大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with William & Georgina McVeigh, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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Georgina
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I don鈥檛 remember a great deal about it, because as I say I was quite young. But we did go away. We went, because my mother was pregnant we went to stay with her brother in Newry. I think maybe we stayed about 6 weeks there, and then we went to her sister who had a farm quite near to where M&S is now at Sprucefield. It was right beside the wireless station. And her eldest son, at that time he was away, he was a Marine. And the younger boy, he still worked on the farm, and he was there when we were evacuated there. And he was very kind to us, because after my sister was born, then my mother went back to Belfast, but we stayed on in Lisburn for a while. And he was very kind. I suppose he knew that I was a bit homesick, and then he joined the army. He was in the Irish Guards, and he was a POW. And I remember my aunt making up parcels to send to him. And of course, being very young - 鈥渂ars of chocolate!鈥�
鈥淣o, no 鈥� those aren鈥檛 for you!鈥�
not realising how very important it was for the stuff to get to him!
It would have been, I remember knitted stuff like hand-knitted socks, that sort of thing. Probably cigarettes. But that鈥檚 just all that little bit I can remember.
Some yrs ago when we were talking he said 鈥淪erve for your country? Never again! I lost very good friends. Their widows weren鈥檛 very well treated.鈥�
A bit of disillusionment there too.

Billy
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I got staying at home. They kept an eye on me. Quite a good, how would you say, a good time as children. We had at the back of our houses the dairy farm. That was our shelter. And then, where we built the shelter, that was the fields, and we just run wild. Dad had worked a lot of time, and mum had my older brothers and all to look after as well, and as long as we weren鈥檛 in her way she was happy and we were happy. That was about it.

G
A lot more freedom than children have now. We had a wonderful time. Cause we lived in the same street.

We had a good upbringing and a very jolly life that I can remember back to. There was never any hardships.

G
We always seemed to get plenty, didn鈥檛 we? It was good fun, because you were always out and running all the time. The streets cleared when 鈥淒ick Barton, Special Agent鈥� came on or something like that. But we were out from dawn til dusk, and we only came in when we were hungry.

B
No traffic. very little traffic.
That was radio. 鈥淒ick Barton鈥� would have been the favourite, and 鈥� what was it?

G
鈥淭he man in Black鈥�?

B
What was the music one?

G
Radio Luxembourg

B
That was very popular.

[Lord haw-haw?]
Never heard it. I heard people talking about it, but I never heard it.
I don鈥檛 know whether [my parents] would have approved or not. I suppose if it had come on and they鈥檇 have been listening, they鈥檇 have said 鈥渨hat are you doing there?鈥� but I don鈥檛 remember ever hearing it.

G
I don鈥檛 remember hearing that either.

B
For to be a war, we had a good time. And mum always managed to have something on the table. I don鈥檛 ever remember missing a meal. Good years, they were. And I suppose a bit later on, Wednesday nights and Friday nights they鈥檇 have taken us to the Curzon Cinema. Didn鈥檛 matter what was on, that was entertainment. If we didn鈥檛 get our own seats there was nearly a row, you know? That was good.

Radio and cinema, that鈥檚 what we lived for.

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