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https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/d3568d256018c2628eb28ab4536e9a96.jpg
18106e276a42c57377f1bca3ae962d2d
https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/fc7a9d14e9dfd1673b8cc2c5901b112d.mp3
825a0448cf288e30077a2fdf1a402967
Dublin Core
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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
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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
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Cork Folklore Project
Rights
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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
Liam Ó hUigín
Interviewer
The person(s) performing the interview
Kieran Murphy
Duration
Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.)
59 Minutes 41 Seconds
Location
The location of the interview
Ballyphehane
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 - 0.00.31</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>intro</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.00.31 - 0.02.55</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Memories of Grattan Street and surrounding area Shops and Buildings</strong></p>
<p>Grattan Street was a busy street with many businesses. Most important was the fire brigade. When the new St Francis Church was being built (Broad Lane church as it was called by people in the Middle Parish) the fire brigade amalgamated with Sullivan’s Quay and the priest of Old Broad Lane church moved into the old fire brigade building while new church was being built.</p>
<p>Children missed the excitement of the fire brigade.</p>
<p>Very vibrant street. 6 pubs: Kellehers, Crosses, Landers, Carrols (later called the Tostal Inn), Ramble Inn (owned by Mrs Brick) two Murphys public houses near Broad Lane which runs from Grattan Street to North Main Street.</p>
<p>Shops and sweet Shops: The Rodisses, The People’s Dairy, The M Laundries, 2 Gents Hairdressing Saloons (called barber shops): Leahy’s and Keanes. Where the Community Centre is now was called Mechanics Hall, because the mechanics had a union and meetings there. Later it was known as Matt Talbot Hall.</p>
<p>There were lots of tenement houses in the area.</p>
<p>[Liam’s phone rings.] </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.03.06 - 0.05:04</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Tenement Houses, Lanes, playing in Graveyard</strong></p>
<p>Where Patrick Hanely Buildings are now there were tenement houses. Liam only barely remembers them as they were being demolished in the late 1940s and early 1950s. They were derelict sites for a while, which was his playground.</p>
<p>St Peter’s Cemetery down Peter Church Lane, playing among the headstones, and hiding or planking cigarettes.</p>
<p>Shops: Manning’s Shops at corner of Henry Street and Grattan Street, Mrs Mullins at corner of Coleman’s Lane. From Coleman’s Lane to Adelaide Street there were 4 or 5 houses there with 4 or 5 families in each house. Remembers Shinkwin? Family, the Dineens. When they moved out they went to Gurranabraher, Ballyphehane and the suburbs in Ballincollig.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.05:04 - 0.06.56</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Childhood Games and Activities</strong></p>
<p>Very little Traffic on the roads at the time. Liam was living in Henry Street round the corner from Grattan Street. Recalls soccer matches from one end of the street to the other and wouldn’t see a car. Friends who came from Blarney Street or Barrack Street couldn’t understand why the streets were so wide and loved it for a game of football.</p>
<p>If a woman with a pram approached while they were playing football they would pick up the ball or if they played near the Mercy Hospital they knew that they should keep quiet without anyone telling them and Liam thinks that has changed today.</p>
<p>Many of his friends live in Grattan Street and everyone was a happy family until there was a row and they had a battering match with “stones down the quarry”.</p>
<p>They used to swim by the Mercy Hospital by the ladder. And then on to ‘the pipe’ up the Lee Fields and then the weir and every second day they had the Lee Baths one day for boys one for girls. Today it’s mixed. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.06.56 - 0.11.32</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Poverty-Buying on Credit and using Pawn Shops</strong></p>
<p>Could get messages or shopping on tick or on credit. Milk, bread, quarter (pound) of cheese. There was no bottle of milk you had to bring in your own jug. If you ran out of money the shopkeeper would write it into a book and at the end of the week you could pay it off. A few people could afford not to be ‘on tick’.</p>
<p>There were a few pawn shops on the North Main Street one near north Gate Bridge Jones, another across from Coleman’s Lane called Twomeys. There may have been more. There was one at the bottom of Shandon street owned by Jones as well.</p>
<p>There were 18 or 19 pawn shops around the city one at bottom of Patrick’s Hill, one by fire brigade station on Sullivan’s Quay, two on Barrack Street.</p>
<p>People would pawn clothes. Tradesmen would pawn trowels on Monday morning. Often for drink/ alcohol. Wives would pawn husband’s suit and take it back the following Saturday for going to mass. Nearly everyone used the pawn it was the forerunner to the Credit Union.</p>
<p>If you pawned a pair of shoes for 10 shillings, you got a docket and you had to pay 11 shillings to get it back.</p>
<p>Wives would be stressed making sure they could get the husband’s suit back in time for mass.</p>
<p>It was a thriving business. If you didn’t claim your pawned items after a certain period it was put for sale in the window.</p>
<p>Some people would pawn things openly. Other people would hide it under a shawl, or pretend to be pawning something for someone else. People felt ashamed. Almost everyone was scraping a living.</p>
<p>Even some shopkeepers looked after people who may not have had enough to pay at the end of the week.</p>
<p>At Christmas the shopkeeper would give you a present of a Christmas Cake or Christmas Candle depending on what type of customer you were. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.11.32 - 0.13.02</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Work, Pawns, Showing off Wealth</strong></p>
<p>Liam doesn’t remember what or whether his family pawned. Liam’s dad was a docker which was paid on a daily basis and his mother was shrewd enough to put away some money every day. He knew that relations of his pawned things though.</p>
<p>Bracelets, wedding ring, engagement ring, rarely a watch very few people had watches.</p>
<p>Liam knew someone who went to work in Dagenham and he came back a Dagenham Yank with a different accent “a twang” and a watch. He walked into centre of Henry Street, pulled up his sleeve and pretended to be winging his watch while looking at Shandon clock tower just to show off his watch. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.13.02 - 0.13.46</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Telephone</strong></p>
<p>Phones were also very scarce. One shop in Henry Street had a phone and there was a queue there for people wanting to use it. There was another phone booth by Vincent’s Bridge coming down Sunday’s Well. Liam remembers playing there and being afraid to go in to answer the phone.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.13.46 - 0.18.37</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Tenement conditions, Emigrants, Social Comparison, Fuel Poverty</strong></p>
<p>Laneways around there: Philip’s Lane from Grattan Street to North Main Street. Skiddy’s Castle from Grattan Street to North Main Street. Coleman’s Lane, Peter Church Lane (now Avenue), Broad Lane (at the back of the church), all on to North Main Street from Grattan Street.</p>
<p>Conditions were basic looking back with an outdoor toilet. One family on Henry Street had ten families with one cold tap in back yard and one toilet between them. They had to clean out every morning and bring an enamel bucket upstairs every morning.</p>
<p>Had an inferiority complex about relations coming home from England. The relatives would be dressed up in finery but later Liam discovered they were also badly off but made the effort when coming home.</p>
<p>The story of someone’s uncle who came back from America after 40 years and the family had moved out to the suburbs and they had a barbeque. And the uncle used the toilet inside the house. He said he used to eat inside and the toilet was outside and now it is reversed!</p>
<p>They used newspaper instead of toilet paper.</p>
<p>Turf and timber blocks for fuel for heating which father got going out the Straight Road.</p>
<p>Some people got a voucher for a peck of coal which might only be a large shovel full. Some families got vouchers for free shoes like in the shop Furlongs in South Main Street (owner may have been lord mayor later) Liam wasn’t sure where the vouchers came from- maybe the Health Board. Doesn’t think there was any child benefit. Maybe the Sick Poor would provide the vouchers. They would visit people and the people would try to hide that they were calling. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.18.37 - 0.22.42</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Cooking, Bathing, Hygiene and Medicines</strong></p>
<p>No cooking facilities only the fire. Mother would cook pot of potatoes on the fire and then transfer to the hob.</p>
<p>1948 no electricity in Henry Street at the time.</p>
<p>When they got gas in mother told him not to leave kitchen door open to hide it from Liam’s grandmother who lived upstairs and was the real tenant. It wasn’t an oven it was a thing on a stand with two rings on it. Older people were afraid of being gassed.</p>
<p>Saturday night the galvanised bath was put in front of fire with hot water and washed, and if you were the last person in the bath the water would be dirty. And then the children were lined up against the wall to get a weekly does of cod liver oil, or Brutlax, California syrup of figs, Senna? All because of worms. Some newspaper put on the table and hair combed with fine tooth comb to get rid of lice- it was an ordeal.</p>
<p>Brutlax was like chocolate but a laxative.</p>
<p>Milk of magnesia used as well. Given those every Saturday night to prevent you getting sick. Some of them had a terrible taste.</p>
<p><span>If someone got sick taken to the dispensary. </span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.22.42 - 0.24.12</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong><span>Children’s Games Different for boys and girls</span></strong></p>
<p><span>Spent much time in the derelict site where Patrick Hanley Buildings are now, used to connect to Cove street. They had battering matches with stones and they were going to the Mercy Hospital 4 or 5 times a week. They used to play chasing hiding from the nuns around the Mercy Hospital.</span></p>
<p><span>Could bring a spinning top and hit is with a whip up and down the road without fear of traffic.</span></p>
<p><span>Girls would tie a rope to a pole and swing around it and skipping as well. </span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.24.12 - 0.31.57</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Food, traditions, routines. Lunch at Work</strong></p>
<p>Porridge for breakfast which you eat if you were given. His grandchildren now have a choice of 5 cereals. Goodie- bread and milk mixed maybe with sugar sprinkled on it.</p>
<p>Some shops on North Main Street like Simcox or Currans Bakery you could get bread wrapped in soft tissue paper which was kept in a drawer at home for when visitors came to use for the toilet because it was better than newspaper.</p>
<p>Potatoes and cabbage. Father loved pigs meat: pig’s heat, backbone, pig’s tail, crubeens. Liam still loves a crubeen except for the trouble of cooking of it, and it’s messy to eat.</p>
<p>Mother was reared around Vicar Street. Barrack Street, Blarney Street, Shandon Street: that’s the way people lived because there was little Gurranabraher built and Ballyphehane wasn’t built yet.</p>
<p>Tripe and drisheen is still a favourite, can get from Reilly’s in the market. Tripe cut into little pieces, with cornflower, onions, “white sauce”, drisheen put in later. Tripe and drisheen would be weekly. Liam loved the pig’s tongue because it was lean. Set day for each food.</p>
<p>Liam’s dad was a docker and he would cut the ear off the pig’s head, put it in a sandwich with bread and butter, wrap in newspaper and that was his lunch. He wasn’t the only one.</p>
<p>Thinks tripe is from sheep’s stomach. Blood in the drisheen.</p>
<p>Connie Dodgers for Lent allowed one meal and two collations. Con Lucey said you could have a biscuit with a cup of tea as a collation. Liam thinks it was Larry McCarthy’s bakery that made a biscuit twice as big as the normal one.</p>
<p>For Lent had to fast every Friday and couldn’t eat meat, except for people of a certain age.</p>
<p>Religion was a big thing for people at the time.</p>
<p>Lent didn’t bother Liam’s dad.</p>
<p>Dockers worked hard. Where Elysian Tower is now, where the Eglinton Baths were Liam went with his mother and a bowl of soup and bread and butter and a tea towel over it. The dockers sat on the kerb eating their soup and sandwiches and they were all black with dirt no washing of hands.</p>
<p>All the work was shovelling coal, Liam worked there for 2 days and had enough of it- nearly wanted a small shovel to fill the shovel he had. His dad was small but very wiry and strong. “They were marvellous people”</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.31.57- 0.37.05</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Pastimes, Shops and Opening Hours </strong></p>
<p>Dad spent time in the pub maybe too much. People listened to the radio or sat in front of the fire reading the newspaper. Some people with go hunting or play football or hurling.</p>
<p>Liam plays golf now but at the time it was only for the elite doctors and solicitors. Liam’s dad never stood inside a golf club.</p>
<p>Liam was 10 when his mother died she would offer him tripe and drisheen or a creamy cake for dinner and he would choose the cake.</p>
<p>The corner shops are gone now because of the supermarkets.</p>
<p>Corner shops on Henry Street were: Bode’s?, Mannings, Horrigan’s, Dermot’s on Adelaide Street. Dermot’s was first all-night shop in the city- wouldn’t be there during the day. Open from 8pm to 8am. A salesman in coca cola told Liam that Dermot lived on Pope’s Quay and owned a Morris Minor car and he drove it to Adelaide Street 7 days a week and the car was ten years old and there wasn’t 5,000 miles on it because that was all the driving he did.</p>
<p>In Ballypheane Liam sees people carrying lots of bags after shopping in Aldi on Tory Top Road. Liam remembers going to Dermot’s for quarter pound of cheese (3 or 4 slices), half pound of tea, 2 eggs, there were no fridges so you bought and you ate them there was little storage. Dermot would put greaseproof paper over the blade and cut perfectly a few slices of cheese which had come from a timber box. Girls were interested in the box for making cots for dolls. There was no variety of cheese available just the one block. Sugar was available in quarter pounds rather than big bags. Men coming home from the pub would be sent back out to get a box of cocoa or milk from Dermot’s.</p>
<p>There was no one on the street after 12 o’clock unlike today when there’s lots of people around after nightclubs. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.37.05 - 0.39.00</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Death of Mother and Family Living Arrangements</strong></p>
<p>When Liam’s mom died his aunt who had 6 children moved upstairs from Liam. She has 5 daughters and 1 son and the son died of meningitis at 4 years old. Liam’s grandfather was dead. Aunt moved to grandmother in Vicar Street to look after her. Liam was going to school in Mardyke, father’s place during the day, went to grandmother’s in Vicar Street for food and washing and then back to the Marsh to sleep. He skipped school for almost 3 months (‘on the lang’) until the school wrote to his dad, who gave him a lecture. He was nearly 14 then and on the verge of leaving school anyway. </p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.39.00 - 0.44.13</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>The Dispensary now Grattan Street Health Centre, Tinsmith and Nurse</strong></p>
<p>Lots of cases of meningitis. Everyone in Cork used to go to the Dispensary. Everyone now in their 70s seems to remember Dr Cagney. He would give a bottle of coloured water. If you forgot your bottle you had to go to Mr Gamble the tinsmith in Grattan Street. He made ponnies, gallons, billycans. But when plastic came in there was no need for tinsmiths.</p>
<p>Remembers getting injection or vaccination from Dr Cagney, thinks it may have been for smallpox but is not sure. He dreaded the needles for the syringes which were “like six-inch nails”.</p>
<p>You went through a gate, into a yard and there were steps leading up to the entrance. A grey-haired woman maybe called Mrs O’Keefe. There were benches like in a church. There were hatches. You queued up for the doctor. And the hatches gave you the medicine.</p>
<p>Other place for illness was Mercy Hospital.</p>
<p>Recalls a midwife Nurse Anthony who called to people’s houses. Liam thought when younger than it was the midwife who brought babies on her bicycle. Aunt lived on Thomas Street (a continuation of Peter’s Street) to the back entrance of the Mercy Hospital where the “dead house” was where Liam’s mother was laid out. Remembers the Quirkes and the Horgans, Glandons?, McCarthys living there too and they all moved out when Mercy took over the whole block.</p>
<p>Liam doesn’t remember playing around inside the Dispensary.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.44.13 - 0.45.35</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Making vs Buying Lunch</strong></p>
<p>People who worked in Dispensary didn’t live in area. Doesn’t think people make lunches for work anymore. In modern day people go to shops like Spar for sandwiches and rolls. Wives/mothers used to make “lunches for them in the morning” for children who were working and there was a can with milk, tea and sugar.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.45.35 - 0.46.14</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Families Living in Dispensary Grattan Street</strong></p>
<p>Thinks Mrs O’Keefe was only working there, possibly the cleaner. Mrs O’Keefe may not have been her name. Liam doesn’t think they were charging people in the dispensary.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.46.14 - 0.50.55</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Attitude to health, Pubs, Fights, Market Gardens, Childhood Mischief</strong></p>
<p>There was no such thing as being left on a trolley. The Mercy hospital was the only hospital Liam knew, and every child in the Marsh went there at least once after a fall, hit with a stone on the head, a few stitches. Although, Liam’s aunt lost a son to meningitis. Didn’t have the medicines we have today.</p>
<p>They were simple times but he doesn’t remember going hungry ever.</p>
<p>Lots of pubs on Grattan Street and people were spending lots of time and money which put a burden on the family. Saturday night on Grattan Street there would usually be a fight, stripped to the waist.</p>
<p>Bonfire night used to be a great night but no longer.</p>
<p>No awareness of mental health. Called the Lee Road the Madhouse Road. First coloured person Liam ever saw was on Sheares Street and when they saw him they called him “Johnny the Black” and they got a chase.</p>
<p>A chase was very important for children at the time. Fisherman on Wise’s Quay near Vincent’s Bridge the children used to throw stones in to frighten the fish away and the fisherman would chase them.</p>
<p>Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday the market gardeners would bring their produce on horse and carts to the Coal Quay and the shopkeepers would come to buy vegetables off them. Liam and the children would steal (“knock off”) some cabbage and carrots. “Oliver Twist was only trotting after us”.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.50.55 - 0.51.15</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Sweets</strong></p>
<p>You’d get a few sweets in Woolworths from the girls who worked there, to prevent them trying to steal them!</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.51.15 - 0.55.10</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>WW2 Air Raid Shelters in Cork</strong></p>
<p>Three air raid shelters on Sheare’s Street, 2 in Henry Street and maybe a few in Grattan Street, at least one. O’Connell on Sheares Street was in charge of air raid shelter no 3. Fear of being bombed by German’s during World War 2 mass concrete buildings rather than underground. Liam has photograph of an air raid shelter on Patrick Street outside the Victoria Hotel and a photograph of it being knocked down. </p>
<p>The son of the man who had the key to air raid shelter no 3 would rent out the space to old children if it was raining and they wanted to use it to play cards. In the 1940s. he lived at corner of Moore Street and Sheares Street. They were being demolished in 1948 or 1949. Air raid shelter remains inside the door of Elizabeth Fort and there are 2 on the grounds of the South Infirmary (Victoria Hospital), they’ve now been converted to stores. </p>
<p>If you stand at bottom of South Terrace and you look up at “Rock Savage” on top of the hill at the back of the South Infirmary you can see it protruding out.</p>
<p>Liam remembers the LDF became the FCA and that their “top coats” were good as blankets during the winter as you could put your hands into the pockets. Nearly every house had an army coat on the bed.</p>
<p>Everyone was issued with a gas mask, Liam has one from a friend of his. Everyone had to be measured for their gas mask at the city hall or in schools. Liam’s dad wasn’t not in the LDF but his uncle was and it was his coat that was on the bed.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.55.10 - 0.59.24</strong></p>
</td>
<td>
<p><strong>Grattan Street, Dispensary, surrounding lanes, Terence MacSwiney connection</strong></p>
<p>Grattan Street was busy, vibrant street, always something happening there. Can’t believe seeing the traffic there now.</p>
<p>Liam took a photograph of Prince Charles stopped in traffic outside the plaque to Patrick Hanely Buildings.</p>
<p>The Dispensary was a historical place, there was a time when Grattan Street was a river and Meeting House Lane from North Main Street (at the side of Bradleys) was the entrance to any of the buildings on Grattan Street. Henry Street was known as Penrose Quay.</p>
<p>On Adelaide Street at the back of where Curran’s Restaurant was there was a square called Penrose Square- after the Penrose Family that lived in Tivoli.</p>
<p>If you come down Coleman’s Lane from Grattan Street and enter North Main Street up on the wall there are four plaques for the building where Terence MacSwiney was born. People think he was born in Blackpool because they confuse him with Tomas MacCurtain. Terence married one of the Murphy brewers. Liam is very interested in Terence MacSwiney and loves talking about him, maybe because he comes from the same area in Cork.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><strong>0.59.24 - 0.59.41</strong></p>
<p> </p>
</td>
<td>
<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
<p>Liam Ó hUigín: Grattan Street, Healthcare, The Marsh</p>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
CFP_SR00727_OhUigin_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/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>;
<br /><strong>Other Interviews with Liam in the CFP Archive<br /></strong><br /><a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/134" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00422_OhUigin_2012</a>; <br /><a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00439_OhUigin_2011</a>; <br /><a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/67" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00539_OhUigin_2015</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
Audio
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
24 July 2019
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Cork Folklore Project
Description
An account of the resource
<p><span>Liam grew up on Henry Street in The Marsh and recalls playing football on Grattan Street which was busy and full of activity with businesses, pubs, shops a fire station, barber shops and tenements. He discusses some shops and games in more detail.</span></p>
<p><span>Speaks of the poverty in the Middle Parish which necessitated buying goods on credit and selling clothes and jewellery to pawnshops. Mentions pawn locations. Mentions bringing empty bottles to shops to fill them with milk.</span></p>
<p><span>Discusses the conditions of the tenement houses in the Middle Parish including the sanitation arrangements such as outdoor toilets and the use of newspaper as toilet paper, he also mentions heating issues including timber, turf and coal which was available via a voucher scheme. Further discusses cooking, washing in the tenements including the introduction of gas and electricity. Also mentions medicines for lice and worms administered at home.</span></p>
<p><span>Says that boys and girls played different games separately when he was growing up. Mentions some of these games in more detail.</span></p>
<p><span>Discusses foods (including tripe and drisheen, pig’s tongue, Connie Dodgers) meal routines and the shops where food was purchased. Liam and his mother brought lunch to his father where he worked on the docks.</span></p>
<p><span>Returns to the topic of corner shops and shopping and the types of food available there, further comparing this to supermarkets today.</span></p>
<p><span>Speaks of the death of his mother and the change in living circumstances that this entailed.</span></p>
<p><span>Describes getting a vaccination in the dispensary, what it was like inside and who worked there.</span></p>
<p><span>Mentions fights outside bars at night time.</span></p>
<p><span>Talks about air raid shelters built in Cork city during the Second World War, what they looked like and where they were located.</span></p>
Accommodation
Adelaide Street
Air Raid Shelter
Alcohol
Bakeries
Bakery
Ballypheane
Ballyphehane
Barbers
bars
Bathing
Baths
Billycan
Bonfire Night
Bread
Breakfast
Broad Lane
Buildings
Bullycans
Business
businesses
Buying on Credit
Cagney
Car
Cars
Catholic Devotion
Catholicism
Cemetery
changing technology
Chase
Chemist
Childhood
Childhood Games
Children
Children’s Games
Christmas
Christmas Cake
Church
Churches
Cigarettes
Class
Clothes
Clothing
Coal
Coal Quay
Coleman’s Lane
Community Centre
Connie Dodgers
Cooking
Corner Shop
Corner Shops
Credit
Credit Union
Crubeen
Crubeens
Customer
Customers
Dagenham Yank
Death
Dermot’s Shop
Disease
Diseases
Dispensary
Docker
Dockers
Docks
Dr
Drink
Drisheen
Eglinton Baths
Elizabeth Fort
Elysian Tower
Emigrant
Emigrants
Emigration
Employment
Families
Family
Fast
Fasting
Father
Fighting
Fights
Fire Brigade
Fire Station
Fishermen
Food
Football
Friends
Friendship
Fuel
Fuel Poverty
Gender Roles
Golf
Grandmother
Grattan Street
Grattan Street Health Centre
Grattan Street Medical Centre
Graveyard
Great Coat
Hair Lice
Hairdresser
Hairdressers
Headstones
Health
Heating
Henry Street
Hobbies
Home
Hospital
House
Illness
Illnesses
Jewellery
Lanes
Laneways
LDF
Lee
Lee Baths
Lee Fields
Lent
Lice
Living Arrangements
Local Defence Force
Lunch
Manning’s Shop
Mardyke
Marsh
Mass
Mass-Going
Meal
Meals
Meat
Medication
Medicine
Medicines
Meningitis
Mental Health
Mercy Hospital
Middle Parish
Midwife
Mischief
Money
Mother
North Main Street
Nurse
Nurses
Opening Hours
Outdoor Baths
Outdoor Swimming
Outdoor Toilet
Parents
Pastimes
Patrick Hanley Buildings
Pawn Shops
Pawning
Pawns
Pawnshops
Peter Church Lane
Pharmacist
Pharmacy
Phone
Phones
Planking
Playing
Poverty
Public House
Public Houses
Pubs
Race
Radio
Religion
River Lee
Sandwich
Sanitation
School
Schooldays
Second World War
Shandon
Shandon Bells
Sheares Street
Shoes
Shopkeeper
Shops
Sick
Sickness
Skipping
Skipping School
Slang
Soccer
Social Conditions
South Main Street
Spinning Top
Sport
St Francis Church
St Peter’s
St Peter’s Cemetery
St. Francis Church
Street Games
Streets
Sugar
Sullivan’s Quay
Sweets
Swim
Swimming
Telephone
Telephones
Tenement
tenement houses
Tenements
Terence MacSwiney
The Lee
The Marsh
The Middle Parish
Theft
Tin
Tinsmith
Toilet
Toilets
Tory Top Road
Traditions
Traffic
Tripe
Tripe and Drisheen
Vaccination
vaccine
Vaccines
Vegetables
Vincent’s Bridge
Voucher
Vouchers
Watches
Weir
Winter
Woolworths
Work
Working
World War II
World War Two
WW2
-
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
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
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