大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Mrs Josephine McDermott, 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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I鈥檒l tell you how it started. 1941, Easter Monday. My sister was marrying. I was 9. And the sirens went. That meant there was planes 鈥� there was going to be an air raid, maybe. Right? But my sister was marrying a man, he was a Scotsman. And we just had a wee house in the country, we were starting to go down to it for holidays and things like that. But we knew maybe the war was coming anyway, for it started 1939, didn鈥檛 it? So the sirens went, and then I says 鈥淢ummy, you and the children get down to the house鈥�. Mummy says 鈥淩ight, okay鈥�. They were going to Dublin for their honeymoon, and had got a house up in Ardoyne. Then, they called it Glenard then. That was what, 64 years ago. And so mummy says 鈥淩ight鈥�. But by the time mummy gets us all fixed up, that was on a Monday. Then Tuesday came. Tuesday night the blitz came. I lived in the big house down near the docks, Georgia Street. And was big ships and all down in the docks. And the sirens went that night. So we had what you鈥檇 call a coal-hole underneath the stairs. So my brother-in-law, Jacket Madge鈥檚 husband, he got us all in and, I remember, a blanket and a spoon in your mouth to keep you from lock-jawing. Because the vibrations of the bombs and all were dropping, and the big gun 鈥� there was a ship, and the guns and all were there. You know? Of course there was the water. Somebody said then when it come up the planes come over here. They thought the waterworks was the sea or something. And that鈥檚 why there was an awful lot of place bombed up here in Ardoyne. It was the same. You see, Ardoyne was built the streets were all straight, the houses were all in rows like that. And apparently it got it. I had a cousin, his wife and children were all killed in Ardoyne because apparently they thought it was Army, Army place.

Our Kathleen used to listen to the radio ever night, with no TV or nothing. We still don鈥檛 have a TV in the country out. But 鈥淕ermany Calling鈥� was Lord Haw-Haw. Did you ever hear of Lord Haw-Haw? William Joyce. And nobody heard him. He did! He did hear of him! He used to say 鈥淕ermany calling鈥�, and we used to listen to him every night. And you know, he actually apologised for bombing Belfast. Yes, he did. I remember listening to that one night, we were all in the country.

Oh, we just, I mean they never bombed 鈥� I think Dublin got one bomb. They never bombed Dublin over the border. Actually they were trying to get Shorts and the Shipyard. And the waterworks was here.
There was only 2 or 3 blitzes here.
There was 3 blitzes. I was throught them, I know. But the waterworks on the Antrim road got it because they thought the water in the waterworks was the docks. And that鈥檚 why the Antrim Road got it so bad. But they were here to bomb Shorts and the aircraft 鈥� or the Aircraft and the shipyard. That was what the bomb [] was.

That鈥檚 why they think Ardoyne got such an awful beating because Ardoyne was built in straight roads of houses like that. If you go up in that it鈥檚 still like that. They thought they were army. They thought they were army. But I had a cousin, his wife and children were all killed in those.

Not in Ardoyne. It was Glenard then.
Even in the antrim road, just facing down the [], was the army. Because they were shooting up at the planes on the Easter Tuesday night. They were actually shooting through the, you know the windows at the planes. And that鈥檚 why the landmine came down at the, you know at the top of Dunifrane Gardens because the army were shooting up. I know that for a fact.

Oh, I know there was a big Ship with a big gun on it down in the docks that night. Tuesday night blitz that we were here.

[I was in Shorts at the time, and one of the team had to lie on the riverbank the whole night. We didn鈥檛 know where he was. Whether he was safe or not.]

And then the third night he was in Belfast here,

And then fellows wanting some funny things, asking if there was for the border, over the border, and I remember we got net curtains, you see? We got them in Dublin, and used to wrap them round under your clothes. You know, curtains!
Home. Honestly. Smuggling the curtains. They would have took them off you. There was people did get things taken off them on the train they were bringing. They brought butter and things like that, you know? They brought all that type of thing.

But anyway, that鈥檚 roughly what I would remember altogether.

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