大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Alice Morrison at Our Lady鈥檚 Nursing Home, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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I do remember, I mean, wee snatches about it [the war], talking and chatting about it. I was working [in 1939]. I worked in Gallaghers [the tobacco firm], and I don鈥檛 smoke. I never smoked. I like all my friends, my sister and all. It never appealed to me to smoke. In fact, I used to say sometimes that the chump needed a certificate.

We had different jobs, we all did different things. It ended up I worked the most time cutting all the, standing at the machine, and cutting all the tobacco up and then went into the machine to start and make the cigarettes. All round different things we did.

I鈥檇 left school and, well, I was the eldest of the family. I was very lucky, I had the best of parents, you know? I knew they were having it hard, I was in my mind, I wanted to get into work to give them some money, and I got the chance of getting in. People said to me afterwards, you shouldn鈥檛 have stayed. But I did. I鈥檝e stayed in 29 years. Worked up the 29 years, and then out of the blue I was getting married. And 鈥� but I enjoyed it. It was hard work, we worked hard work, but I did enjoy it. And sort of, we done the work, and then after that, well, it was my bike 鈥�

[Gallaghers factory was in] York Street [right in the heart of Belfast].

While we were there, every now and again you would have to go, we were told where to go. You know, the stairwell. I worked up on the 5th floor, and there was the iron stairs down into the, into this, and then there was different places we was all sent to. Ach, you did say sometimes, 鈥淧lease god鈥� and that. It was hit at the blitz, there was a lot of it was damaged, and we still had to 鈥�
You know, when I think of it now, sort of why, we just didn鈥檛 let it get us down. We made the best of it, were very lucky. As I was saying I told you about joining the Air wardens and all. But there was a lot of damage done around. My dad, he was the air warden too. And I don鈥檛 know if you heard, but a lot of the people took themselves all out of their homes and away up into the Cave Hill. Well of course, we used to say we had to be there. And my mum and my younger sister, my dad was great. You know the way people said afterwards, they couldn鈥檛 believe it? You know the coal house under the stairs? The coal was all taken out, it was all taken out and put into the yard. And you whitewashed it, and had a couple of chairs. And my mum, and my young sister, in the blitz that鈥檚 where they spent their time. Under the stairs.

The blitz, there was 3 blitzes in Belfast. 3 or 4 hours, sort of. The first time that there was a first blitz, and we had 鈥� we went to the Warden and we were told where to go. And we were dotted just around our own district. We were dotted to our own street. The Air Raid warden place in our street was attached to the big Parochial hall, you see? We were going down there, and the first, what鈥檚 this you call them, fireballs?

[incendiary bombs? Tracer bullets?]

The tracers, they let them go off through the sky to brighten everywhere. The Germans knew, would try to make the targets. We really did. At the beginning, the first one or 2 went off, we had our arms around one another. 鈥淭his is the end of the world!鈥� At the time we really did think, like, there was something and that was it, we were going and that would finish it.

But then, it was the Parochial hall, and in the Parochial hall there was a good lot of our people, did not take out up to the hill, Cave Hill. But it was quite a big hall with a stage. And there was an, underneath the stage and ones all round, one made for there. The sort of thing, you know, some people really lost their head, you tried to comfort them. Sort of do wee things like that. Anyway 鈥�

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