大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Annie Rice at the Royal British legion, Bangor, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was Anita Cochrane, transcription was by Bruce Logan.
====

I lived off Agnes street on the Crumlin road. And Newart鈥檚 mill was bombed, and I worked in Newart鈥檚 mill. And went up the next morning to go to my work. Fire brigade, everything was there.
鈥淲here are you going?鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 going to me work?鈥�
鈥淥h no, you鈥檙e not going to your work today. Because the factory was all bombed.鈥�
So we all got sent home.

I mean, that鈥檚 all.
Oh, we heard the bombs. I heard bombs at the bottom of my street, where the church was bombed. Incendiary bombs. They hid up the coal hole. What we called the coal-hole. Everybody went up the coal-hole.

[out the back of the house?]
They were kitchen houses. They weren鈥檛 living rooms and all this. It was a kitchen-house, a scullery, a yard and in the house, in the living-room, there was what was called the 鈥渃oal-hole鈥�. For Coal fires, the coal was put up the coal-hole.

But people cleared them out and made like a Cloakroom out of them. And when the Germans come over, Everybody went up the coal-hole.

[how many people could fit in?]
It would surprise you how many. And it would surprise you the things that went on up the coal-hole. I don鈥檛 mean sex.

[how many was in your family?]
I was married. It was neighbours. Next-door neighbours I can鈥檛 even remember who was up.
My family 鈥� There was 6 of us. Though I was married I lived in the house that my Mother and father lived in for a long time.

[where was your husband?]
He was in the navy. But he was home then. He was Discharged off. But he was away when all this was on. He was still in the navy.
He was all over, everywhere. I couldn鈥檛 tell you.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.