大象传媒

Frank Curran

This story is taken from an interview with Frank Curran, 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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Derry at the time was a fairly depressed city in a way, big unemployment and so on, and naturally like everywhere else we wondered and we worried about what this war was going to bring. Very quickly of course we realised that it was not going to be a quick struggle, because the Germans as everyone knows swept across Europe. And by a year later, Britain was facing Germany practically alone. Now in Derry the war made big changes, because first of all it became one of the main ports for all of the Allied navies. Needless to say from the word go the quays in Derry were closed off to the public, and we had ships from America, Britain, Norway, you name it, all over Europe. You鈥檇 be startled by the effect if Canadian and a Norwegian ship came in together, there was bound to be a row because they didn鈥檛 seem to hit it off at all.
One of the things that we worried about, especially after Belfast was blitzed, was air raids. We were very very fortunate in the fact that, despite being a major base we only had 1 incident. That was when a single aircraft dropped a single bomb in the Messines area, and killed 18 people. But we believe that it was a stray plane that lost its way during the raid on Belfast.
That was it. We still worried throughout the war, but we still didn鈥檛 get any more air-raids on Derry.
Now, life of course changed pretty quickly when the war came along. Rationing. Blackout. Things that nobody had known anything about. But as far as rationing was concerned, Derry was very lucky. Because being right on the border, it wasn鈥檛 all that hard to get food from across the border. And a couple of small shops in a wee village called St Johnston, 5 miles from Derry, and 2 of the gentlemen who owned those 2 little shops literally made fortunes during the 5 years of the war.
And there was train out from the Great Northern Station as it was then on a Friday night, colloquially known as the smuggling train. You can draw your own conclusions as to what that meant.
Their other big advantage was when the Americans came, the American Army, was that they generated quite a lot of employment and there were many men who had been unemployed for years, who got good jobs during those 5 yrs of war. And the other spin-off was the GI Brides. Many Derry girls married American soldiers. And the Americans were pretty popular generally in Derry. And of course they built their played they stayed, they built their shacks, and those shacks were used after the war for people to live in. it was a shortage of houses in Derry.
But generally we were remote from the war. We weren鈥檛 directly involved in the war, except for that one bomb, and life went on fairly well as usual. The 5 years in retrospect of course did go quickly, and after the war finished the Americans went and everyone else went. Derry for a while was a very quiet city again. And again unemployment rose.

But the war years, another example was that the road traffic ceased. No petrol. So on a Sunday afternoon you would find literally hundreds of bicycles on their way to Buncrana 14 miles away. I remember that myself, going down on the bike. And there used to be a joke in Derry about the Lough Swilly railway, which was a not particularly fast-moving train. And the railway was still on, there was still a train to Buncrana, and people used to make the crack 鈥渁re ye not going down on the train? No, I鈥檓 going down on my bicycle because today I鈥檓 in a bit of a hurry!鈥�
That鈥檚 the sort of 鈥�
Dances, all like that, had to finish at 11.30. Again, the blackout, it wasn鈥檛 worthwhile keeping them in anyway. And the blackout was very strictly enforced, of course, because of the fear of air raids.

Politically there was a sort of a truce, politically, during the war. The local sort of politics, really took a back seat. Needless to say, to be resumed with vigour immediately after the war finished. But generally speaking, although we were the centre of this huge naval port, Derry was generally untouched by the war.

[Republican undercurrents]
Yes, but there was no such thing as bombs, Republican bombs or anything like that in Derry. That was a while later. That really didn鈥檛 activate until the early 50s. So that the war itself was really our main worry, whether we would be bombed or we wouldn鈥檛 be.
And apart from that, the only other source was the radios, to hear the news. The only radios at that time would be battery radios, and people watched their batteries very carefully because they were very hard to get. And usually in most houses only the news was allowed for fear the battery would peter out. I remember my father was a great man for listening to the news, and the rest of the family had a fair laugh. As it happened, he had to go out early to work on the 6th of June, 1944, and he missed the news of the invasion of Europe!

As I say, that was it really during the war. A place relatively untroubled by the war. The feeling in Derry about the war would have been I suppose mixed. It would have been Republican-minded people, but Derry generally was a Nationalist rather than Republican city all through its history up until very recently. The Nationalists always won the Foyle seat when they were challenged by Republicans. But the 鈥�

It simply was not until the 50s that the IRA campaign began. It was outside the scope of the war as such. The feeling on the Republican side would probably have been that they would have preferred the Germans to win the war. Nationalists in general would have preferred Britain to win the war, because there was a fear that Hitler鈥檚 Aryan race, he regarded the Irish as non-Aryans, and there was a fear that they might fare even worse under the Germans if they won the war than we felt we鈥檇 suffered under Britain.

For the first time the feeling would have been not pro-British, but more anti-German than anti-British during the war.

The newspapers were very constricted during the war. We were constricted to 8-page papers during the war. Which was rather difficult. We still of course had a lot of local stories. Sport still went on. Derry City FC didn鈥檛 cease playing during the war. GAA was still pretty strong in Derry too. There was plenty of sport, and cricket was played during the summer. But the newspapers generally would have been very very local stories. We would have covered some of the big battles, when reports of the big battles of the war come on. But it was a rather difficult time, for we were constricted to only 8 pages. And there were 3 Journals a week, 3 Sentinels and 3 Standards. Derry at that time had 9 papers a week 鈥� 3 Journals, 3 Sentinels and 3 Standards. As I say, the stories were constricted in their scope. It was extremely difficult, you see, even to get to places like Buncrana, Carndonagh in Donegal, Strabane, even. Extremely difficult, as I say, because travelling was extremely difficult. So they were much constricted compared to what they would have been before that time, before the war. And that was 鈥�
The papers also were constricted in the paper they got, and there was sometimes worry about getting more paper for a paper to produce a paper. But generally speaking that didn鈥檛 prevent the fact that you were probably working as hard during the war as you were before the war or after the war. So 鈥�

During the war years I lived in Kildaragh Terrace in the Long Tower area. Before that we had lived in Westland Ave, which is up near the cathedral, near St Jujin鈥檚 cathedral. But as I say, life was not unduely disturbed during the war, except as I say for the fact that you couldn鈥檛 travel far, you were constricted where you could go and that. And of course, the other complaint was that what was a tradition, Derry people having a walk down the quays, had to stop during the war too.

Like everything else, social life was restricted. The blackout didn鈥檛 encourage very much. Dances did go, but they had to finish early. Everything had to finish early. A social life was fairly constricted, which was also constricted by rationing too. And it was quiet at night. And of course, you had no street-lighting, which was another thing.

The submarines surrendering, I didn鈥檛 cover that. But they came into Ballykelly, just. The bulk of the German u-boat fleet came in. and apparently there was a rare variation in the attitudes of the officers and crew. Some of them came in quite apparently meek and mild, accepting the war was over, and others were quite truculent and quite arrogant. That鈥檚 the story that some of the people who were there, watching.
And Derry did get the bomb. You see, you couldn鈥檛 report in the paper that Derry had been bombed. It would just say 鈥渁 town in Northern Ireland鈥� 鈥� 鈥�18 people were killed in a town in Northern Ireland last night鈥�. That was essentially it.
It was a constricting time, and yet I would have to say comparatively we were not really touched very much by the war. We were lucky. Very very lucky. And people still wonder why, with all the ships that were there 鈥� and I think that one of the things that transpired was the vital difference was the extra 70 miles from Belfast and back. It added more than 100 miles for the planes to make. They could just about get to Belfast and back home. So our geographical position was to our advantage.

[In the Journal office, was there talk of spies?]
not really, no. there wasn鈥檛 very much espionage at all. But what was interesting was that if a British airplane came down in Donegal, the guards 鈥� if they survived 鈥� gave the aircrew a choice. 鈥渓ook, boys, we can either walk you to the border and you can walk over into Derry, or if you like you can be interned here鈥�. Most of them came back to Derry. So if they landed in Donegal they ended up getting back to their units. But that one one of the jokes.
Of course, with typical Derry humour there鈥檚 jokes told about the Russians 20 yrs after the war, discovering they had a mole living under an assumed name in Buncrana in Co Donegal. And the story went that they sent over 2 men from Moscow to see if he was still alive. They went to Buncrana, into this pub. They were told 鈥済o into this pub in Buncrana and you鈥檒l find him鈥�. And they said 鈥渨e鈥檙e looking for John Doherty鈥� 鈥� and of course, immediately in Buncrana they ask 鈥渘ow, what Doherty do you mean? Doherty the miller, Doherty the tanner, Doherty the footballer鈥�? As they do in Buncrana. Every Doherty had a 鈥� 鈥淒oherty so-and-so鈥�. So 鈥� 鈥渘o, no鈥� 鈥� Until an old boy in the corner says 鈥渙h, I know 鈥� you鈥檇 be looking for Doherty the spy!鈥�
The application being there was no such thing as a secret in Buncrana.

There鈥檚 relatively little to say about the war in Derry.

[Did you visit Magee, Ops Room, bunker?]
We were very very constricted during the war 鈥� where you could go, what you could say, that was one of the things. And with the buses off and no road transport, no petrol available, either if you had a bicycle or you could go on the Swilly train, of course. It went as far as Buncrana. And of course the Great Northern railway ran to Dublin during the war. It never ceased. Nor did the trains to Belfast cease.
For what you鈥檇 call the surrounding area, the circulation area of the Journal 鈥� Tyrone, Derry 鈥� it was very hard to get to. In fact, if you went down to cover a court in Buncrana it meant you had to get the train down in the morning, the only train in the morning to Buncrana, and even if the court was over in 2 hours time you had to wait til 6pm to get the train back to Derry. So that was one of the ways you were constricted.

[you鈥檇 have your story written on the platform]
Absolutely. You would indeed. The only thing was, if it was a good summer鈥檚 day you just went down to the beach and lay there. But there you are.

The churches were 鈥� there鈥檚 nothing much to say about the churches during the war.

[I heard that there were so many Derry girls going with Americans that the Church put its foot down, Bishop Farran stood up and said 鈥渁ny more of you going with Yanks, you鈥檙e excommunicated鈥� sort of thing]

Oh no, that鈥檚 not so because 鈥�
That鈥檚 definitely not so. Because Bishop Farran, in fact, was the ecclesiastical representative for the American force in the North. So there鈥檚 no way he could have said that. Whoever said that was wide of the mark.
Farran was, in fact there was one occasion when a Unionist MP, Lowry, talked about there had been a Mass said for American troops in an Orange Hall up in Tyrone [transcriber鈥檚 note 鈥� it was actually in Portrush, Co Antrim], and he said 鈥渢his means that the hall will have to be fumigated鈥�, and Farran made an official complaint on behalf of the American Army to the Government over it.

[was there many girls you knew involved with GIs?]
There was a big number of Derry girls married Americans. A very big number. Now one of the things that was done in Derry during the war, he did issue an edict that anybody who got married outside a Catholic church would be excommunicated. And that would be announced at Sunday masses. It was announced that 鈥渟o-and-so went through a form of marriage in a non-Catholic church, or in the registry office during the week or whatever, and they were thereby automatically excommunicated from the Church and all its services鈥�.

[Why at that time? Because there were so many foreigners?]
I think so, because there were so many marriages taking place outside the church. He was a very conservative man, and he took that attitude. It wasn鈥檛 done in all the Catholic dioceses in the North, but it was done here.
The priest read out the names. 鈥淛osephine Doherty, or whatever the name was, went through a form of marriage to a non-Catholic, outside the Church, and they were thereby automatically excommunicated from the Church鈥�. And that went on for a long time during the war. It created quite a lot of feeling, actually, when it was done. But eventually it was dropped after the war. But it was done. But he was wrong about Farran about the Americans, but he was right that Farran did issue excommunications. He was a very very conservative. Bishop of Derry from 1939-74. 36 years. He was the youngest Bishop in Ireland when he was appointed, 43 years of age.

Farran was there.

Moville would have been quite busy during the war, because all the ships had to pass up Moville, because Moville was at the mouth of the Foyle. Many of the sailors, I suppose it wasn鈥檛 really right to do it, but they stopped and came into Moville. And of course, in Moville they easily got anything they wanted there. Food, anything else, and they did well out of it. Moville shopkeepers would have done well out of the war, too. And as I say, legally it was an infringement of Ireland鈥檚 neutrality. Nobody worried very much about it.

[was there Editorial guidance by the State?]
No interference in that way at all. No attempt. Except for, as I say, anything that was banned overall by the censors. But editorially, not at all. Still totally free editorially, for editorial comment. We鈥檝e never been interfered with in that way.

Moville, as I say, would have done very well. Now, from Moville, you鈥檝e now got the new ferry.

[was there Celebrations at the end of the war?]
There was quite a lot of celebrations, especially among the Unionist population. And there was more a muted sense of satisfaction that the war was over among the Catholic population. No euphoria, but relief and satisfaction that the war was over. Among the Unionists there was a triumphalist attitude, naturally enough. That was it. But in no time we were back to the old politics, and the NI situation took number one again. Right up til the end of the Corporation. The days before the end of the Corporation, great craic. Once they got the word that the Corporation had been sacked 鈥�

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