´óÏó´«Ã½

Childhood Memories of the Bombing at Pennyburn in 1941

[Written by Fr John Doherty, PP Leckpatrick, Strabane, for the People’s War website]

Some of these memories are personal ones. Other observations I learned later from my parents. It was Easter Monday night 1941. We lived at 20 Collon Terrace in the Pennyburn district of Derry. My mother, father and Uncle Jack, who was staying with us at the time, were in the kitchen; my sister Rita and I had gone to bed.

The adults downstairs heard the sound of an aeroplane overhead. Apparently they knew by the sound of it that it was a German, not a British plane. My father and uncle went out to the back yard to investigate. They didn’t see the German bomber, but they did see a parachute with a bomb attached heading towards the ground. They got back into the house immediately, and in no time they heard a deafening explosion which caused serious damage to our home. A few moments earlier my mother had been standing opposite the window of the kitchen, but providentially had moved to another part of the room. When the explosion occurred, the window crashed into the wall exactly where she had been standing only seconds before.

Upstairs meanwhile, I was oblivious to what was happening. The only sound I could hear was the sound of breaking glass — I had no idea of the fear that was gripping my parents downstairs. After the explosion happened, the adults were fearful for the safety of the children upstairs. My father and uncle were unable to force open the door leading to the stairs, so they had to climb through a hole in the wall of the scullery, go around the block of houses, come in through the front entrance and climb the stairs to the bedrooms where Rita and I were still sleeping. Apparently they couldn’t see us at first because of the rubble which had come down from the ceiling. Eventually they dug us out, and carried us downstairs.

At that stage I was fully awake, and could see that our home was badly damaged. The electricity was gone, but I remember seeing by moonlight the curtains blowing in the breeze. My parents decided to bring us to the house of Paddy and Lena Gallagher, who lived on the Racecourse Road in Messines Park. They were good friends of ours, and gave us food and shelter for the night.

Earlier that evening some children called Murray were playing with us in our home in Collon Terrace, and I distinctly remember their father, known as ‘Judy’ Murray, calling for the children to take them home. Sadly Judy, his wife and all their children except one, were killed when one of the landmines fell near their house. The one who escaped was Pamela — she was visiting friends when the tragedy occurred. Altogether thirteen people lost their lives in the Messines Park area that night.

A second landmine fell near Pennyburn Church. There was some damage to the church, but thankfully there were no fatalities. However, there was a story that Father O’Lochlainn was so traumatised by the event that his hair turned white!

We weren’t able to go back to our home, so we became refugees in Buncrana, over the border in Donegal. We got lodgings in the homes of two families — the Gallinaghs and the O’Dohertys, known as ‘Houtons’. In August of that year we returned to Derry, not to our old home at Collon Terrace, but to a house on the opposite side of the street — 17 Patrick’s Terrace.

When the tragic events happened in April 1941, I was 5 years of age, and too young to appreciate the seriousness of it. However, I do remember that day four years later when people in the streets celebrated the wonderful news that the war was over.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.