大象传媒

This story was collected and transcribed by Mark Jeffers, with permission from the author. The author understands the terms and conditions.

The worst thing about the war for us was the planes coming over. The Belfast Telegraph building in Belfast was full of bullet holes from the planes and some other big bank building in Royal Avenue had got it as well, so the planes must have been very low.

People used to come out to our house in the country for safety, but they didn鈥檛 stay with us. One evening a bus load of them came out to our house; they went to anyone鈥檚 house they could get into. We cried along with them, they were in a terrible state; fathers and mothers and children. Then the Rector of our local parish in Derriachy Reverend King came over and he opened up the Sunday School and the people stayed there. They had no choice but to sleep on the floor but it were very happy with that. Myself and four or five ladies sat in chairs in the porch with rugs. We didn鈥檛 sleep though. The men stayed in the kitchen which left the big room for people who had there children with them. They were all in a terrible state. The men had found them somewhere to go so they all left the next morning. I don鈥檛 know where they went to, maybe back home. They were from Belfast and they were bombing it that night, the planes were over and they wouldn鈥檛 go home, they were too afraid to go home.

I think that was the night Sandy Row [Belfast] got it, a full row of houses in Sandy Row was bombed. There was a wedding party on in one of them; I don鈥檛 think anybody was saved in that wedding party. I worked with a girl and her husband had gone out that evening to get a newspaper and never returned. She said that was the area he was in but because there was no proof that he had been killed they wouldn鈥檛 give her a widow鈥檚 pension and she had to work. She had 3 or 4 children too. It was a terrible night.

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