ĂŰŃż´«Ă˝

This story is taken from an interview with Fr Seamus Clenaghan, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
====

[Lisburn was never bombed?]
Just Belfast. The Germans came over, dropped their bombs, and they disappeared before they knew what had happened. It was only when they saw the fires that they realised the Germans had been over. The planes had already gone back again. Then after that, I think, after what happened to Belfast, Lisburn was also got a warning to that, they were in the vicinity.

And at home we had a military camp. They took over one of our fields, and in the corner of the field they had their camp there for a dozen or 15 men, and they had one of those searchlight batteries set up in the middle of the field so that any warning of German planes, they could have these searching the skies. And they kept their lorry, drove it up in our yard, and one of the men lived in our yard. We would see quite a bit of them from time to time. They were living there for years, having night practice and one thing and another. They used to come in to us from time to time, if there was nothing on, and have a cup of tea. Sit by the fire. They were only living in huts, and they were pretty tired — especially in the winter time.
They were lovely fellow, too. Some of them kept contact with us, after it was all over.

[yanks]
We didn’t see any of them. They were around, all right, but they weren’t based anywhere in our vicinity. We had, beside us there were 2 air bases. 1 is now a prison — that’s Magaberry. The other is a landing strip, beside that there was a place for the assembling of planes. They were built in Belfast at Shorts, the parts were brought out there, assembled and then they were flown away from there. Of course they were tested first of all, and they were flown off to wherever. There was the Maze, which was the prison, up until a few years ago, this was another landing strip that they had. We saw, those were built in Lisburn in beginning of the war. To build them took a lot of employment. A lot of men worked on them. And they got materials from the White Mountain up past us, down … but this was a lot of activity. And I suppose this was why they had the searchlight battery there, because the roads were full and might be attacked by the Germans.
We didn’t seem to have an awful lot of Americans, except the Belfast ones being moved from one place to another. There was an American base in Aghillee, and they used to come up to a place called Soldierstown — you probably haven’t heard of it. Soldierstown is a bout a couple of miles out of Aghillee. It was a small pub and a shop that had everything, and that was owned by relations of mine. And they used to come up there in the evening time, be a bit drunken … and one of my relatives was killed by one. He found there was some difficulty around the pub, and he went down to Aghillee to get the Police to come remove them so he could close the pub. In those days they closed at 10 o’clock, something like that. And then, coming back from Aghillee, they attacked him and they killed him on the spot. I don’t know what exactly happened, but it’s one of the tragedies of the time.

We didn’t feel a great deal, we didn’t suffer in the way that so many others, being out in the country. Having our own farm, we produced our own milk and everything else that goes with the farm. So we didn’t feel it in the way in which so many others did. I suppose when you felt the pinch, petrol was strictly limited. You’d have got maybe 4 gallons a month, something like that. That was simply to take you into town, to do your shopping once a week or whatever. You had to apply, something like that. But apart from that, nobody went anywhere, except if you went by bus or train. And we had access, easy access to trains compared to what we have today. That line has been closed.
But apart from that, we really didn’t feel the pinch. Everything was rationed in those days. Clothes was rationed. All the groceries were rationed. And foodstuffs — everything! But as I say, being out in the country, you could get by. More independent than people in the city, where it was strictly that and no more, whatever they got. So we had to be very careful. And of course, of you were getting married in those days you didn’t go in for a lot of white turnout, things like that. I had 2 sisters married, I think all 3 of my sisters were married during the war. And they just got on the clothes they’d be wearing the next day and the day after. There was no question of going to the established turnout, you didn’t have the coupons! If you wanted a handkerchief you needed a coupon for it. And they were strictly limited too.

[Were the Lisburn planes the 4-engine Shorts Stirlings?]
Yes. I don’t know if they were Stirlings, but they were big 4-engine things. I got used to seeing them just sitting there on the runway. We were up a little bit behind them,
And I was only a boy, I’d do on my bike there to have a look at these planes sitting there.

[no photos?]
No, indeed. Never had cameras in thiose days. But it was rather intimidating.

They were 4-engine bombers, and some of them had rudders on either side of the tails, whatever they were. They had 2 rudders rather than the 1 in the middle. I used to know what they were — and Spitfires and Hurricanes.

[German POWs]
no, I wouldn’t have known about them.

[home guard]
They weren’t called ĂŰŃż´«Ă˝ Guard, were they? Local Defence Volunteers. They were all just boys from around home. They might have been maybe in the Boys’ Brigade or something like that, and when they were looking for young fellows to serve, these boys would have volunteered, got into a uniform and they’d be out a couple of nights a week or so on. Standing there at the crossroads and stopping cars and asking “where you were going, where you’d come from?” these were the questions.
I didn’t really [get stopped by them], but of course around home you’d have known the folks that were there. So a lot of folks were at home. I’d be home on Holiday, but in those days you’re at home anywhere. You went on foot or on bike, it was the only transport you had. From time to time you might have got the bus or the train. We didn’t travel too far by car — if you had 4 gallons to do you for a month you were very careful. You needed that to go to church on a sunday, and during the week for groceries and the like. That was it.

[As farmers, did you get a bonus ration of petrol?]
Indeed we did. This was how we got it. It was the farmers that got it. A little bit to go to the sales, if you had cattle to sell or whatever. And we put in for our share, and got it. 4 gallons — you might have got 5 gallons. But you were very careful. And of course, the cars in those days — you wouldn’t have got the mileage out of them that you would today. And they travelled much slower than they do today. If you did 35mph you were travelling fast! You certainly wouldn’t have got above 40, that was really speedy!

[ARP in Lisburn?]
Oh yes indeed. They had training in what to do if something did happen. How to cope with the people.

[Someone told me it was just the RUC and the Specials out patrolling]
yes, I suppose there were Air Raid Wardens out in the country. There’d have been — B-Specials is what they were. They were just young fellows from around the country. Patrolling. What they were looking for was German spies in the country. It’s what they were after. If anybody came along they’d ask them who they were and where they came from. But there was no Germans ever to my knowledge.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.