大象传媒

Family memories from Ligoniel during World War II.

I grew up in Belfast in a place called Ligoniel, in the north of the city. Although Ligoniel was a suburb, with three churches, three primary schools, shops, a library and a police station, we were surrounded by fields and hills.

I was born in 1948, so am too young to remember the war myself, but not too young to remember what I was told by my parents. My brother was a baby during the war and had to be carried in a type of box, with a gas mark attached.

When there was an air raid, people from Ligoniel went to the farm about a quarter of a mile away, where they took shelter in the barns and farm buildings. Local people also got fresh milk and eggs from the Grahams, who owned the farm.

My mother and father often talked to us about the good and bad, happy and sad times and about how people helped each other when times were difficult. Both my parents worked in the mills and my father had also worked in the shipyard and in the aircraft factory. My brother and sister told me about how my mother was always baking and knitting and sewing and that she worked so hard that she never had time to show her children how to knit. As well as his full time job, my father repaired all the shoes and boots for everyone in the family. When I was very small, I can remember him working at his shoemaker鈥檚 lathe and how I held the nails for him.

Times were often hard, but my parents would have said that people never lost their faith and hope.

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