大象传媒

This story has been transcribed and published by Mark Jeffers, with permission from the author.

When the air raid sirens went off in the city we were taken to Cave Hill. We were able to sit and watch the bombs dropping over Belfast, watching where they were going and where they weren鈥檛 going. I wasn鈥檛 evacuated myself but I remember the rationing and ration books. There were no sweets and you only had a certain amount of coupons.

Women played a great part regarding food and growing vegetables. Many had makeshift gardens and they could have made a great meal from very little. It鈥檚 hard to imagine what it was like at that time.

Belfast was a major city with the shipyard, the ammunition factories and the mills. There was no shortage of work but that was because of the war. They even took gates and railings from around people鈥檚 houses and the parks for the war fund. You had to save your waste paper as well; I don鈥檛 know what they did with it though. Everything had to be recycled to be used again.

I was too young to be a soldier; everybody joined the army if they were of age. They recruited everyone and they made good soldiers from here. A lot went from the Republic of Ireland too. Although they were a neutral country they took the side of the allies. They took some refugees to Ireland; there were centres for refugees. They had a few raids down there too but I think they were misdirected; they bombed Dublin.

You never got used to it but you made the most of it and there was great comradeship and friendships. Issues such as religion meant nothing, not like today. It wasn鈥檛 really much fun though and you couldn鈥檛 really play, everybody was always on a downer.

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