Our Irish Life and Lore archive contains some amazing personal testimonies from nurses who served in wartime Britain.  In this podcast can be heard the voices of four remarkable women who volunteered to serve with the British forces during wartime.

They displayed incredible courage under dreadful conditions, and we are privileged to have recorded their stories.

Maura Morphey served in the Queen Alexandra Nursing Corps during WW2, initially in a Surrey sanatorium where she cared for German prisoners of war, and later in Lagos in Nigeria during the evacuation there.

Anne Meehan worked on Hospital Trains which were evacuating wounded troops from the D Day Landings.  She was awarded Nurse of the Year 1946 by Leicester Hospital.

Deirdre de Burgh served in the Nightingale Training School and St. Thomas's Hospital in London, and she also manned the Casualty Clearing Stations for D Day. 

Mary Savage served in WW1 as an ambulance driver with the St. John's Ambulance Service based in Rouen in France.  Her father, Col. W.H.Savage also served in WW1.

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The Blacksmith's Forge was once an important landmark in every town and village in Ireland, and the forge itself was an integral part of the community where news was passed on and discussed and humour was often paramount. 

These days are now long departed, but this podcast helps to relive those times in our past.   The voices you will hear are those of:

Jim Corrigan of Kinnity, Co. Offaly

Billy Kelly of Tullamore, Co. Offaly

Tom Good of Ballyfin, Co. Laois

Phillip Kelly of Jerpoint, Co. Kilkenny

Mick Flynn of Rynn, Co. Laois

Den Young of Causeway, Co. Kerry

James Nolan of Rear Cross, Co. Tipperary

Dan Edwards of Clonfanlough, Co. Offaly. 

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With this podcast we take a step back in time to when the Irish landscape was dotted with large country estates and Big Houses.  The wooded demesnes of many of these houses still remain, though the houses may have disappeared.  Many of the houses which survive have taken on a new life.

Without the butler, the cook, the footman, the housekeeper, the gardener, gamekeeper and gillie, none of the the Big Houses in their day could function efficiently, and this podcast brings you the voices of some of the staff who spent their lives in the service of the Irish gentry families:

We relive former days with staff members of Ardgillen Castle in North Co. Dublin, Gloster House and Birr Castle in Co. Offaly and Adare Manor in Co. Limerick.

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Over many years Maurice O'Keeffe of Irish Life and Lore has travelled the roads of Ireland meeting and compiling oral history recordings with members of the farming community for our organisation Irish Life and Lore.  The changes witnessed on Irish farms during the 1950s and 1960s are recalled and discussed in these recordings. 

During these years the farming women worked just as hard as did the men, working in the dairy, milking the cows and churning the butter, among other tasks.   Nothing was wasted by these industrious women and recycling was the norm. 

Meal bags were recycled as covers for feather mattresses and the bags were also cut open and two sewn together in the middle to make sheets; chickens, geese and turkeys were reared and plucked; reeds were gathered and dried for basket weaving; straw rope was fashioned for Sugan chair seats; patchwork quilts were sewn using cut-off scraps of cloth; bacon and mackerel were salted; chaff was separated wheat; meals were cooked and water boiled for clothes-washing over the open fire and water was drawn from the well.  

All of this industry, and much more, is recalled in this podcast which features the voices of some of the hard-working women of Ireland of former days.

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Over the past few years I have been recording those who made a contribution towards the development of Ireland since the foundation of the State in 1922. 

I wanted to record people who inspired in the field of architecture, resulting in an improvement in the quality of all our lives.  The Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland supported this oral history project.

The members of the RIAI whose voices you will hear in this podcast are:

Alex White, Cork

Neil Scott, Dublin

Des McMahon, Dublin

Angela Brady, Dublin and UK

Padraig Murry, Dublin

Robin Mandal, Dublin

Joan O'Connor, Chartered Architect and Arbitrator

Cathal O'Neill, Former UCD Professor

Owen Lewis, Former UCD Professor

Neil Hegarty, Former Chief Architect Cork City and County

Shane O'Toole, Architectural Historian

Paddy Shaffrey,  Dublin 

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In Ireland bogs are found in various regions, mainly in the midlands. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the British government began to encourage the development of Ireland's peatlands, and the improvement of the quality of turf for fuel.  In the 1930s the government of the Irish Free State formed the Turf Development Board, later to become Bord na Mona.

In this podcast you will hear accounts of the stage by stage progress in the industry, beginning with the primitive harvesting of hand-won turf in West Kerry at the beginning of the 20th century, and local communities uniting to form Turf Societies in the 1920s.  Mention is made of the first engineers to work for the Turf Development Board, and in the 1940s the introduction of new machinery from Germany, the making of roads, bridges and track lines through the bogs, the migrant workers from elsewhere in Ireland to work in the Midlands, and in the 1960s, the Russian influence in production and the finally, the fuel crisis of the early 1970s.

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Scattery Island is situated at the mouth of the River Shannon on the west coast of Ireland.  It has a long and rich history.  The island is associated with St. Senan since the 6th century, and in the 9th century it was home to the Vikings.

For centuries Scattery was an ecclesiastical seat of learning, and in the 19th century river pilots and their families settled there, and remained until the last resident left in the 1970s. 

In this podcast you will hear North Kerry historian Padraig O Concubhair and Clare historian Sean Spellissy speak about the history, myth and legend of Scattery Island, and Don and May Scanlon recall  their young days growing up on Scattery.

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In 2011 we were commissioned by Trinity College Dublin to compile an oral history collection. 88 people were recorded, many of whom have since passed away. The voices you will hear on this podcast are those of former academic staff, former students and domestic staff.

Joseph Haughton, Fellow Emeritus, Prof. Geography

Leslie Greer, Graduate French and German

Lyndall Luce, widow of Prof. John Luce

Louden Ryan, Fellow Emeritus, Prof. Political Economy

Barbara Wright, Fellow Emeritus, Prof French Literature

David McConnell, Senior Fellow, Prof. Genetics. Former Vice Provost

Geraldine Watts, Graduate English and German. Widow of Former Provost Bill Watts

Donald Weir, Fellow Emeritus, Regius Prof. Physic 

Janet Moody, Graduate Modern Languages. Daughter of T.W.Moody, Prof. Modern History

Brian McMurry, Fellow Emeritus, Prof. Organic Chemistry

Susan Parks, Fellow Emeritus, Senior Lecturer Education

Melissa Webb, Chairman Trinity Assoc. and Trust, daughter of Prof. Stanford

Aiden Clarke, Emeritus,Erasmus Smith's Prof. Modern History. Son of Austin Clarke

Ian Howie, Fellow Emeritus, Assoc. Prof. Zoology. Former Vice Provost.

Rita O'Mahony, former Lady Housekeeper

Valentine Rice, Fellow Emeritus, Higher Education

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In 1851 in Waterford city, Jacobs was set up, and some years later the business relocated to Bishop Street in Dublin.

During the 1970s Jacobs merged with Boland's Biscuits to form Irish Biscuits Ltd., and the factory relocated to Tallaght on the Dublin outskirts.  

This podcast reveals the many challenges and successes of the company over the years.  The voices of Jonathan Bewley and Michael Jenkins feature in the podcast, both of whom are descendants of the original owners.

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