大象传媒

My first recollection of the Second World War was on a train journey leaving Belfast in the year 1939. I was an evacuee along with my four sisters, my brother and my Mother. Our destination was Dunluce Castle where we stayed overnight before resuming the journey to our destination which in our case was the seaside village of Portballantrae in Co. Antrim.

I remember that we were given a mug of tea and a brown paper bag containing Paris buns. We were allocated a small Irish-style cottage which had three rooms without electricity or running water. It belonged to a farmer whose own house, a detached, cream-coloured building, stood close by. My brother and sisters thoroughly enjoyed both the farm and the beach close by where we spent endless hours in play.

Years later, my husband and I spent a very enjoyable holiday here with our two children. We had booked a cottage by post unaware that it was the same one I and my family had stayed in during the war, so it was very exciting to discover this when we arrived. It hadn鈥檛 changed very much except for the addition of running water and electricity. Otherwise, it was still very basic but it was close to the beach and harbour which more than made up for any shortcomings.

The primary school in Bushmills was well over a mile away and we walked there and back in all weathers, and thought nothing of it. To-day鈥檚 slogan 鈥淲alk to School鈥�, which aims to encourage children to walk to school at least one day a week for the dual purpose of exercise and to relieve traffic congestion caused by the present practice of parents taking children to school by car, gives walking to school a whole new meaning.

About a year later we moved to Portstewart, a popular seaside town just a matter of miles away. We lived in accommodation above a shop selling, amongst other things, ice cream. This was the genuine, 鈥榟ome-made鈥� variety and, best of all, we were given the implements used in the production to scrape afterwards, thus supplying a free sample for us all. .We spent many happy hours also on the nearby golf course, it not being in use during the war except for 鈥榯renches鈥�, presumably for practice by the army.

Portstewart had an orchard at that time. Whenever we had a spare penny or two we would ask the owner for some apples. He was an elderly man and he would shake the apple trees and we were allowed to keep the apples that fell off, so we got very good value for our pennies. The orchard is long gone and has been replaced by housing. My brother learned to fish at the harbour in Portstewart and spent many hours enjoying his pastime. When we returned to Belfast he often went back to stay with friends during the school holidays to pursue his hobby.

We lived close to the Herring Pond behind Atlantic Circle and used to watch experienced divers using the pond which could be dangerous for novices as it was deep and close to rocks. One could also be drenched by the foam from the high waves hitting the rocks nearby.

My father was a dispatch rider and was at Dunkirk. He played the violin and managed to carry it with him all through the war years. He saved all his chocolate rations and kept them in a tin to bring home to us when he got leave. As sweets were rationed during the war we were very grateful for his sacrifice. We often bought cinnamon sticks to eat as sweets as these were not rationed.

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