Part of the Union

George, are you a native of the City?

Yes, we were born here.

In Irish Street?

Aye.

Have you always lived here?

We have always lived here, aye. We were the first ones up here.

In Irish Street?

Yes. There's nobody really left now. My mother, Betty McKnight, might be the last.

So the McKnights were one of the first families into this park?

Aye. These houses must be 55 going on 60 years old.

So that makes you one of the longest existing families in Irish Street...

I think we are the longest. We are certainly one of the longest here.

Well, when you were growing up here as a young lad you must have known some of the characters that lived here.

This was the country. There was nothing out there at all (indicates outside the house).

You are close to the top of the park so was what we see here all green fields.

It was, and there was a knacker's yard there (points) where you used to get rid of the animals.

Horses?

All the ould dead cows and all that there. We used to go up and play there and kill all the rats.

Killing rats..?

Aye (laughs).

Forgive me, but it's not the kind of pastime I would associate with weans. How did you kill them?

We ahh...sling shots and that. You just ran about at the weekend and that's what you done.

Well...did you have a competition between the boys to see how many you could kill?

No, we just headed out on a Saturday or Sunday morning and headed through the fields and that's where we ended up. These fields down the back, there was no Knockdara or nothing. At Knockdara there used to be a police station, and they had an orchard. So we used to go down to what was called the boat because there was a wall round it in the shape of a boat. We used to go down and rob the orchard, proggin' apples, and the police chasing us.

Could you eat them?

Oh aye, they were good apples and were inside the garden wall at the police station. But they didn't collect them.

But they still chased you?

Aye. Then there was a forest behind that with a whole lot of bushes and that, and that's where we used to play. That was at Knockdara. That area used to be a forest, and you had the convent there; the Nunnery and the Good Shepherd's Laundry.

You had quite an adventure playground behind you. When did it all start getting very built up.?

I can't quite remember. Possibly in the 1970s, because you used to have all the pitches and GAA grounds up where Knockwellan is. I remember there was Gaelic pitches and football pitches in there.

So you remember that area as a green field?

Aye. And the Americans were there too, of course. The American base and their communication centre. In there in a field there was a mass of antennas and aerials.

Was that where the flat area is on the left?

Aye just where they have that home. And then, where Matalan and that is there now, that was a base...it was the United States Navy base.

Right.

We used to play down the back fields down the other side of Irish Street, 'cos that was the country and there was a wee river that used to run down there and we used to play down there and we used to get chewing gum and that off the Americans.

I was just about to ask you if you used to purloin things off them.

Yeah, we used to get chewing gum and that off the sailors, the guards that were on patrol.

I know they are celebrating an anniversary in the park this year.

Aye they're making me feel very young!

It must be an interesting thing to look back on. You went thought school to what age.?

I went until I was 15 and then I joined the Army and I went into the Junior Leaders Military School for two years.

What did you learn there?

You went to school three days a week and then you did military type schooling, but you also did marching and military stuff like map reading and all that sort of stuff.

I know you went on to become a psychiatric nursing auxiliary, was that after you came out of the Army?

Ehm, no. I did a few jobs before that. I roadied with a few bands in London for a while.

Who all did you roadie with?

I roadied with Eric Bell for a while. You worked with them and then you were sent out to work on any dates they were sent on. Marianne Faithfull. Eric Bell played with Thin Lizzy.

Were you assigned to one person within the band?

No. If there was different bands or if there was a gig on then you were sent to whoever. Whatever company you worked for, that did the rota. Then I worked up on the oil fields in Scotland for a while.

Now that I wouldn't like.

No. it was cold.

Were you land-based or sea-based?

On land on a big refinery in Peterhead.

Cold and dark...

Freezing. Then after that I came back to Derry and my mate was working in Gransha and he said there was jobs going so I applied for a job and I was there for 33 years.

I'm sure you have had some great gas while you were there, although I'd imagine it was a lot of hard work as well.

In them days psychiatric nursing was very basic. The advances in psychiatric care now, compared to when I started are leaps and bounds better.

You were saying that you still go in on odd days, do you still have to do training and things like that?

Training is ongoing. Psychiatric care is about listening and talking and watching how people are getting on.

I'm sure you have encountered a lot of characters over the years.

A lot. But then Derry is full of characters!

I suppose - still is!

Yeah. Of course the drugs weren't as good then, so you had a lot of people you wouldn't see today in terms of characters because it is suppressed by drugs. You don't get that type of character any more.

In addition to all of that you were involved in union work...

Yeah. I was the branch secretary of UNISON for 20 years. It was COHSE then.

That must have been a nightmare to administrate.

Yeah. It was hard work.

You must have had a lot of policy changes to cope with.

The Health Service is evolving all the time so there is change all the time, so you have to 'be up there' with what's going on.

Can you remember anything that you did that you were very proud of?

I remember when the new Trust took over - this was when I was working with Foyle Trust - that a quarter of the work force was temporary. I went to the AGM and the chairman asked was there any questions, and I put my hand up and I said to him 'Mr Chairman do you realise a quarter of your workforce is temporary. That means one in four of your workforce cannot get a mortgage, cannot get a loan - you can't get one if you are on a temporary contract.' I said: 'Do you think that's right?" Of course he did not know about this and he looked over at the personnel people and from that meeting they were able to slot in 200 staff onto permanent contracts where they had vacancies. So people didn't have to go for an interview if they were over a certain period employed. So the levels of temporary staff went down from about 25 per cent to 10 per cent. You will always have temporary staff, but not at the levels the Trust was operating at. So fair play to the chairman at that time for taking that on board and following it through.