Tag: Stories
Mo McDevitt
A life in art
Mo was born on the Donegall Road in Matilda Street and moved to Ashley Avenue on the Lisburn Road in south Belfast when she was 5 years old. “It was not the Golden Mile, but it was an area of warm people, again the...
Nelson McCausland
Talking to the DUP MLA
Born in 1951 in north Belfast Nelson grew up on the Ballysillan Road. He remembers attending the Belfast Royal Academy. “I did find it somewhat strange, because most of the children going to the Academy were from a mo...
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 ...
Padraic Fiacc
The life of a poet
Poet Padraic Fiacc was born Patrick Joseph (Joe) O Connor in Belfast on Elizabeth Street in 1923. The First World War had ended and Padraic remembers that “everybody went half mad when the war was over, and my moth...
Paul Gallagher
Surviving a shooting
Marie Breen-Smyth the Associated Dean International at the University of Surrey talks to Paul Gallagher about his injury and it affected his life and future and how he has came to terms with it. On the 6th January ...
Peter Heathwood
Talks about rebuilding his life
Marie Breen-Smyth, the Associated Dean International at the University of Surrey, talks to Peter Heathwood. At home in Cliftonville in north Belfast, Peter was sitting with his wife and three young children after f...
Pilib O Runai
Setting up an Irish nursery
Pilib learnt some Irish at school, which was not common at the time something that was not very common at that time. He grew up with the language being spoken around him and always had an interest in it. He participat...
Roisin McGlone
Life as a Falls community worker
“The Troubles began at the time we moved up to Andersonstown from the Falls Road. My lasting memory is the raids, whenever the army and police came. This would be before Ulsterisation. They closed off streets and sea...
Ruth Taillon
Women’s rights and social work
Growing up in post WWII Canada, Ruth left home at an early age: “I left home at a very early age following the hippy trail. I was very interested in music and it was exciting at the time. I quickly got involved with t...
Sam McAughtry
In conversation with Sam
Internationally respected, Sam McAughtry is a writer and broadcaster who was born in the Tigers Bay area of Belfast in 1923. Sam, one of a family of ten children, recalls the living conditions of the time “Tigers Bay ...
Samuel Malcolmson
Surviving a shooting
Marie Breen-Smyth, Associate Dean International, University of Surrey, talks to Samuel Malcolmson about the injuries he received during the Troubles and how his life has been affected. Samuel had joined the RUC in ...
Thomas Ward
Experiences of looking for justice
Marie Breen-Smyth the Associated Dean International at the University of Surrey talks to Thomas Ward. After being laid off from his job in London, Tommy returned to Derry to visit his family before heading back to ...