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This is taken from an interview of Molly Lonergan, Lucy Gordon, Kathleen O’Hare. the interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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There was [a black market], but different ones could have given you extra. Some of them would, I think the butchers would try to give you a bit. They’d give you something that would go a bit further.

Wherever they got it, they got it in and it was over the border. If you knew them you’d get a bit extra. It wasn’t really a dealer, it was just a person.

I used to have an extra pocket in my coat to put stuff down, and they could never search a woman. I wasn’t a woman then, I was only a young hussy. They wouldn’t touch you.

Coming up on the train from Dublin, we were married at that time. There were 2 women in the carriage with me, they were from Scotland actually, and they had shoes on them. At that place where the train would stop for hours at that time. Outside Newry. Used to stop for hours while we were being searched. It would take ages.
They saw the shoes, and they took the shoes off them. They had thrown them out with no shoes. I often wondered what happened to them. They were very strict. My husband, when he came down to visit my mother she always gave him a pound of butter and some onions. Afterwards he told me, he never had the never to bring it, he used to throw it out the window. What a waste! He was nervous in case he was searched.

There were trains going all the time.
No [special permission necessary], but I needed a permit.
I had to have a permit. I had to have a permit. I couldn’t get a job because I was from the south of Ireland. I couldn’t get a job here.

They wouldn’t let you take anything across. Smuggling was … getting it hidden was the only way.

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