Irish Street birthday

I've been told you are a native of Irish Street, is that right?

That's right, yeah.

So, were you born into the estate?

All my family, with the exception of my oldest brother, were born here - no my oldest brother was born here too - well in Altnagelvin, that is. But we are all brought up here.

So you are all natives of the park. You must be among the first to move into the estate, because it must be what, 60 years old this year?

Actually, some parts of it are just over 60 years. The bigger houses are just over - nearly 62 years old, but it took a few years for the whole scheme to be finished. My mother and father were from Erne Gardens originally. The last houses were finished in 1952; Dennett Gardens would be the last of the houses. The first ones finished were Mourne Drive in 1948. They built the park in sections.

These parks were very community-focused back in those days, weren't they?

And they still are. There is a waiting list to get into Irish Street: I'm not sure, but I think it is three years.

Really?

And even then you might not be offered a house in Irish Street. It is a place where people want to live because it's the people. A lot of people who lived here and then got married and moved out are now trying to get back in again.

Really?

Aye.

Well, when you were younger who were the characters that you ran around with as a child that you remember?

(laughs)

Go on, who did you skin your knees with?

Where do you start. Quite a few of them have passed away...(thinks): Bomber Harpur.

Bomber Harpur?

Aye, he used to be a good footballer but he died in an accident about 15 years ago, and another that was buried just recently was Kenny Gibson. He was a great character.

Oh? What was he famous for?

You name it! He really was a character. He would have run across the street, even if it was just a lorry coming, he would have run across the street just to say 'Hello, how'ya doing?' Y'know? But you always walked away smiling from him.

He had a great sense of humour?

Yeah, a fantastic sense of humour...who else...there were so many. There were a lot of older characters like 'Flukie McDermott.

Who?

Flukie McDermott.

Why was he called Flukie?

Sorry, I kinda thought the name spoke for itself! I think he done a bit of gambling at one time. Now, he would have been an older man. He was just one of the names I would have known and then there was Black's forest across the road.

Was that somewhere you would have gone to prog apples, or something, when you were young?

No, no, it was all pine trees. It was a man called Black that owned the farm that was adjacent to that and whenever we were collecting for bonfires and that he would have lent us a big railway trolley thing for us to put wood on to bring it in for the bonfires.

What do you remember of the bonfires? Did you build them in the middle of the estate here?

They have always been build more or less in the same place. Whenever I was younger I think there was about six or seven bonfires. There used to be one nearly in every street.

Was there not one huge communal bonfire?

In later years there would have been, but up 'til I was nine or 10 there was one in nearly every street - over at the back of Mourne Drive there would have been one behind the houses in Erne Gardens, there would have been one up at East Avenue...so there was one onto nearly every street, but there is only one now.

Right.

In recent times it has turned into a dumping ground and actually this year we have got on board with the City Council and the young people of the area and we have recently held a talk on the significance of bonfires in our culture, so we are making it a community thing and a family thing so the bonfire will be held earlier in the day.

So you are trying to turn the bonfire into part of the community event.

Yeah. It was at one stage getting that more and more people didn't want the bonfire than those who wanted it. I say that because just because of the rubbish and the tip that it turned into for a couple of months on end before it, and it brought the tone of the area down. Now we are planning to get the wood and stuff delivered a couple of days before it, building the bonfire and then taking it away.

So you are monitoring and turning it into an event really...

It's controlling it properly.

Do you think the community spirit is strong here?

The community spirit has always been strong here, although the Troubles were always there in the background, but the community spirit was great here. For a few years though in the 1980s the community spirit here was dropping and dropping, but since June of last year since the new management committee came into the centre here last year, it has just taken off again. The centre is never closed, it is open nearly every night of the week now, and it is definitely moving in the right direction.

What are the plans for the next five to 10 years?

We are actually working on that at the moment. The green area that's in the estate here and one of the things we are trying to do working with the City Council, although we are just in the early teething stages at the moment, is a re-imaging project, where we are going to remove the murals, the paramilitary murals, off the walls and replace it with something that the community want. We are also working towards the refurbishment of the park. That play area has been there since I was a child and it has never been refurbished. I think the poles were only three inches or so thick when I was little and now they are about six inches thick. All they ever did was paint them. So, that is one of the areas they would like done - they would like the park upgraded and at the moment we are getting new waterpipes put in across the estate and that has been a big upheaval all over Christmas. The workmen have been very good because they have agreed not to block streets off and have kept people informed, and where people are being turned off they are coming with bottled water for them, so that's good. We negotiated that with them before they started and they have stuck to that.

What are you planning for the 60th anniversary for the park that people can look forward to?

We have a list the length of your arm, but a lot of it is subject to funding. We have got an application in for funding for a book and we have engaged with Trevor Temple to try and delve into the history. We did a bit for the 50th anniversary, and this time we want to make sure that it is bigger and better.

Will you be looking for people's memories and stuff like that?

We are going down that road, yeah. We hope to get people who used to live in the area back to the Centre for focus groups and stuff like that.

OK. Any big party nights? (laughs) OK, I see you reaching for a list...

Here is a list of things I have put in for funding. Hopefully the book will be launched in September.

I see you have put in for a range of things like historical lectures, day trips and tea dances, and a football tournament as well as pamper days...that's quite a diverse list.

Yeah. We will be taking the older people in the estate out too and quite a few of the planned bus runs will be aimed at the older members of the community and about getting them out for the day. We are also repeating the football tournament which we ran last year and which was a great success. There was over 250 playing in it and we are hoping for more this year. And we will also be having a fun day as part of the festival.

Hopefully everything will come together for you.

I hope so.