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The Evacuee Who Arrived From Lancashire In 1940
Peter Tiernan.

This is story of how as a small boy I was sent out of harms way to Corroneary County Leitrim 1 year into the Second World War.
My mother decided that the bombing in Manchester was getting too close for comfort to Accrington situated about 30 miles away, where I lived with my parents. My father鈥檚 family in Corroneary seemed at the time an ideal place for me to seek refuge. So I was taken to Liverpool and handed over to the custody of someone I never found out who, and was met by my uncle Pee Tiernan at the North Wall Dublin. How did he recognise me you may ask, easy there was a label around my neck with my name and the address I was going too, written on it and of course I could speak my name because after all I was 3years of age. In wartime the most unbelievable things happen and I suppose my mother had a lot of faith in the Lord.

I arrived in County Leitrim not knowing a soul and started life in a farmhouse where turf fires were used for cooking instead of gas and everyone spoke a language I did not know!
I guess I started School about 1941 and I was recently told Tommy Prior took me there on my first day. Some time after that my father James Tiernan arrived from England and worked the land with the Tiernan Family until the war ended in 1945. He and I returned to Accrington in October of that year to join my mother. I do recall I did not take kindly to living with a mother I could not remember, but then learnt to love all over again. When I started School no one could understand a word I said! The period I was in Ireland my mother worked in an aircraft factory to help support my father and me and run a home. I have fond memories of my Irish aunts and uncles during those war years.
During my teenage years I returned to the family home and enjoyed many a great holiday there, and still have a plectra of first and second cousins to see when ever I visit.

31st May 2004

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