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Two Friends

“And we had to pack them and repack them four times from half past seven in the morning to half past seven at night. It was desperate hard work”

TRANSCRIPT 

  •  How old am I? Come on, give a guess. Not going to tell you. Will I give… Will I give… Will I tell you? I’m coming on 92.  
  • Ah, on her next birthday. 
  • Now, me and Bea we come from different places. Bea comes from Derry and I come from Enniskillen so ya know, we might have different stories. 
  • 1958, that’s when we came in here.  
  • Oh my god, I wouldn’t like to tell you the things I got up to. Now not climbing trees, no no not like that one there no. See my mum and dad well they… they couldn’t control me ya know, and they had to send me away some place. Now I wasn’t partying or anything like that there, no no no no. I don’t think I would do it again, no I don’t think I’d do it again; ya know I’ve learnt my lesson this time. Yea. I’ll never forget the day that they said me “you’re going to Belfast” and I said “Belfast? Where’s Belfast?” I said. That nearly put me round the bend. See I left Enniskillen at twenty past eleven and then I arrived in Belfast at quarter past four. Ya see, they tried to send me to the other place. They thought that I was pregnant. I said “No”. I was saying to them “look that’s fat” I said, “there’s nothing in there”. There was nothing in there, Bee, nothing in there. I said “no, I’m not going to that place”. Well, them were the days, never were to come back. 
  • I was 24 when I came in here. 
  • Aye. You came from the Derry convent, didn’t you? 
  • Yea. 
  • Honest to god, I don’t know how her and me stuck it. We got up every morning and we’d go down to the machines… and we would pack them and repack them and pull them. It was awful hard work ya see. ‘cause there was two sides to them. There was the side for the sheets and the side for the slips and then there was the other machine for your underwear and that there. 
  • Yea. 
  • And we had to pack them and repack them four times from half past seven in the morning to half past seven at night. It was desperate hard work. The stuff came from the Royal Hospital, the Mater and the City and we had to pack that, repack it, count it out of the hamper and then count it back in to the hamper. Isn’t that right Bea? 
  • Yea. 
  • Yea. 
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