https://k8s-accounts-01.ulster.ac.uk/repo24/files/original/70a30eebd9b0be1c57c6f98255612110.pdf 768e6dac0bb2dd58c5babceaa2883c01 PDF Text Text 26 October 2013 Interview with: Maria McBride, Anne Blair, Sheila McBride (sisters) Venue: The Mac, Belfast The Memory Project, Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd File no: D9000901 (file 1 of 6) TC Start: 02:17:12:24 Q: Could you start by introducing yourselves, your names and where you're from? MARIA: [02:17:16:01] Em I'm Maria McBride and I'm from O'Neill Avenue, originally from O'Neill Avenue in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. [02:17:25:15] ANNE: My name's Anne Blair and I live in Chapel St in Newry, County Down [02:17:32:18] SHEILA: I'm Sheila McBride and I'm from O'Neill Avenue too, always lived there yeah…. Q: And how do you know each other? MARIA: [02:17:39:19] Well we're 3 sisters (laugh) so we grew up in the same house and I suppose, it’s a bit about what came out this morning, everybody has their own memories y'know what I remember about something is not necessarily how they remember something, or I remember more about something and they don't remember it at all…… but we do ….we do remember things y'know, we did grow up in the Troubles so [02:18:07:12] Q: How many is in the family? MARIA: [02:18:09:07] 6 of us - 3 boys and 3 girls… so the girls stuck together like glue and…..and we had some… the boys…one of the boys has lived in London for many a years and the other two brothers are not just as well….so…… we have one brother that �we get home and we're very close to him and then we look after our other two brothers. [02:18:36:11] Q: Maybe you could tell us a little bit about what life was like growing up in Newry? ANNE: *02:18:48:12+ Newry ….…. I suppose to what it is now…. It’s quite spread out now and quite…. much more populated than it was…. I’m 49 now so when I was younger it was completely different then…….. a lot of boarded up window's - I can remember that, as a young child seeing shops, and it didn't seem to phase you, you sort of, when you went sometimes to another town or to a small village and that you'd notice that there wasn't that as much but where you are there seemed to be a lot of boarded up doors and boarded up windows - cardboards and bits of hard like plywood over windows and that and [02:19:30:08] yeah I can remember that ….that memory …. and I remember Bessbrook … I remember travelling out sometimes, my Mom would have liked to go out to ….. a big furniture shop out in Bessbrook ….. what's the name of it, you know the big furniture shop in Bessbrook ? I can't think of the name of it now, but Mom liked to go out there, and liked to look at their furniture - mightn't have had maybe the money to buy the things in large quantities either but liked to go out and look at the finer things in life [02:20:05:07] you could say, and I remember going out to it - it was always an ordeal because there was a big ….. soldiers… there was Griffiths furniture shop in Bessbrook …. and it was a big ordeal to get into it - it was very much a walled off village because there was an Army base there, and it was a big base, so you had to go through a lot ….of gates ….and turnstiles, and if you went in a car….. it was just unbelievable - it seemed that every part of the car was taken out, every piece of the car was taken out and checked over so if you wanted to go out there [02:20:43:16]…. Before, when you left Newry, by the time you got back home, you maybe would’ve been only in the shop maybe for, maybe an hour but you could've been away out of Newry for maybe 4 hours….. Because it really seemed to be …. they really took your car apart ..or whatever (MARIA) it was a fortress wasn’t it? (ANNE) Yeah, I can really remember that and I can remember on the odd occasion when you were there, looking around ye, and it was always to me, it was a very sinister looking place y'know…… very sinister looking….. it was big dark walls and all this barbed wire and glass and it was like a fortress *02:21:18:01+ yeah… so I can remember that vividly, that’s my memories of Bessbrook (MARIA) I can remember the town being a lot smaller and older and poorer, y'know it was not very affluent the way it nowadays and it depended what way the punt was - it would sweep and flow and ebb didn't it? One day we were the rich cousins and then next day Dundalk was the rich cousin and then Newry was the rich y'know… *02:21:43:09+ all of that y’know and people coming down and being caught up in bomb scares and things and they'd be disgusted, and we'd be thinking …. we just used to it y'know(laugh) be used to it weren't we? We were very acclimatized to it …. And you'd see others coming in and you'd be thinking it's not right like y'know it isn't right but we were just used to it… you just had to sort of get on with it. but it was smaller, smaller and older and shabbier when I was growing up, and bombed out and a bit like what Anne said - cardboard and there were no shutters really and be all y'know sweeping up glass - you'd always hear glass being �swept up and [02:22:22:24] window's getting boarded up – y’know it wasn't, then finally shutters came along and it was…(yes)…. *02:22:28:19] END FILE FILE: TC START: D9000902 2:22:28:20 (File 2 of 6) MARIA: The windows didn't seem to get blown out anymore or something, the shutters sorta saved all that. And then you could see the face of Newry changing … you could see a wee bit of affluence, a wee bit of money coming in wasn't it, a wee bit wealthier (yes, yes) (ANNE) or maybe it was …. was it that the councillors that were in at that time …. that seemed to …… I don't know …… they were into sitting down …… the politicians and that around certain times, whoever were in at the top the parties at that time were able to sit down maybe at times and …. with maybe the police force and that and maybe talk with the people as well and get members from different areas to come and sit down as well *02:23:12:23+ to maybe…. somebody started that off ….. and there was….. I don't know …. sometimes you would look and see there was a wee bit of cohesion there, that people were trying to sort things out, and then that would go for a while and then there would be some big major….. something would happen y'know…. that would disintegrate that and that would go all … away that it would be….. not good at all, it would be very…..eh……. very dark times….. *02:23:43:03+ (MARIA) and I think because we were like the tunnel from the South to the North, we were like the thoroughfare if you like… and y'know…. and when those murders happened in Gibraltar y'know we knew it was coming through our…. we were going to be hit by it and …… I can remember that …it was really palpable sort of feeling…. or everybody was horrified about what happened and then we were steeling ourselves for it coming down through Newry and was there going to be trouble? and ….. *02:24:13:13+ Q: I don't know about the murders - maybe you can tell me? MARIA: [02:24:15:18] There were a……. they said there was an active unit or….. that there was a cell working in Gibraltar. I don't really know that much about it, it’s just my memory was there was some kind of a cell that they had been watching and …. they shot them in a forecourt so I think, I was thinking they should've wounded them and everybody else was thinking that they should have wounded them but they took them out completely - they hadn't got a chance - they just murdered them in cold….they just were murdered, and my community would have been absolutely up in arms about that [02:24:49:10] and outraged that y’know that they couldn’t have wounded them or they couldn’t have handled it some better way……. and then you knew then on top of that they were coming through your area, and the fear of that - what was going to be the backlash of that [02:25:03:21] �Q: Who was coming thru? MARIA: [02:25:05:09] The bodies were coming through from Gibraltar into Dublin and then (SHEILA) From Dublin right through into Belfast, (MARIA) and every town along the whole countryside was out …… I can remember that, can you remember all the wee towns and villages the whole way down through from where the body come in were out and in Newry as well and then right the whole way down….. and it was I suppose a people coming together to show their opposition to what had happened, but it was like anything, it was a number of things….. *02:25:33:07+ a number of years of atrocities, and you could find something in some other community that was done that could have been handled differently as well so it’s just….. weighing up things, but just I can remember that having a deep impact and then if I'm right - isn't that where it, they went on then to murder …… the people who got mixed up in the funeral by mistake? (ANNE) yes down in the Falls… (SHEILA) it was all around that time. it was an awful… bad, bad time yeah it was you're right …. I remember too the …. I remember the Bloody Sunday *02:26:07:05+ the week after it, they had a big march in Newry - a civil rights march and they all came from America - all the civil rights people came and there was an actress - she was an English actress (ANNE) Vanessa Redgrave? (SHEILA) Vanessa Redgrave and they were all…. I remember us standing down on the Merchants Quay watching them all [02:26:24:10] and they had all the big bann….. all the coloured people were there - all the civil rights people, and we couldn't believe it – it was like big stars - although it was awful what they were doing, it was…. it was right after the Bloody Sunday and I remember my mother coming down, Anne was only a wee baby in the pram, and my father saying 'don't be taking that child, there'll be trouble there today' and my mommy took hankies, cos if they used the CS gas you could always…. my mommy wet hankies and she put them in the pram and we went down, we walked it down… I remember walking it down….. and they DID fire CS gas and you could have your wet hanky and put it over your mouth - there was trouble at it too [02:27:03:07] it was whenever it was over, but I always remember Vanessa Redgrave and all these famous people in Newry, the following …. Y’know the following week like y’know…. it always ….I thought god y'know…..yeah… (MARIA) and then just on that too, we, we recently … in more recent years had what was on the grounds of McCann's bakery in Newry, a museum, Bagenal’s Castle museum was opened up there in recent times…. *02:27:30:10+ and they did… they had like an exhibition and we happened to be up looking at the exhibition and there was a big huge bevelled wall you know is was just not a straight wall but there was like a big black and white.... END FILE 02:27:44:15 FILE: D9000903 (3rd of 6) �MARIA: [02:27:44:16] the whole way around the wall, about 20ft x 20ft - huge big black and white image and Bernadette Devlin standing with (ANNE) a young Bernadette Devlin (MARIA) standing on top of all this rubble with all these people around her in Newry with a loud hailer, and weren’t we able to pick out our younger brother looking up at her like that y'know and his only his tiny face, he would have been maybe 10? So we were pointing out ones we knew in the image and then we started to look at this image and we realized that it was (SHEILA) the only child in among all the adults [02:28:18:02] wasn't he Maria? (MARIA) He was there looking up at her like that so it was real iconic times for everybody y'know - I can't remember Bernadette Devlin being here….. no I can't really remember that but I can remember running with mommy and then running back with the pram and then running forward with the pram, and running back and I think that must be what Sheila’s talking about, that we were at that march and the Army or police must have been moving in [02:28:41:21] and they were pushing the crowds back and I think that must be that pushing back and forward, I can remember waves of going forward and back the crowd, yes….. (SHEILA) my father kept saying to her 'now don't be taking that child out, don't be taking… and I kept thinking right we're going to get caught in trouble here [02:28:55:19] but we're just, mommy ploughed on with the pram, she didn't care, yeah cos after what happened in Derry it was just…. it happened on my birthday, I always remember thinking all them people died that day on my birthday couldn't…. y'know it was News flashes coming on all the time, and I kept thinking god y'know ….. it was terrible…… yeah (MARIA) and your brothers would get stopped…. (yes) they would get stopped and you'd be raging y'know you'd be going about as a raging child like you just knew it wasn't right [02:29:25:23] and we had a brother who wasn't well and he was vulnerable but at the time you didn't know what meant, you just knew he was … y'know he had to be protected and all…. and they used to throw the lunch out of his box….. on the road and things y'know, it was really…… y'know when the Army would stop him, they would search him and frisk him and it wasn't right, y’know, cos he wasn't well …. but they would take… somebody would say.. they seen them taking Eugene's piece out of his box and throwing it on the floor, throwing it on the road [02:29:54:18] and jumping on it and things like that y'know, so you used to be bubbling away inside and you knew it wasn't right but you didn't know why people were doing that on each other…… no cos we didn't know really about much politics, and then I suppose when I went to Big School we were doing Irish history and me and my Daddy would have huge debates about that stuff, you know about what had happened and why things were the way they were…. *02:30:17:14+ y'know… but like for example my daughter's 28 now and if I asked her what was the Troubles about, she wouldn't have a clue, not a clue what the Troubles was about because I didn't bring it into my house, I didn't talk about it, and even though she grew up in it and our children y'know our nieces and nephews and all our family grew up in it - we didn't say oh that's terrible, that happened because this and y'know…. it just didn't happen in my house so they didn't have any….. no idea what the troubles was about, and still to this day don't [02:30:49:00] if she studied her history y'know that she's currently doing then she'll know it, but she doesn't know the nuances of it, she only knows that there were Protestants and Catholics and they were fighting and people got �killed. But she doesn't know anything more than that, behind it, back story, and that's been good. [02:31:06:22] Q: Would you have known any protestants growing up? MARIA: [02:31:10:01] No …. I wouldn't have now (SHEILA) only the man that came at Christmas time to kill our turkey (laugh) he took a turkey into the house on Christmas eve and it was in a bag - it was still alive, but he…I remember he was a Protestant and…. y'know my father knew him from drinking in Forrester's, he would have knew him, and he came and he killed the turkey, and he since died that man now, but he would have been…. no we didn't really know any Protestants no….. the way schools were….. and we were in the majority in Newry - we were always the majority which… y'know (ANNE) but we were very privileged when I looked back although I was the youngest. [02:31:49:12] We were very privileged in that the main care giver for us was our mother and she was never biased, never racist, so she never, ever, spoke in the house about any par….about any religion in particular doing this that or the other, she read newspapers, front and back, when she got time, which wasn't very often so she was well read up on current affairs and what was going on in Ireland at that time, both North and South, but she never…. tried to put her opinions onto us….. she wanted her children, to a certain degree, to find out for themselves about their neighbours [02:32:31:20] that lived in the country with them she didn't make it her business to polarize us - I can remember that she would have protected you, if you needed to but at the same time she was not a woman to….. put neighbour against neighbour - she would always try to tell you right from wrong and to be…. go Christian about it, do it in a Christian way, so she was…… [02:32:59:24] END FILE FILE D9000904 (File 4 of 6) ANNE: *02:33:00:00+ ….. very, very good in that sense, I can really see that…. to her…… yeah she was very good, very good at doing that…. *02:33:08:13+ Q: Would you have ever been influenced to become involved? Ever considered becoming involved? ANNE: [02:33:18:00] No I would never (SHEILA) no….. as I was going out to my sister's when my sister lived in Jerretspass, I was driving out to the house and the Army…. you'd always be nervous coming up to the checkpoints even though you done nothing wrong, you know your heart be racing when you were coming to the checkpoints, I would say most people would say that, but I remember the soldier saying…. he says I want to ask you a question - I thought I wonder what he's going to ask me? …. he says em….. 'what do you think about us being here?…. what do yous, what do you think about us being �here? And I thought … I just says to him ' it’s not normal' …. It’s not normal, he says ' right' he says ' I wondered what to tell the people when I go…. go back home' he says ' what do you mean? I says it’s not normal, people walking about with guns and that around the shops in Newry …… y'know…… *02:34:08:11] (ANNE) How long ago was that Sheila? (SHEILA) Oh that was….. you were maybe not long out there Anne in Jerrets …. I remember I was going out the road and I just… he just thought ' right ' he says that’s interesting (ANNE) I suppose that leads into an area that I lived in? I lived in an area Jerretspass and all my neighbours would have been Protestant and I would have been the only Catholic in it and there was only 5 houses there - it was 5 mile out of Newry [02:34:30:05] and….. we were moving…….. both my husband and myself were Newry people so we were moving out to this area to bring our children up out in a country area rather than…. we were coming from a housing estate out, and from the day and hour that I went into it, I never found better people, at Christmas time, coming to the door to give me gifts in for the children - I've just the two children - at Easter time, at different times - that never would have happened in Newry - what I took from them were that they were very Christian people [02:35:02:05] good living people, they were simply into their family, the peop.. neighbours that I had, their family, …. and that was it…. their family and if you needed a hand they were there. That's the one overriding thing, and that's the way I brought my two children up - my children were about 12 and 6 when we moved out there and it was an excellent….. for them, to see…… that these people here didn't go to the same chapel that they did or the same schools, they were the only children in the row, my two children, the rest, there were no children, they were all grown up and away, so that was good… I was glad that they were able to see that [02:35:48:13] Q: And did they have the 12th marches? ANNE: [02:35:52:06] Well the next place to us would have been Poyntzpass - I lived in Jerretspass which is just outside Newry and it was 5 mile and then 5 mile on from it was Poyntzpass, and again, beautiful mix of people, from both communities that got on so, so well …. So, so well …. and …. then there was that awful atrocity that happened out in it- an awful crime - an awful crime that happened there, and….. they would have had, from my memories going back, they would have had the bunting up at both times of the year [02:36:31:12] on St. Patricks day they would have been bunting up or when Down won or Armagh or that y'know, Gaelic teams, they would have had the bunting up for that, and on the 12th of July there would have been the bunting up, in Poyntzpass this was and there was never, to my knowledge, there was never, we lived there for 13 years, there was never any trouble, there was never any problems with that because….. I think the mentality in that particular village at that time too was…. there was so many fields around them - they were hard working people, they were in again to their family to bringing them up doing the best they could do, and they wanted their children to be brought up the same *02:37:14:06+ y'know so they didn't have the……that was really what took their whole day up 24/7 y'know so ….. and in Jerretspass, I think maybe the �first year that I moved out there might have been bunting up, but I think after what happened in Poyntzpass there was never bunting up again in Jerretspass. Q. What happened? ANNE: [02:37:36:05] It was very subtly done, Q. What happened in Poyntzpass? ANNE: [02:37:38:20] There was a shooting in Poyntzpass, a shooting in what would have been a wee pub that would have been there a long, long time and people from both communities would have went into this pub, this was your typical….. wee snug pub I would call it, just a wee pub where people went into maybe one night a week, 2 nights a week whatever, it was like going into your corner shop, into the shop on your street for your newspaper that they went in there…. and they maybe had a drink, or they didn't have a drink - it was the sort of a place for conversation, conversation flowed lovely… [02:38:15:20] END FILE FILE D9000905 (File 5 of 6) TC [02:38:15:21+ …(ANNE continued ) ….. lovely atmosphere in it and….. there was a shooting - there were two men shot in it, one, each man was from both communities, one from each community, one Catholic and one Protestant….. and it was absolutely……. oh I don't know, it was …. I couldn't put it into words….. what those people felt like at that time when that awful atrocity came to their… *02:38:22+ Q: Was it sectarian? ANNE: It was, I think so, I think so….. (MARIA) and they were two best friends from both sides of the community. (ANNE) It was sectarian [02:38:52:23] (MARIA) so it was around the time - you know that tit for tat going on? And one side was having something done and so the other side ….and it was around Greysteel and all of that (ANNE) thats right Greysteel… (MARIA) it was all around that, pub and club and bars being hit and night clubs and things like that so it had shifted at that… it was a very big shift going into a community and going into a definite place to get somebody, it was much less random, [02:39:18:07] I felt, and those 2 men were shot, and they were best friends – went, they lived together, worked together, socialized together, and the two of them were shot together, and the whole community came in at that didn't they? (ANNE) Yes it was awful….. (MARIA) everybody - it didn't matter, religion really didn't come into it at that point, and for the grieving families y'know …… but it had a huge impact on the community, and in…. in Newry as well…. It’s not far from us y'know? [02:39:47:11] So �it…… honed people at that point to try and do more and do better and step up to the plate and y'know stop the violence…. y'know it really did…. it was coming closer and closer all the time. [02:40:05:08] Q. Would it have it come into your estate when you were growing up? MARIA: [02:40:07:07] Yeah….. ,Q: the violence?} yeah, they would have been building bonfires….. building barricades and things and pulling down parts of the area we lived to make barricades and cars would have been taken off people and burnt out and you wouldn't have been able to drive a car down the hill or up the hill or …. And all the road….Y’know I remember coming out of school, cos my … I just came out the gate of school, turned right, turned right and up the hill and there was our house, and the school was on that hill [02:40:39:06] and I can remember seeing all the ground and the road burnt like a big burn hole in the ground thinking oh that’s terrible ……. but not the fact that a car had been burnt and it was possibly somebody's livelihood, a van, that they used for work with their tools…. it was all very… it was almost sometimes the community turning in on itself y'know it was…. crazy times, y’know…. but you'd hear bombs going off, and sirens and the fire alarm, fire brigade, you just think to yourself god I wonder where that is? [02:41:11:06] It was so matter of fact….. (SHEILA) sometime too the Army - you could hear them coming in on the TV - we could hear the police we'd be listening in the bed downstairs - they'd be a room downstairs - it would cut in on the… we could hear them - the time that the Radcliffe’s - there was 2 fellas went in and they set it on fire - 2 men - young men - it was very sad and the shop is all wood and they set it on fire, and they couldn't get out then, they set it on fire at the back I think, and then the fire come right through and they were trying to get out and somebody said the Army was watching them and they didn't even break the window - that was the whole talk at the time [02:41:47:23] that, where the Army just stood there and didn't do anything but I don't know if that’s true but we could hear that all coming in on the…on the TV - cutting in about something Radcliffe’s, Radcliffe’s and then the next morning…… there was two of them that didn't get out, cos the whole place was all wood - they didn't think, they thought they could get out the front, but that was an awful thing too y’know [02:42:08:14] yeah cos the Army came on it at the time and they saw the flames and all but … I don't know - somebody said that they didn't help them and that was awful…. but y'know, God I don't know …… (MARIA) and you were always terrified of the Paratroopers and you knew their beret, you knew their beret and you knew what the front of the beret looked like . . and everybody in our community knew what they looked like [02:42:29:22]. We knew when it was their tour of duty, when they were coming in again - well I did anyway I don't know about yous girls ? (yeah …yeah) and you always knew when the purple berets were in, you were like in for the diggin's - wasn't going to be good….. (ANNE) you stayed close to the house … you didn't stray too far, yeah you sort of stayed close, more closer to your house and you would have been more aware of where your brothers were maybe, keeping an eye out, you know things like that yeah you have felt that a bit [02:42:59:08] of a threat. �Q. Why? MARIA: [02:43:02:09] Cos they were the platoon were in when Bloody Sunday happened and so they were marked forever….. forever will be marked for that y'know …. and anybody that’s from my community will always… if you ask them who were the platoon that was in on Bloody Sunday and I'd be shocked if anybody couldn't tell you that so they were burnt on our brains that they were the ones that done that and they were these high flying (ANNE) people maybe felt that they'd no conscience (yeah) they'd no conscience about what they did (MARIA) but really there was….. END FILE 02:43:31:16 FILE D9000906 (File 6 of 6) TC [02:43:31:17] MARIA: Bad on all parts… you know as an adult you can see that but back then when you're a young person, you don't know that and you just see it as a lump of thing…a per…. A, an entity …… but….. that was always a lasting memory for me, I could draw you the beret, I know exactly what it looks like and I'm not an Army person at all but it was to be on the lookout, I mean you seen it you were terrorized by them cos they were…. in my mind they were this…. high octane group of people who were. SHEILA: Killers. MARIA: All singing, all dancing…. they were powerful, absolutely powerful above all the other brigades (yes) (SHEILA) more vicious *02:44:09:04+ you would have said… people would have feared them more…. there would be different regiments coming and we'd be looking at their hats to see what they were wearing - the Scottish would have a wee thing on their beret here, a wee feather or some sort of wee thing, different, we'd be saying, I wonder what the name of that regiment is ? But when it was the Paratroopers yeah they were like purple with a wee badge on here… but people, after Bloody Sunday, people would have been very wary of them [02:44:32:23] yeah with their boys being out late at night yeah cos they just thought they weren't good….. *02:44:39:16+ Q. When the British soldiers came, they came primarily as protection for the Catholic communities, what, was it Bloody Sunday that turned all that? How were they received? ANNE: [02:44:59:03] Do you remember when the tide turned from them being… (SHEILA) it was all tea in Belfast, they kept showing that, y'know they were making them tea and they were all glad to see them cos I think all these houses got burnt in Bombay Street, the whole row of houses, people all had to leave, they were all put out of their houses and then…. things started going wrong… the young ones I think started firing �stones at them and things just started going wrong. It wasn't normal, the Army being there and I think the young ones just started firing stones at them and stuff and then it would escalate and then they would kill people and *02:45:34:01+ and then…y'know it just seemed to… (MARIA) I think it was a short term problem - it was to be a bit of sticking plaster and then… it was, I mean if you had asked anybody back then including them, you're going to be here for x amount of years, they would have laughed, because they were literally to be put in, calm the situation down - a peace keeping force - here to rescue everybody as the Catholics saw it, here to rescue all the Catholics…. Oh I don't know what, why people thought that, and I can't give you one reason for why there was a shift but there was a definite shift *02:46:10:01+ ………but I have feeling that there was an upsurge and an uprising of people at that time and ….. it was like a political thing - it was to do with the Troubles but it was to do with (ANNE speaking over in B/G) it was the vote and…. yes (MARIA) yes it was civil rights and one man one vote and y'know lack of housing and all of that, it was like a revolt, it was like a …… a time of revolt…. people wouldn't tolerate any more and I think that really….. the climate changed, people were warming up to the idea of….. we can get out on the streets here and do something about this y'know we can. [02:46:44:20] Q: Do you think it will ever go back to that again, where do you think the future's going to be? MARIA: [02:46:48:00] No I don't think …… I personally don't think it will go back to it cos there's too many people on the side of wanting it to push forward (SHEILA) no we look forward now don't we? Not look back…. (ANNE) but there's always going to be anarchists (SHEILA) that’s the touble we seem to be stuck in the past y'know…. too … like y'know….. no we wouldn't want to go back to that again…. no ….. definitely not, cos a lot of peoples are leaving now and emigrating, they're leaving every day from Dublin airport, all the young ones and they can't get jobs and…… we're losing at lot of people and…… these people will not be taking . . . y'know money in for to keep the work here like y'know *02:47:26:19+ anybody that’s wanting to start jobs here it’s not….. y'know it’s ……. we need to move forward really y'know.[02:47:36:07] Q: Is there anything else you want to say? MARIA: [02:47:39:03] Well I would just like to see more women in politics (laugh). I always bang on about that but I think y'know, women have a particular place to …. to play in this part of the world and their… y'know …. for whatever reason - well I understand the reasons why they don't, why nobody gets involved in politics here, cos its like crazy, y'know its enough to put you crazy but….. hopefully we're moving into a time of peace now [02:48:05:12] and y'know and that women will start ….. y'know young women coming up through the ranks will start to get… garner support and have a voice y'know…. and bring their skills in politics, whereas we're really…. bereft of that it’s….. it’s mostly men making political decisions. (ANNE) But I think a lot of that too has �to do with women helping women……. women seeing women, no matter in what walk of life they’re in, as their sisters and enabling them and empowering them, sometimes women, depending on how they are brought up they can, if they see another woman *02:48:40:09+ eh….. trying to better herself…. they can feel…. y'know that its …. [02:28:47:12] END FILE 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 Maria McBride, Anne Blair, and Sheila McBride Publication Title Full title of publication, as it appears on item. Transcript of interview with Maria McBride, Anne Blair, and Sheila McBride Publisher Location Place of publication: city / town Dublin Publisher Smashing Times Theatre Company Ltd. Publication Type Report, Book, Manual etc. Trancript Publication Status Published, in Press, Unpublished, etc. Published on-line Number of Pages 12 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 Maria McBride, Anne Blair, and Sheila McBride (<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 26 October 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 3460 Memory Project Smashing Times