
Clerical Work
Clinic
Colleagues
Community
Computer
Crime
Crimes
Database
Disability
Dispensary
Disrepair
Dolls
Drisheen
Dublin Hill
Duties
Fairies
Fairy
Family
Father
Floods
Food
Friends
Games
ghost
Glasses
Grandparents
Grattan Street
Grattan Street Medical Centre
Gurranabraher
Health Centre
HPV
HPV Vaccine
HSE
Instruments
Irish Steel
Job
Leaks
Lunch
Marriage
Meals
Medical Centre
Medicine
Memory
Music
Name
Names
Neighbour
Neighbourhood
Neighbours
News
North Main Street
Northside
Nurse
Office
Organising
Parents
Parking
Parties
Party
Patient
Patients
Perceptions
Picky
Porter
Poverty
Registry Office
Responsibility
Sanitary Towels
School
Schooldays
Scone
Scones
Secretarial Skills
Secretary
Shop
Shopping
Shops
Sibling
Sister
Skills
Skipping
Smell
Smells
smoking
Social life
St Mary's Health Campus
St Mary's Orthopeadic Hospital
St Mary’s Primary Care Centre
St Vincent's
Staff
Stories
Summer Holidays
Traditional Food
Traditions
Training
Tripe
Tripe and Drisheen
Vaccination
Vaccinations
vaccine
Vaccine Hesitancy
Vaccines
Wedding
Weddings
Work
Work Colleagues
Working
Working life
Worklife
Workplace
Youghal