Tag: Stories
Dale Harrison
Community work in West Belfast
Dale remembers the beginning of the Troubles. “From memory the Troubles in the Woodvale were rife. To this day some people would say that’s originally where it all started. I do remember one evening. There was a full ...
Noelle Ryan
A life in community education
Noelle spent six years working in a Liverpool convent before being released. “I know there were some of people who felt, maybe fearful of me in ways, I’ve a fairly strong personality. I suppose it wasn’t my permanent ...
Joanna McMinn
Advancing women's education
Joanna moved to Dublin from Cornwall, at the age of 17, to enrol at the National University of Ireland. “It was 1967 at the beginning of all the riots and student protests in Paris, it was a very exciting time. When I...
Helen Crickard
Redefining women’s roles in society
Helen grew up in a family of ten, five boys and five girls in Carrickfergus. “My early childhood in Carrickfergus was great, coming from a big family there was always something going on, we lived in a nice housing ...
Bobby Foster
Highfield to Canada and back
“As a boy, Highfield was a fantastic place to grow up. We passed our time up the mountain doing the things that kids did. One of the highlights of the year was bonfire night, anything that grew on branches we were tak...
Billy Dunlop
WW2 & the trade union movement
After a pleasant childhood spent in Delaware Street on the Ravenhill Road in east Belfast, Billy entered the world of work in the post office as a telegraph messenger at a tender age, “I started at the age of 14 years...
Mark Ervine
Talking to the mural artist
Mark’s childhood was spent growing up in the Woodstock and Ravenhill areas of east Belfast, a socially deprived area of the city, a loyalist community and one where as Mark explains ‘There was a great sense of commun...
Catherine Couvert
Just Books and Women's News
Originally from France, Catherine grew up on a small farm. She remembers her childhood as a happy one, though living conditions were sparse. “Until I was ten, we lived in a house with one kitchen and one bedroom, a...
Anne McVicker
Women's Tec in Northern Ireland
Anne was born into a large family, being one of 9 children born in South Belfast. Anne spent most of her childhood growing up in the Cliftonville area in north Belfast. During her youth Anne recalls a lack of youth pr...
Michael Paterson
A path to clinical psychology
Marie Breen-Smyth, Associate Dean International, University of Surrey talks to Dr Michael Patterson, Consultant Clinical Psychologist about the injuries he received while on patrol with the Royal Ulster Constabulary....
Linda Bunting
Dealing with trauma
Marie Breen-Smyth, Associate Dean International, University of Surrey, talks to Linda Bunting about her husband Alex Bunting. Alex was injured in an explosion. Linda talks about the hardships she and her family have h...
Alfred Abolarin
Race relations in NI
Born in northern Nigeria, in Zaria, where he grew up, Alfred has lived in Northern Ireland for twenty years. It was the offer of a job, which brought Alfred to Belfast in the early 1990s. “I was offered a job in Ph...