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Nicola Meacle: Tullamore, UCC, Independant Living
Nicola (b. 1970) grew up in the countryside near Tullamore, County Offaly. She had two siblings, and her grandparents also lived with the family. She went to college in Dublin, and a year later she was injured in an accident.
She moved to Cork where…
She moved to Cork where…
Jim Horgan: Pouladuff, Theatre, Superstitions
Jim (born 1960) grew up in Croaghtamore Cottages, Pouladuff. His father was a draughtsman with Cork City Council. He was also an amateur film-maker, who made films with Jim and his siblings as actors. Some films required significant splicing by…
Una Lyons: Oliver Plunkett Street, Cinemas, English Market
Una (born 1960) grew up in a guesthouse, a Georgian building on Oliver Plunkett Street. She had two siblings. Her parents had an unusually cosmopolitan outlook. Her father was an engineer with CIE trains. The street was quite residential but she also…
Helen Goulding: Shandon, Catholic Church, Childhood
Helen, nee Bourke was born and reared in Barrack View near the North Cathedral. Her family later moved to Leitrim Street.
She talks about her childhood. People had little but shared a lot. Boiled eggs were eaten at Easter time. Everyone was involved…
She talks about her childhood. People had little but shared a lot. Boiled eggs were eaten at Easter time. Everyone was involved…
Bernard Casey: Cathedral Road, Childhood, Cork Jazz Festival
Bernard, at the time of this interview, was the chairman of the Cork Jazz festival.
He recalls air raid shelters in Cork during the 1940s. He talks about his routine as an altar boy. The first housing developments of Cathedral Road. The countryside…
He recalls air raid shelters in Cork during the 1940s. He talks about his routine as an altar boy. The first housing developments of Cathedral Road. The countryside…
Pete Newman: Shandon Street, Unemployment, Machoness,
Pete Newman (also known as Pete Duffy) was born in 1945. He grew up in Orrery Road off Cathedral Road. His relatives came from Broad Lane and moved up to Gurranabraher.
Cyclists going up Shandon Street used to hold on to the back of buses, which…
Cyclists going up Shandon Street used to hold on to the back of buses, which…
Brenda Stillwell: Crawford Art College, Irish language, Slang
Brenda moved to Cork when she was 17, to go to Art College. She remembers hearing people conversing in Irish. She has lived in Cork for 30 years.
Creena O’Connell: Gurranabraher, Shawls, Allotments
Creena was born in 1932. Her family were one of the first to get a house in Gurranabraher, an estate built in 1934. Her father was able to get part-time employment with Cork Corporation working on the roads; he died when he was 58.
She recalls a…
She recalls a…
Joseph Lane: Gurranabraher, Milk and Cake Shops, Pranks
Joseph grew up in Gurranabraher. He remembers three pawnshops of Cork. When people left Ballymacthomas to move into new corporation houses, they left their old houses behind, still complete with furniture and fittings.
Joe recalls a childhood…
Joe recalls a childhood…
Mary Montgomery-McConville: Shandon Street, Peter and Paul's Church, Coal Quay
Mary was born in Shandon Street in 1930. She talks about winter on Lavitt’s Quay. Mary also mentions an Easter custom where on Good Friday they would tie the figure of Judas to a crane and set fire to it. Her grandfather made the confessional boxes…
Michael O'Callaghan: Togher, Emigration, Summer Holidays,
Michael was born in 1957. Originally from Togher. Michael’s family emigrated to London in 1960. He remembers the ship leaving Cork on the Inishfallen, and people singing and crying at the quayside. They sang the popular song “Now Is The Hour” [Bing…
Phil Corcoran: The Low Road, Slogging Apples, Chocolate Crumb
Phil grew up in Low Road, near Water Street. As a child Phil used to go to the quays to get chocolate crumb from some of the ships that came in. She also talks about slogging apples.
Tom Jones: Shandon Street, Emigration, Childhood
Tom was born circa 1950 in a building at the bottom of Shandon Street.
He remembers watching the Cork Opera House on fire in 1955. He recalls childhood games and explains the game of Kick the Can and Pitch and Toss. He talks about the nature of…
He remembers watching the Cork Opera House on fire in 1955. He recalls childhood games and explains the game of Kick the Can and Pitch and Toss. He talks about the nature of…
Patricia McCarthy: Shandon Street, War of Independence, Trades
Pat McCarthy (née Byrnes) is from Shandon Street. She grew up in Mahony’s Terrace, overlooking Pope’s Quay which she knew as the Sand Quay. Her father worked as a lorry driver. She remembers Shandon Street having bakeries and butchers. There were…
Fergal Crowley: Patrick Street, Munster Arcade, Black and Tans
Fergal worked in the Munster Arcade, Patrick Street. He describes the shop. His father started work there in 1901. After the building was burned by the Black and Tans during the Burning of Cork, the British government paid to have buildings on one…
Patrick O’Brien: Patrick Street, The Swan and Cygnet, Seamus Murphy
Pat talks about the Swan and Cygnet pub, Patrick Street, where he used to work. It served a beautiful pint because the barrels were kept in Cork’s first cold storage room. Pubs in the city closed between 2.30 and 3.30 for the holy hour. There was a…
Tom Jones: Shandon Street, Murphy’s Rock, Television
Tom is from Shandon Street. In this interview, he remembers a helicopter landing in a field, sometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s, which caused great excitement amongst the locals.
He mentions the arrival of televisions to Cork around 1963. Tom…
He mentions the arrival of televisions to Cork around 1963. Tom…
Tags: 1950s, 1960s, Childhood, Murphy's Rock, Shandon Street, Television, Tom Jones
Tony McGillicuddy: The Low Road, Jack Lynch, Ford's
Tony was born and reared in Low Road. He remembers a story about Jack Lynch who had been presented with a Ford Anglia car by the factory. Lynch hated driving and eventually gave it away.
Tags: 1960s, 1970s, Ford, Jack Lynch, The Low Road, Tony McGillicuddy
Alice Delay: Togher, Country Life, Childhood
Alice remembers visiting her grandmother in Togher, which was the country, and eating bread and home-made butter. Her grandfather was a farm labourer. The house had an earth floor, and a ceiling made of sewn flour bags. Someone described the house as…
Barry Murphy: Cork Civic Trust
Barry Murphy, originally from Bantry Co. Cork. From 1959 until 1970 Barry lodged in the historic building that later became the home of Cork Civic Trust. He remembers the house and its inhabitants.
Tags: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, Barry Murphy, Civic Trust House, Inchigeela Dairy, Pope’s Quay