| Description | An interview with Muriel COWAN, a married woman with two sons, one daughter, who is a Retired assembler, Joseph Lucas., born in Ireland and now living in Birmingham. Muriel COWAN’s father was a Irish Army sergeant, born in Ireland and her mother a Cleaner born in Ireland. In the interview, she talks about …
'MURIEL COWAN MS2255/2/109 Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
I was born in Dublin in 1934. Father was in the army. Mother was a housewife. Muriel is eldest of 11 children.
02
Describes the family Christmas.
40” Domestic duties at home.
03
Describes the house she grew up in.
Grandparents lived nearby.
1.03 I was always queuing up for bread….for turf. You’d be out in all weathers queuing up for the logs or the turf flurries to come in from the country….you could come away late at night with nothing, and in the frost and snow your feet would be falling off you….
2.59 Grandmother would make special cakes which were peculiar to Dublin.
3.32 Children’s games.
4.02 Not happy at school. Absent for much of the time. Required to help at home with younger siblings.
04
Describes the local Catholic church.
50” Remembers a convent which took in orphans.
05
There was no such thing as back-to-back houses. I never seen any back-to-back houses until I came here in 1955. I couldn’t understand why 6 families were sharing one toilet….
06
Story about visiting the dead in the local area.
07
Describes how families in the area were economically worse off than her own family.
08
How mother ensured the children were well-dressed.
09
10
I left school in 1948, aged 14 and I got a job in a perfume factory…in Dublin…First child in family to go out to work. Gave money to mother.
1.25 Describes her role at the factory.
1.50 Left to go and work at a handbag factory. Remained there for 2 years.
2.13 Enjoyed going to dances after work.
11
12
How life was affected by the Second World War.
2.07 Father’s role in the war.
13
I left the Irish Leather Goods in 1951…. Got a job as a hotel housemaid. Describes the environment. Many opportunities to go to music halls.
3.35 Story about meeting her husband.
14
Story about the proposal.
1.03 Explains how the Letter of Freedom affected the ceremony.
15
Describes the wedding ceremony.
16
More details about the Letter of Freedom.
17
18
The richer couple got my Mass….but I got their carpet in the end….
19
Describes the wedding reception.
55” Experience of being on the boat to England.
2.59 Husband’s brothers lived in Birmingham. Story about obtaining goods from Marks & Spencers.
20
Muriel was sick with TB soon after arriving in England. Explains the treatment. Also became pregnant during the time she was recovering from TB.
21
Barrow Boys sent fruit to all the hospitals and sanitoriums.
1.06 Even in 1955 the hospitals gave you your ration of sugar and butter….
1.48 Details life in the hospital.
22
How husband coped with Muriel in hospital and daughter in the orphanage.
1.11 Obtained a house from organisation that dealt with TB patients. Moved to a maisonette in South Yardley in 1956.
23
Story about neighbours in South Yardley.
2.09 Son was born in 1960.
2.33 Moved from maisonette into old house in 1961. Third child born in 1963.
2.52 Became more involved with the Irish community via Sacred Heart Church activities.
24
25
Muriel returned to hospital with a germ in 1963.
26
I started at Lucas’ ….in 1963. Worked evenings.
1.15 I was in the spray shop…I liked it. I think that was every woman’s night out, to get away from the children and earn some money….Most were Irish and great fun….
27
Returned to Lucas’s in 1973…
I was there during the Birmingham bombing. I got on very well with people before this happened, but there was the few who were very bitter…If they didn’t like you before the bombing, you were really in for it when the bombing did happen….The morning after the bombing, I don’t know how I lifted my head….and somebody said, “why aren’t you singing?”….The rumours stared flying….There was hate, but it was there before it happened….
3.12 I stayed at Lucas’ until July, 1999… Whilst at Lucas’s organised lots of dances to raise money for charity. Cites the closure of Lucas’ as being very detrimental to the charities that were supported.
4.48 Dressing up on St. Patrick’s Day.
28
They used to have a small parade going on passing Lewis’ and people would stand and watch….It started about 5 years ago….getting bigger and better….
1.15 Working alongside black and Asian colleagues. They were in the same situation as what the Irish had… Elaborates.
3.44 Lots of your people were genuine and spoke to us and said, “you lot have made it easy for us now that you’ve come in…that was the black people”….
29
Connection between the Irish and black people at work.
30
31
Thinks her daughter would like to live in Ireland. Son’s support of Irish Rugby.
32
Returns to Ireland for holidays and visiting family.
2.14 Retirement activities.
33
Our houses were ready for demolition off the Birchfield Road…we were sent to look at houses which were terrible….In Kingstanding they were remodernising….that was about 1972….We kept getting in touch with the council “when will our house be ready?”….
1.57 There are certain roads in the district that can be troublesome, or were troublesome in the past, but the younger people who were troublesome are all parents themselves now….That’s what gets me annoyed when I see all this broken glass, rubbish, chip papers, everything like that…It’s terrible what we have to walk through…. Contrasts with her own childhood environment.
34
Revulsion at spitting and dog excrement.
49” Around by the shops the council have put bins for dogs’ mess….and the young people have even abused that, pulled down the bins….they are just out to wreck everything….
1.33 Become closer to people in Birmingham over the years. Wouldn’t consider living in London.
2.27 Attends a club in Selly Oak on Friday evenings which has an Irish Committee.
ENDS. |