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This story is taken from an interview with Mae McAree, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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Well, I lived by the Jail in Belfast. It was a lot of warders lived where I lived. But I also lived beside Goodwood Park. And the Americans — there was always soldiers in it, there was always as I remember, because that was a military post. And then American soldiers were stationed there. And then when they went out to war, they interned the Italians, you know, the internees — they were Italian, and they were interned there. These would be local men who worked at a few chip-shops, ice-cream shops. They were interned there. That’s very sad. I remember we used to go over and bring them sweets. Because they used to stand — they weren’t actually manacled or anything like that. They just, behind these … detained. And we used to go over and bring them sweets and bring them papers, although we didn’t know they couldn’t read very well.
And I remember before the war, Jewish children coming to Clifton park Avenue. They must have been getting out before the trouble started. [from] Israel, jaffa. There was a good Jewish community in Belfast. A pretty good Jewish community, actually, in Belfast. And they lived …
They were very sad, and they wore big coats that didn’t fit them. And we were told at school to be good to them. But Clifton Park Avenue, there was warders lived there, because the jail was just there, across the road. And there was a shirt factory there. Bella … Vollets, Vollets shirt factory. It was mainly a residential area, there wasn’t much industry there. But there was mills on the Crumlin road. And then the shore road, there was …

And my father was in the Air Force for 5 years and he was always sending home letters, and they were always cut out. Censored. You see, he wouldn’t have known that either. [he was stationed with] British Army on the Rhine, was what we wrote the letters to. But he had been in Ostend and on the day after D-Day — he was too old. He was 42 or 43, so he was too old to be in the landings. So he was about 2 or 3 days … if it was the 6th of June, he would have been maybe the 8th. Although he was in the Air Force he was attached to the Royal Engineers. And he was at Ostend in Belgium, and I think he was in Germany for a while.
He was a Leading Aircraftman, and I remember his number -1002886, that was his. And then he was a barrage balloon operator. He was stationed in Upper Crescent. By this stage we were home living in Belfast, you see? Back from the country. That would have been ‘43 we came back to town. My dad was to come from England to operate these balloons, but we didn’t know. And somehow or other he got a note to us that he was stationed in Upper Crescent.
[he was back] maybe 2 or 3 days, because he was like a homing pigeon — he always made his way home. And he got word to us, anyway, and mum and us all trotted over to Upper Crescent and stood all night while the barrage balloons were being tested and brought up and brought down. I think he was the main operator, I think he was a balloon operator.

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