大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer from Fivemiletown Primary School on behalf of Mrs RA Armstrong and has been added to the site with her permission.

My husband and I came to n. Ireland early in 1941. By then the war was in its second year, food rations were in place, also clothing coupons and vouchers for bed linen and furniture.

Being from Co Donegal in the then Irish Free State we experienced some difficulty in obtaining these items, also we had to get residence permits. They were renewable yearly. Our living accommodation was two rooms in a large country house (Glendurragh Lodge) at the village of Ederney, Co Fermanagh.

In time we got our ration books and other documents and were quite settled in. When the RAF were billeted at Castle Archdale, the house we lived in was taken over by the airforce plus a number of others so we had to move out. American soldiers were at the Deer park. Also there were war prisoners (thought to be Germans). The Americans were popular with the girls as they had lots of dollars to spend and gave them a good time.

We used to hear and see the Sunderland Planes taking off from Lough Erne on their nightly bombing raids.

Petrol, paraffin oil and candles were very scarce. There was no electricity in the area at that time.

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