The sisters tell us about their experiences growing up in the Springfield Road area in the 1960s at the beginning of the conflict
Their father, Ben, had been interned in the 1940s, and then in the 1970s, their brother, Finbar, was interned. They describe that period and the impact that Finbar’s death in1987 had on the family.The sisters tell us about their experiences growing up in the Springfield Road area in the 1960s at the beginning of the conflict.
Their father, Ben, had been interned in the 1940s, and then in the 1970s, their brother, Finbar, was interned. They describe that period and the impact that Finbar’s death in1987 had on the family.
Audio Transcript
00:00:00.0 00:03:37.4 Introduction, background to parents. Father interned in the 1940s. Family from Belfast but connections with Toomebridge.
00:03:37.4 00:05:30.4 Earliest memories of the barricades in 1969. Father was anti establishment and their granny Mulligan lived through the pogroms in the 1920s in Short Strand
00:05:30.4 00:06:44.6 Home was always centre of activity for organising defence of the area. Their father was depended on for his experience.
00:06:44.6 00:09:45.6 Recalling the impact of the death of close friend and neighbour Geard McAuley. Growing being aware of where you could and couldn’t go.
00:09:45.6 00:15:59.0 Talking about their family at the start of the conflict. British army raids. Finbar shot and wounded and going on the run.
00:15:59.0 00:19:15.0 Finbar is arrested just after his 18th birthday. Beaten beyond recognition in Palace Barracks before being interned in Crumlin Road Prison.
00:19:15.0 00:22:34.4 Recalling visits to Crumlin Road Prison. Finbar then moved to Long Kesh.
00:22:34.4 00:24:21.0 Finbar – very attentive to the family, but ‘an aggravator’.
00:24:21.0 00:27:10.4 Finbar interned for seven months. Afer his arrest again in 1976 he went on the Blanket Protest in the H Blocks.
00:27:10.4 00:28:11.8 Reflections on the type of person was Finbar.
00:28:11.8 00:29:56.1 Recalling Easter Parades in the 1960s. Reflecting on their parents lives.