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Text
23 November 2013
Interview with:
Kay Green, neé Duddy,
Venue: Gasyard Arts Centre, Derry
The Memory Project, Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd
File no: ST0027
TC START: 02:39:06:06
Q: First of all … its similar stuff to what Charlie was talking about, but maybe you could
just start and let me know what was it like to get your story acted out in the way it was
done through the workshop?
KAY: [02:39:22:03] it was something really different, when I arrived today I was a bit
apprehensive - I wasn't sure, but it was amazing, it was … I felt it was very, very powerful
and very emotional and it was good to be able to do that and see the other people's
reactions and… I thought it was amazing *02:39:42:23+
Q. And did you learn something from it?
KAY: [02:39:45:17] Aye I learnt that there’s different ways of dealing with your emotions
and with oppression and depression and you know I thought it was a very, very
worthwhile afternoon. [02:39:57:16]
Q. Maybe you could start just telling me where you were born, grew up, your family?
KAY: [02:40:11:24] I was born not far from Charlie, I was actually born on the Lecky road
which is, as you know, just down the street and um…. then my Daddy was among the
very first to squat in the Springtown camp which was originally I think it was an army
camp, to get housing, a lot of people had done it at the time, and then we subsequently
got allocated this 3 bed-roomed mansion in Creggan Heights [02:40:38:16] which we
thought was just absolutely amazing as there was 17 of us, 15 children and my Mammy
and Daddy, this 3 bedroom mansion was just a wee bit on the small side so we
�eventually moved then to Central Drive to a maisonette because it had 4 bedrooms and
ah…. not one of my favourite moves now I have to say because I loved living in Creggan
Heights - the people in Central Drive were wonderful but I just didn't like the building
(laugh) and as it was at the heart of the Troubles, we were very, very close to everything
that was going on [02:41:17:10] But it was funny at times because we'd be sitting in the
sitting room playing cards and the shooting would have started and we had to get down
onto our hands and knees and carry our cards through to the back to the kitchen, and
went on continuing playing cards - it had become part of the way of life, also where we
lived there was an empty shop below us and as far as I'm led to believe it was used as an
arms store [02:41:42:20] so we were kind of sitting on a time bomb plus the shop that
we lived above sold paraffin oil or something at the time, so there we were and there
wasn't even a back entrance to them…it was a maisonette, you come in the front door,
up a flight of star is to the bathroom, kitchen and living room, and up a second flight of
stairs to the bedrooms, and there wasn't even a fire escape to the back of them
[02:42:09:14] so as I say, not my favourite place to live, and I cried the first day I stepped
into it and I wonder did I cry bad luck on it, because from there, it was there that my
mommy died in 1968, and then poor Jackie got murdered in 1972 and I thought I cried
bad luck on the old stupid house (laugh) but being… we were brought up a normal
catholic god fearing family, we weren't politically aware, I personally never was, some of
the boys when they went down, and I don't doubt that they would have taken part in a
bit of rioting or whatever…. *02:42:58:18+ On the day of Bloody Sunday, me Daddy
worked in a Hospital in the Waterside called St.Colm's hospital, and it was in a street
called Browning Drive, which was beside….. Isn’t that where Ebrington Barracks is now I
think? So that barracks was there and he passed that on a daily basis going to his work
and I often wondered did he - did someone say anything to him cos he come home on
the Saturday and he allowed that nobody was to go to the march on the Sunday but the
boys disobeyed him, [02:43:27:02] as they do… and…..but that was OK the girls - they
made up the dishes after the dinner and that - but the attitude of the boys left the
house that day was they were going for a bit of craic - it was going to be a good day's
craic, it was a nice, dry, cold day - Jackie particularly was looking fixing his shirt and
saying ‘do you think my girlfriend Bernadette Devlin will think I look ok’? And that was
the way he left the house that day [02:43:57:14] and it was all done, in the best, as the
man says, in the best possible taste, but as the afternoon wore on then and people were
returning from the march, we weren’t particularly aware of anything going on until an
Aunt came to the door, she comes…me Daddy was on night shift from his work, from
the hospital and he was still in bed and she's says Kay we've reason to believe that
Jackie was hurt in the town and we went to, we went down the stairs - we didn't have a
phone at home, the shop downstairs was packed to the street, you wouldn't get in there
to use their phone, so she knew that the community centre was being built at the time
just over the street from us and she knew the watchman and she asked him could we
use the phone and we phoned Altnagelvin and I asked the question, 'was Jackie Duddy
admitted to hospital that afternoon?' and whoever it was - I assume it was a nurse, and
she says who’s making the enquiry? And I said it was his sister Kay - a slight short time
elapsed and she come back and she asked again who was making the enquiry and I said
�it was his sister Kay and she said Jackie Duddy was dead when admitted to hospital
*02:45:16:03+ so… I mean…. I vaguely remember throwing the phone in the air and
screaming and after that then…its a kind of…. everything's blank for near enough 3
days…. um…. I think I vaguely remember going, having to go home and meant having to
go and tell me Daddy what had happened and ….um….. my Daddy's initial reaction was I
warned him and told him …told him not to go … as I say this would have been told
afterwards but at the time I don't remember, I don’t remember - apparently I was at the
morgue, apparently. Obviously I was at home when Jackie's remains was home and I
don't recall that - I don't recall the funerals - I thought I'd seen myself in a photograph
that they had re-run in the papers and the same man that came with the news
[02:46:08:23] said that I had fainted outside the chapel steps and had to be taken home
…so them 3 days is totally…totally lost y'know but Jackie was a happy go lucky young
fellow and it was the strangest thing - he was a boxer but he had a great…he had a great
sense of humour - always used to say that he never really was cut out to be a boxer cos
he wasn't aggressive enough if you know what I mean. [02:46:34:20] He loved spaghetti
westerns, would have been one of his… and he had a few girlfriends…. he was that
innocent and that honest of a young fella - the younger brother Patrick - there was
Jackie, Patrick and Gerry was the 3 boys nearest in age and we always called them the 3
musketeers and Patrick had, after Jackie died, he showed me, he actually gave it to me it was a brown envelope that Jackie had wrote a note to Patrick saying I borrowed 3 bob
from your pocket this morning - I'll give it back to you at the weekend when I get paid
[02:47:18:18] so I mean our Patrick probably wouldn’t even have even missed the 3 bob
as the man says but that would give you an idea of his nature - poor Patrick, god rest
him, died 5 years ago from lung cancer but he died suffering survival guilt and he could
never could talk about …..what had happened to Jackie because Gerry, Jackie and
Patrick had met up at one stage - Gerry had ran on, he says ‘I'm getting out of the road
cos our Billy if he catches me he'll kill me’ - that was the older brother and Patrick was
going with a girl that lived in the Brandywell so he left Jackie to go and he says now you
get home cos this…..this is getting … a bit out of hand here today, and he went on to see
his girlfriend, so he felt that he had abandoned Jackie and left him and…. *02:48:10:08+
and he could never talk about it, never could deal with it afterwards and I think it helped
that his health deteriorated….. so…. for years we weren't allowed to talk about it - it was
unspoken, wasn't spoken about and I think it was my Daddy's way of protecting the
boys from going to join the IRA or whatever or go out looking for vengeance cos that's….
and me Daddy in his naiveté always said these soldiers will get older and their
conscience will start to get the better of them and they will need to tell the truth (laugh)
*02:48:46:16+ but over the years my Daddy died in 1968 or 1985 sorry ….yeah he was
only 68 years old and ah… although for years the march and all was going on, we in our
naiveté thought that somebody would eventually do something about Bloody Sunday get the truth of what happened, but then the campaign was set up and Gerry and
myself took an active part in the campaign representing the family and we were very
blessed that the family relied on Gerry and myself to make decisions for them on their
behalf and if it was OK with us then it was all right with them [02:49:26:24] whereas I
know for a fact that a lot of families have split up over the years among themselves
�because there was different opinions and whatever …. ah….. I've done stuff over the
years that I never thought it would have been possible to do, one being for instance - we
were invited to New York and….. For the St. Patrick’s day parade - I was a bit
disappointed to be honest because John Kelly, Mickey McKinney and myself had to
leave it just as it was starting and go to Washington and I stood in a room full of
Senators and cried me way through a talk - and at that stage I did… I said I'm sorry
for…for being upset but this is the way it is y'know *02:50:14:13+ then when I thought on
it afterwards I thought I can't believe I just done that y'know but it.. somehow it gives
you… you seem to get an inner strength from somewhere and over the years it was a
long hard slog and without support from people like Charlie and the people of Derry,
England, Dublin eventually the politicians come on board and whatever, but it was all
near enough family led with a lot of support and I have to say now the Saville enquiry
…the Widgery farce as it is now known as has been confined to the bin as you know - we
had no actual part in that but the Saville enquiry was a whole different ball game
[02:50:59:13] the opening statement of the Saville enquiry took 74 days and that was
longer than what the ..travesty of the first one was .. to take place …. but over the years
we grew as a family … people were like an extended family and we got to know other
families better than we probably would have done, we gathered support from
ourselves, Cúnamh throughout was a major help to us I have to say - I don't think I
would have survived without the help of Cúnamh being there and they were with us
both in Derry and in London [02:51:37:18] and they were there to pick up the pieces
each day and that’s why then after … standing on the steps of the Guildhall that day, the
only one… there was only one thing that Saville let me down on and that was that I feel
that he… he hung Ger Donaghy out to dry - he didn’t go that extra mile and say that Ger
… he said he was unlawfully killed and unjustifiably killed but he still says he may have
had the nail bombs in his pocket and Gerard's sister - adopted sister was suffering from
cancer at the time and it finished her off *02:52:20:00+ it just….. she went to her grave a
distraught person and for me personally that was the one thing that Saville let me down
on but I think he did as best he could with what he was allowed to….. That day standing
on the Guildhall steps as I say - for me it was like watching a black cloud lifting up from
over the people of Derry, and I felt everybody in this town that had been put through…
they didn't give evidence - they relived the day of what they experienced cos you could
actually… I noticed they were - I was thinking about it today when we were doing ….
when were doing that this afternoon - you could actually see them ducking down as
they were talking - they were back there reliving it *02:53:06:21+ and ah….. for them…..
And for the courage that they showed and the support that they gave us it was amazing
to see that black veil being lifted and everybody was exonerated y'know and everybody
in the town - it was such a joyous feeling that day, that it took me days - it was a few
days after, I was at home by myself and as…I don't know about yourself but most
women will flick from channel to channel and it came on - something that I don't
normally watch is anything to do with politics, and it came on - Cameron's speech and I
sat alone in my own home and watched it for the first time [02:53:45:19] and I cried like
a baby, but it was like crying with joy, and I thought right - what happens now? My
initial reaction that day was - I don't have anything to do tomorrow - I've actually a free
�day tomorrow - nothing that I need to get up and do and then…. I don't know what time
it was had elapsed and the next thing then the PSNI has announced a murder enquiry
and I thought sweet mother of Jesus what now? What do we do? Where do we go from
here? So as I say, the first meeting that I was at to do with this 'Murder' enquiry and as I
say my body went to pieces I just shook… I was shaking, uncontrollable shaking, and
emotional, and Jill Gillespie is looking across at me and saying 'are ye ok? And I'm going
'no, I'm not ok' cos I have the statement from the time stating that Jackie was murdered
and then she's basically telling me on the day that’s not worth the paper it was printed
on [02:54:51:12] so please God that this enquiry - this murder enquiry will not take as
long as the Saville enquiry did, and that we will eventually, eventually - as I says we have
buried Jackie but we have never laid him to rest 02:55:09:03] and for us I think that's
very very important. So if you know any good novena's, please say them!…. that this will
not take much longer because I feel physically and mentally exhausted - I'm just running
out of steam (laugh) *02:55:26:02+ and thank you very much for the time….
Q; Do you think it’s important for people to have the opportunity to talk about their
stories and their experiences?
KAY: [02:55:33:20] Oh very much so - you know the saying – it’s good to talk - and a
story shared is just amazing I think and people need to get a chance to tell their story,
this is..I would be guilty of… it …started inadvertently this way - I always say I speak first
and then everybody else has to talk after ye, but I don't want to be seen to be hogging
….. the limelight - the Bloody Sunday families….. wounded and their initial family don't
have any monopoly on suffering - everybody has suffered and everybody's entitled to
tell their story and its so, so important - and it was a privilege for me today to share in
this story. [02:56:15:02] It’s the first time that Charlie and I have been in that sort of a
scenario that we actually listened to one another - that’s something I have learnt over
the years, is to listen (laugh) and I think that’s important too *02:56:28:16]
Q: Thank you very much.
END IV
End of Interview
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Memory Project (<em>collection</em>)
Description
An account of the resource
"The Memory Project is an exciting, innovative arts programme that uses drama and theatre to deal with the past and build pathways for the future and to promote peace, reconciliation and mutual understanding in Northern Ireland and the southern border counties.
The project is run by Smashing Times Theatre Company in collaboration with Corrymeela Community / Irish Peace Centres and is funded through the EU’s European Regional Development fund through the PEACE III Programme for Peace and Reconciliation managed by the Special EU Programmes Body.
The project consists of a series of creative storytelling happenings, workshops and dramatic performances, along with a television documentary which will be made to record the process." (from the Smashing Times Theatre Company website)
In addition to the 12 filmed interviews (involving 15 interviewees), the project also produced an hour-long documentary entitled 'The Memory Project: Stories from the Shadows' which documented the work of the theatre company, over the course of two years, as it carried out the project.
Two theatre productions were also presented as part of The Memory Project.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015
URL
Non DC - URL of Organisation / Project
http://www.smashingtimes.ie/page-2/page-2a/
Stories Collected
Non DC - Number of stories recorded as part of the project.
12
Stories Deposited
Non DC - Number of stories deposited with Accounts of the Conflict.
11
Collection Permission Form
Non DC - Collection permission form signed and returned.
Yes (signed: 10 November 2015)
Delayed Access
Non DC - Yes/No on request for delayed access.
No
Availability Online
Non DC - Availabilty Status (deposited, delayed, external, cain)
deposited
Permission Form Scanned
Non DC - Scan of permission form uploaded to archive.
Yes
Publication
A book, article, monograph etc.
Author
Author of the publication
Kay Green
Publication Title
Full title of publication, as it appears on item.
Transcript of interview with Kay Green
Publisher Location
Place of publication: city / town
Dublin
Publisher
Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd.
Publication Type
Report, Book, Manual etc.
Transcript
Publication Status
Published, in Press, Unpublished, etc.
Published on-line
Number of Pages
5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<em>Unititled Story</em>, by Kay Green Thompson (<em>story transcript</em>)
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
23 November 2013
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
PDF version of transcript
Language
A language of the resource
English
Availability Online
Non DC - Availabilty Status (deposited, delayed, external, cain)
deposited
Catalogue ID
Non DC - ID for the Catalogue entry that relates to this entry
3459
Memory Project
Smashing Times