大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Tessie Gallagher, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Deirdre Donnelly, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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Bombing of Messines Park
We were at the Derry Fheis, and it always ran very late. Of course, my mother was one of these people that stayed in the Fheis all week. So we were coming home when the siren went. Of course, it had happened before 鈥� the siren went and nothing happened. This night, that鈥檚 when the bombs came to Derry and bombed Messines Park.

I heard it. We were coming up Williams St to get home. In the morning then I was on the Fheis at 9am, and we heard what had happened. One of the children that were killed was in the same class as me at school. She was Murray. I can鈥檛 remember her first name, but she was Murray. I think one of the girls, her sisters, was at the Fheis that night. She was alive because of it.

At school we learned the US National Anthem, because the yanks were giving us a free show. We were taken to the Strand Cinema and shown a film. We had to sing the US anthem. We got sweets and whatever. I remember it. It鈥檚 funny how

鈥淥h say shall you see 鈥︹��

As the years went on, VJ day. In Guildhall square. I was coming up to 13 then.

I lived through the blackout. In Elmore square, we used to have 鈥� we called them air-raid shelters. They were a block of concrete with a flat roof. You had to have black blinds on your house at night, so there was no lights showing. There was no lights in the streets, either.
After the bombing in Derry, when the sirens went we went up Breeze Lane. Everybody left their houses and went up Breeze Lane. You used to meet everybody.
To get out into the countryside. It seemed to me like good fun. I was young, I didn鈥檛 realise the seriousness of it. Everybody took prams up Breeze Lane when the siren went. Then the All-Clear went, and they came back.

Everybody went down to it, dancing about.

Listening to Lord Haw-Haw on the radio. My father used to turn it on at night. You weren鈥檛 supposed to listen to it, because the propaganda he was giving about. My father used to listen to it, and he had me listen to it with him. He used to say about the Royal family and the British and all, that the Germans were winning the war.
Then I learned afterwards that he originally was an Irishman, and he was executed for his broadcasting, for working for the Germans during the war.

I don鈥檛 know what age I was, but I remember hearing stories about the Derry jailbreak in 1943. I don鈥檛 know, were they IRA men? My father used to say about the break-out, and some of them landed in a back yard somewhere, in a coal-shed. They came up among all the coal, and some of them were caught and some escaped. As far as I heard, people saw the boys that escaped. There was a riding school in the town, people that worked with horses. They used to go out with the horses, and these boys went out with them on horseback over the border.Although, maybe that is a local myth because other people talked about a van waiting for them. They were all interned in the jail and from one of the cells they tunnelled out and came up in someones backyard while the family were eating breakfast 鈥� imagine that? Anyway, most of them were caught.That鈥檚 what I heard.
I left school then, and I was working in Littlewoods on Saturday. It used to be beside the Red Cross, and the American club was where the Northern Counties hotel used to be. And there used to be dances and all. I wasn鈥檛 allowed to go, but I heard from the girls about all the fun. They used to get nylons and candy and all. They had great dances, but I was never allowed to go there. I was too young.
The Americans used to come in on Saturday, and the British, in round Littlewoods shop and all. They would ask you on a date and things like that. I never went 鈥� I was too young, I wasn鈥檛 allowed to. 14-15 when the war was over. But the Americans and the British were here a long time after that. I used to go to the dances and all with them.

I used to hear some stories! They had dancing down in their bases, and they used to bus the girls out to them. I had an uncle who worked out in Springtown, he was Entertainments Manager for the Americans. He used to hear about all the stars that used to be here. They would bring them over to entertain the troops 鈥� Bob hope was one.
They used to have a good time out there. I don鈥檛 remember any particular ones, but I remember the excitement. I didn鈥檛 really know any of the stars.

But I鈥檒l never forget that day we went to the American party as school children 鈥� one of the most exciting moments of my childhood.We all went. The whole school went, and lined up and went to the Strand cinema. There must have been more schools, because the Strand Cinema was packed. Floor and balcony. We all got bags of sweets. We all thought this was great. Which it was, I suppose. Sweets and everything was rationed. And I don鈥檛 know whether it was before the film started, or when it ended, I don鈥檛 even remember what the film was about, but I remember singing the US national anthem. I don鈥檛 know why the Americans did it. Were they trying to make friends with the people of Derry when they came here?

Things were really scarce. My mother sent me to Sackville St, to a shop called McMichaels, who sold oils and different things for ships. Rope and all. They used to make you up a floor polish. You took the tin with you and got 6p worth or a shilling worth. In those days there was no make up. It used to be over the border, in the Free State for luxury stuff like that. Or we got a lipstick made up for us in the chemists. We used to put leg tan on our legs. It was v difficult to get here. You could get it made up in the chemists, but miners was great. You had to go to Buncrana to get it. Anybody that was going to Buncrana, you asked them to get a bottle of Miners leg make-up. You put on the tan.Some people even put a black line up the back of their leg with a a black pencil, to make them look like stockings. I never ... but I loved the leg tan. Then we got the nylons, and that was the end of it.
When I worked in Littlewoods we used to get what you called 鈥渇ully fashioned鈥� stockings. And during the war, you only got so many in at a time. When they came in all the girls on the staff wanted these funny fashioned stockings. So we got that. Then eventually the nylons came. That changed everything. They used to be Nylon stockings, then we got silk stockings.
At one time in Littlewoods I was at the sweet counter. And during the war I had to have coupons. For every qtr-lb of sweets or bar of chocolate you sold you had to have the coupons. And at night you had to correspond with what you sold, you had to have the coupons to correspond.
There used to be boys working in Derry from across the border. And they used to come in and say 鈥済o on.鈥�
I used to say 鈥淚 can鈥檛 do that because I need the coupons.鈥�
But there was one boy among them who used to work in a grocer鈥檚 shop in the town. And he said 鈥測ou give them the sweets and I鈥檒l give you the coupons.鈥� Which he did. He took them from his shop, and came round and gave them to me so I would have the amount of coupons to match up for the night.That鈥檚 a long time ago!
For your shoes or anything, you had to have the coupons. For a year, clothing coupons as well. Whatever you bought, you had to have so many coupons. And when you were done, you couldn鈥檛 buy anything more!

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