大象传媒

Kit Giles lived in Ireland during the war. She was ten when it started and sixteen when it finished. Even though Ireland was not bombed they suffered a lot because of the rationing. They only got half an ounce of tea each, no oil, no candles, no sugar, the bread was black, the electricity was rationed. There was also very little coal, you could get half a sack if you were lucky. Though there was plenty of meat, eggs, fish and cheese and other farm produce.

She went to school with ten and twelve year old evacuees from England, whose fathers were in the services. Even though no bombs were dropped in Ireland they still had to practice air raids, the English children would quickly hide under the tables, the children who had not been in a real air raid found it funny that the children would hide so fast. She can remember being told what was happening in the war, by the teachers at school, though she didn鈥檛 pay much attention.

Her father was in the British Army. She married an Englishman who joined the Navy in the last year of the war. On his first day a sailor told him to take off his shoes if he ever had to jump over board. His ship patrolled the Atlantic. He had been a hop picker in Britain, and had seen planes fighting in the Battle of Britain from the ground.

There were no VE Day celebrations in Ireland.

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