大象传媒

Eileen Starratt,
This story is taken from an interview with Eileen Starratt, and has been added to the site with her 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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I was 20 when I came to Derry, or I went abroad. I suppose I was 18.

I can remember the blitz. Because I feel very strongly that my impetus ton go abroad, or join up as we say, was fuelled then buy the blitz. That was May 12th 1941, Belfast was blitzed. And it was one of the worst bombings anywhere. So many people were killed. It wasn鈥檛 expected nobody seemed to be prepared for it. There wasn鈥檛 the guns and so on to deter the bombers. And we knew the sound of the bombers, a sort of a 2-beat sound. Because we鈥檇 heard it before on another occasion that year, and we knew this was a real bombing raid. And I was the eldest of 6 girls. We lived with our mother in a house in N Belfast. Very near as the crow flies where Mary McAleese comes from. Just across the road, almost. I could point you to where she lived. And I had just come back from a holiday in Donegal, where I was born. And there was a little air-raid shelter built outside the house. It was so fragile, that nobody would dream of trusting it. And then a lot of people went to the school across the road for shelter. But my mother wouldn鈥檛 move. And she put us all under the stairs in a little, tine 鈥� you can imagine what 鈥渦nder the stairs鈥� looked like. 6 of us, and she had a mattress, and stood with the mattress. Well, in middle of the raid I know I fainted. I was the eldest, but I shouldn鈥檛 have done that, but I fainted. And mother ran out to the front door to get a drink of water for me. And the ARP warden shouted 鈥渨oman, would you for god鈥檚 sake get back鈥�. There are 2 parachute bombs were floating down. One of them 鈥� and he could see them, of course. One of them completely wiped out a row of houses not very far from where we lived. Where we knew everybody, and everybody was killed. The other one, as luck would have it, it hit a row of empty shops on the Cliftonville Road. Incidentally we never ever lived in this house again, and I don鈥檛 think anybody ever did. We were totally and utterly blitzed out. Next morning I took my 鈥� I had 5 sisters, I took 4 of them to Omagh where we had relatives. And we have since thought very much of each. They weren鈥檛 in the same house, they weren鈥檛 with the same people. They were well looked after, but at the same time they were affected in totally different ways, and we 鈥� My sisters and I have worked out how each one of us was affected. Now, I wasn鈥檛 anywhere. I came back to Belfast. My sister Muriel who was next to me in age, she stayed with my mother and we both stayed with mother. But my other 4 sisters stayed around Omagh for maybe 4 years. How I came back, I was determined to join up, and I went to the wherever it was, and I said I wanted to join the Land Army. This was a romantic idea, I can assure you. And they looked at me, and they looked I suppose at my school record, and they said 鈥測ou鈥檇 be better off joining the WAAFs or the WRENS. So the WRENS were stationed in Belfast Castle, which wasn鈥檛 nearly so far away. It was in the same part of Belfast, and I could be, I could live at home if I was there. I was mobile, in other words. I went there, and I was there for 2 years. And then I got this feeling that I would like to go abroad. Of course they were asking people all the time about that. I was 鈥� I had crossed flags on my arm, and I was in communications branch. Mostly concerned with telephones. And the ops room for that was in the cellars at Belfast Castle, and has since become a restaurant I believe.

I can see the switchboards, yes.
The first room was occupied by young sailors, and they were teleprinter operators. We were the telephone operators. And the next room, teleprinter operators. Upstairs there were 鈥� I can鈥檛 remember, but it was all Operations. And we were in touch with so many places that were all just names, really. But we travelled, I walked in the blackout about a mile or so to get a bus when I was on duty. And I stood at the top of the cave Hill Rd in Belfast. I remember it so clearly, I can even see it. And there鈥檚 not the same now. And you stood there in the blackout and you didn鈥檛 think anything about it. And this little truck came along. And it had a seat on 1 side and a seat on the other side and that was it. And it took you away up the Antrim Rd and turned left, up an avenue to Belfast Castle, and then brought us back whenever the Watch was over, to the Cave Hill Road. But walking in the blackout, you were wary but that鈥檚 about all. There was none of this feeling that I鈥檓 sure there is in Belfast or Derry or any of the cities around, of fear.
So then I went to Derry. They were looking for someone to come to Derry for a short time, so I came to Derry. And I was in Broom Hall. And Broom hall 鈥� 2-3 months ago I saw an article in the paper about a Hall, and I thought 鈥淚 must write and tell them that it wasn鈥檛 always goats, that there was WRENS there鈥�.
I can鈥檛 remember a great deal about it except that it was 鈥� I know where I slept, and you see it was a question of coming off-duty and going in and getting something to eat. And then possibly going out again. Derry, I remember going to dances in the Guildhall. I remember going to the Guildhall, and I鈥檝e written down a name here that I鈥檝e asked my husband several times who he was. He was Ralf reader and the Gang, the Gang show. And I could show you the seat I sat on in the Guildhall. The left-hand side, the very last seat. And I was paralysed with laughing, because it was such a relief to be in such a place where there was such life and so much fun. However, I remember that and I remember going for tea in the city caf茅. As I say, going to the guildhall for a dance. And Victoria Hall, which you passed up there.
Into a dance there. But that was because I was a Methodist and I went to the Methodist Church, and the Methodist Church had a little hall beside it 鈥� maybe it still has. Carlisle Rd, it is. Or was then. And they had a sort of a supper after the service. And I went to the service and I met a woman who, I didn鈥檛 know her but she was a relative. She was Mrs Austen-Shaw. She鈥檚 long gone, of course. But she welcomed me to her house, and I went several times and stayed with her overnight. And she invited me to this supper at the Methodist Church hall. And I have somewhere the little menu, a little programme about that.

[Boom Hall is now in ruins. Can you remember the layout?]
it was very imposing, and I can remember where I slept,. The staircase was beautiful, and the cabin or whatever it was called was on the right-hand side and I slept in the furthest bed. The kitchens were, as the door opened to the left, and then further on. But I didn鈥檛 spend a lot of time there. I suppose in was someone who was just passing through, as it were.

[How did Derry compare to Belfast?]
There you were in the heart of Derry in no time. And in Belfast I principally remember the north side of the city. The waterworks, where just beside where I lived. And I knew all, I had a lot of friends there though it鈥檚 one area of Belfast that I remember. I don鈥檛 remember too much about in Belfast town. But I do remember Derry. It was just full of life. To me, it was just full of life.
I went to Broom hall by one of those trucks, as I say. And then 鈥� the draft came through for me.

[Magee 鈥� THERE ARE stories of bunkers, Ops rooms and all sorts of underground rooms 鈥
it wasn鈥檛 very different from Belfast ops room. I remember going up steps to the building, and then going underground. And I remember the huge operations map on the wall. And then that鈥檚 where we worked, beside that map. That鈥檚 about all I remembered.
The entrance was from the stern. There was a little gate-house and the road swung round it, and 鈥� it was underground. It was like Belfast, a cellar, I suppose. You could more or less take the roof off and you could see it.

[Strategically and planning the Battle of the Atlantic, Derry was more important than Belfast]
it was a very strategic position. It was called the NW approaches. The next stop was America, really. Well, we knew where all the bases were in the north of England, the NE particularly, and knew where they were. And of course, Belfast. And ships that were at sea. But I don鈥檛 remember a great deal about that sort of thing. I saw the ships from the Strand, across to the other side of the river, side by side where it was said that you could walk across. And I believe that to be true. I suppose we had to be very alert. Also, calls and direct them.

[The PO dealt with civilian phones and telegrams. Were you entirely military]
Yes. But we didn鈥檛 have any knowledge of radar or anything like that at all. But the radar masts were visible on the ships we could see. We saw all this, and it was so out of this world, not real, to look at those ships. It wasn鈥檛 real. I had no idea that what I had volunteered for, what was ahead of me. That I was actually, if there was a tunnel through from Derry to the port there, which there is, but there isn鈥檛 visible. A mental tunnel. Out to the Irish sea. Because, I don鈥檛 know. I can鈥檛 be more explicit about that 鈥�

[was everyone there in uniform?]
oh yes! Absolutely. I haven鈥檛 got 鈥�
That鈥檚 myself in uniform, and 鈥� in Belfast.

[display of photos]
That鈥檚 the sort of hats we wore. And then we wore the usual sort of sailors hats. That鈥檚 my husband. He was in bomber command, and he was in Africa too. And he was a wireless operator, sat at the back of the plane and was bombed out a couple of times and survived. He was a Flt Lt. He went to the RAF, he found that he was far more clinical of living than the other boys because he had been to boarding school before. He was sick for 6 years, he wasn鈥檛 very old when he went. We were both volunteers, no compulsion, and he lived, his address was in Donegal. Then 鈥�
He just felt that he 鈥� when he was very young, maybe about 17, and I can鈥檛 remember the details of it, but he lived in Derry with an aunt briefly. And he won a competition, and the prize for the competition was a flight in an airplane. So you see, that fueled his desire to join the airforce. And Bomber Command was very very busy, and he would since tell you of how futile war is. Because they bombed so many places on the continent, and of course I鈥檝e seen, I went on a trip of the Normandy beach-heads with another student the year before I was married. She and I went across the Normandy beach-heads and saw the damage that was done, especially in Caen. It was just unbelievable, even though it was 7 years after the war was over. But 鈥� there you are.

In Altnagelvin in intensive care he thought he was back in the AF, because a woman was admitted with burns and he had helped to rescue some men from a burning plane in N Africa, and he and his comrades buried those men. Afterwards it was totally condemned, and they were told 鈥渘ever do that again鈥�. It was a dreadful, he said it was awful because of the sand, you couldn鈥檛 dig. And he thought, when he was in Altnagelvin, that鈥檚 where he was. Because of the smell of the burning. So you see, all these things leave scars.
At times he would be very 鈥� when he would be sleeping he would be obviously dreaming of something that 鈥�

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