大象传媒

Towards the end of the war I remember when soldiers were being repatriated. And that was a time when you would see men whom people thought were long-dead, and they were being repatriated from the war. I remember a man from Nelson Street named Paddy Doherty, they called him Paddy Mystery, and Mystery turned up again. Got a royal welcome everywhere and flags and everything. And this went on during the closing days of the war. Some uplift in the middle of the darkness.
And of course, every Saturday, people going shopping and that regaled with one or other military band. Regimental band of the Royal Ulster Rifles or the Inniskilling Fusilers or that, marching into Guildhall Square and that. Or there would be huge collections for the war effort. There could be the RAF, or the RAF and the Womens鈥� Battalion, they were called the WAAF, I think. And different Saturdays, nearly every Saturday I think, there鈥檇 be some show of strength and military bands. And I loved military bands, and I loved watching them. They were some excellent and again, that lifted up our spirits.
But one sad point, the war with, we couldn鈥檛 see the dockland any more. It was sort of fenced off. So we would have to go further down. And even when we would go to Buncrana, the beaches of them were barb-wired off in case of mines.
I remember 鈥�
There鈥檚 a big line-up.
Before the war, when huge ships came in and sailors, aw, great uniforms. Little did we know that it was a harbinger of what was to come. And we were allowed then to tour the ships. But then if the war went on, we weren鈥檛 allowed in the docks. You could walk the bridge and that, but it was all camouflaged. Then it came the day that when the subs were brought in, and we had to queue up and go down through them. That was a great experience.

[can you remember what it was like inside the U-Boats?]
The entrance being rusty and all that鈥� and going down and down and down. You were, we were prepared in school for what we would see. That people could exist and live and act, and carry on important duties in such a confined space. That really mesmerised us. And then we would hear later about how the Germans surrendered and that. But maybe that was a bit coloured. But I do remember going down once or twice and joining the queue again. All to say that we were on a U-boat, because a u-boat was 鈥� we were aware of the amount of 鈥�

I just returned from the Columbia River area of Canada, not far from the US Border. One night I went to a graduation ceremony. You know the North American custom of graduation from Secondary School. I went there, and I鈥檓 sitting, and the place is crowded. It was a mountain setting, we weren鈥檛 really posh. And there was one chair. And this gentleman came into the hall, so I could see that he had no seat, so I waved to him and he came over and sat beside me. And I said 鈥渨elcome鈥�, and he says 鈥渢hank you very much鈥�.
I said 鈥淵ou鈥檙e Russian鈥�, he says 鈥淣o, Ukrainian. But you鈥檙e from Northern Ireland鈥�. I was honoured that he heard my voice. And he says 鈥淒erry!鈥�
When the songs were over I asked 鈥淗ow did you know that?鈥� and he says 鈥淲ell, I crossed the pond 17 times. And I often turned up in Derry.鈥� He was able to tell me people, girls that he had gone out with, and they were in the same street. I was born in Lecky Road, at the bottom of William Street, and he named someone. I knew their family very well. And this man I鈥檇 never seen in my life before. And he told me then, and I said 鈥測ou must have been scared about the U-Boats around the Head鈥�.
鈥淣o,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e would get into Derry, get off the uniform, cross the border, go down into Dublin. We would wine and dine 鈥� wine, women and song, the lot! Guess who was in the same restaurant? The fellows from the U-Boat! They were coming in at Galway or somewhere like that, and right on through into Dublin. They would be refreshed, and back they would go to fight the war.鈥�
And this was a Ukrainian 鈥� and of course, having suffered as much as the Ukrainians had suffered he could see war in its true sense.

I met him in June. Pete 鈥� I forget his name. In September of the same year, someone phoned me and said 鈥渨e鈥檇 like to have a wedding in your Parish.鈥� So I said 鈥渢hat鈥檚 very good鈥�, and he said 鈥渨e鈥檇 rather have it in Whitewaters鈥�, and I said 鈥渘o, that church was swept away in the avalanche. So we couldn鈥檛 have that.鈥� And he said 鈥渘o, my fiance鈥檚 family, they鈥檙e Russian and they鈥檝e got a ski resort there now.鈥� And I said 鈥渢hat鈥檚 the thing. Our Church has moved Denver.鈥� He said 鈥渇ather, would you ask a bride and groom to go 27 miles for that?鈥�
I said 鈥渢hat鈥檚 a good answer鈥�. He said 鈥渕y bride-to-be is Russian, she鈥檚 an Anabaptist.鈥� I said 鈥淚鈥檇 like to talk to her鈥�.
I asked her what her name was, and she said 鈥淥lga鈥�. She told me her family name. It was her father I had been sitting beside!

Fun as kids? I was very much into bands. Derry used to have a lot of street bands, and while that ended during the war yrs there were some that kept going. And I was very much into drama. But I was much more into drama groups at that time too. And that continued. There was a very good couple in Derry, Willie and Lil Conaghan, and they put on Revues during the war, and the Derry pantomime. Under Fr McGoldrick. That was inaugurated during the war yrs, and continued successfully. Sop we had plenty to keep us going. And then, our fathers had work.
There was a new excitement as well as that, and we had ships coming in, and the girls could always know what destroyer was coming back. That was life. And the dances in the Corinthian and the Memorial hall and the Britannia. The palais, which is not there in the Strand any more. Down there in Waterloo place. The Palais, and I forget which name it took after that. But all, and a lot of life. And I remember after the 30s we had little, and in the war yrs the girls were swept off their feet. There was a whole new social life. And since the war, the air-raid was bad, but we got off pretty well compared with most places.
Of course, with the Americans coming in, anyone who had a Jontin car or the like of that or the stage-irish thing, aw, they had them rigged up. People were going on picnics and that. A lot of fun. I can remember the American base, and a man called Willie Foster taught the Americans bagpipes. They used to say it was the first USMC pipe band ever. But they were good. They paraded in Derry.

[At the Beechmount hotel?]
I remember who did that. And they were good. And all this crossed the lines. We were all working together. People were too busy, or maybe too apprehensive about what might happen. In the course of war.

[were the adults more serious about potential dangers?]
Families that had sons and daughters working in Coventry, there was a lot of that going on. Derry always had to send its boys and men across the water, so there was goings and comings. And there could have been apprehension there, crossing on the Haysham boat or the Liverpool boat. The Glasgow boat was still running at that time. But we were all much, we were all young during it and none of us was away from home. So that would be 鈥�
We would go out on our usual wee trip with our flashlights at night. Through the blackened streets. There would never seem to be any terrible things happening. You had to keep your flashlight to the ground, in case the Aircraft above would spot us.

[The yanks] had a special place in their hearty for the youngsters, so you would find different cinemas being commandeered for Thanksgiving day or Independence day, and all the schools of the city would go. And we were thrown candies as we went in. they treated us well. And we loved the yanks. We had a spot for the others too, but they were like ourselves. They didn鈥檛 have all those things to give. And the yanks were great for assimilating into the local population. I can remember when they had fast-ball, and it didn鈥檛 really catch on. Our people preferred the soccer.

[When you were serving at Mass on Sunday morning, was it only British Servicemen?]
British servicemen, Canadian, Newfoundlander. Free French, I remember the Free French coming every now and again. The Americans would have been maybe at Springtown or maybe at Beech Hill. I don鈥檛 know. But seldom were they together.

[Did the Chaplain offer pastoral care to the servicemen? Apparently sailors on the Atlantic run suffered depression]
I would have no doubt. And that鈥檚 why I underline Major Devine. If you wanted to explore that, he was a serviceman. And with the experience of the other war, and he was in the middle of things here, and he was right out. He was there with them. And the Jesuit who followed him, and Fr O鈥橬eill 鈥� but Fr Devine, and since he鈥檚 from this part of the world, I鈥檓 sure there鈥檚 a mine of info there. And courage. He was a man鈥檚 man. very much accepted. And a man of god. He impressed me in many ways. Because he had known what it was like, and he talked forcefully, and there were times when we would be asked to leave during addresses and talks. And those were the times when sailors were leaving Derry, not knowing if they鈥檇 ever come back. When they would wear a rosary around their neck. Religion would have been more 鈥渋n鈥� at the time. And that鈥檚 why I say that later on, when would I decided that I wanted to be a spriest but didn鈥檛 have the education, I would meet men like that again in England and went back to school with them. Isn鈥檛 that something? That I would have been Altar Boy during the war, and then after the war when they decided they were going to be Monastics or something like that, I would be with them, learning. Getting the basic studies, to go to the seminary. And it would be them in England that I would do it with.

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