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This story is taken from an interview with Mrs Josephine McDermott, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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We were there for that blitz. So the next day, Wednesday, we were off to the country. And then everybody saying to my mummy, “Oh, take my one”. My mummy had over 30 children in the house — evacuees, we called them.
In the country house, they all come down to the country! Portaferry near Portaferry. It was actually in the country. And then the man, the evacuation man, the Govt man came out and says mummy, “You can’t keep all these children all here”. So they took so many of them away, just left mummy with her own family. You know, there was about 5 or 6 of us then like, you know? All the rest of the family were all working up here.

[how long looking after 30 children?]
It wouldn’t have been that long. Maybe a month or something by the time they got around. Oh yes. But you see, mummy rented this house, and this old farm-woman we rented the house off ... I remember my mummy saying “Oh my god” — she’d sent a bag of flour round, a full bag of flour and bucket of buttermilk. I remember that, a bucket of buttermilk and the butter was floating in it. Honestly! I remember that. And my mummy stood a big, big open fire and a griddle. My mummy stood and baked Soda bread, Soda bread, Soda bread for everybody.
And then there was family that came down just after that. And they had been, and I don’t know if you heard, and this is the name they called it. You called it an “Itchy-blitz”. It was the dust from the buildings, and people got this rash. And there was 2 boys in this family, and my mummy actually treated them medically and all. My mummy made ointment out of sulphur and some cream, and she put this on these boys, you know, and washed them. It was the dust and all, you see? You know the buildings? You know the dust and all?
That’s what they called it, “Itchy blitz”, but it was probably … it’s just because it was an itchy thing, you know?

But anyway, after that, what happened? Let’s see. There’s that much happened.

[Govt]
Oh yes, well, you got money. You got money. I couldn’t tell you how much it was. Oh yes, you did. That’s why they took all away from my mummy. My mummy had too many children. You may guess, I was about 9 and my double bed, we all laid that way on it. To get more in it! I think it must be about 7 or 8. Honestly! And I remember I was lying there crying, I went over into my mummy’s bed and all. I remember that, you know? But that’s what happened. So the man came, and took some of them. Some of them went to Magherafelt, they put them into houses outside of Belfast. You know, in different houses.

[we got nothing, we were only a family. We had no extra ones, we were just a family]
I know, but my mummy got her own children. Oh yes, we did. You know?
But then mummy, I think there was 5 of us and then our Kathleen, she was married and she stayed with us and all. But then mummy used to come up once a month on a Tuesday and get … we never really knew what rations was in the country, because we used to get … the country woman used to bring my mummy round butter and the like, you know? And then there was plenty of veg and that, growing in the fields and we were never short. When you’re in the country, like, they grew it themselves. And we lived down there and went to school down there for 4 years nearly before we came back here.

[entertainment]
We played cards in the country at night. We played cards.There was no, we had no TV. We had a radio, we listened to the radio and played cards. But then we were up in those big farm houses, and we went “all those big farmers”, and we helped and all on the farm. Milking the cows and all. There was no machines or nothing then. We milked the cows and all. It was real country life. We went to school there.

My nephew is home from London there, down in the funeral. My niece’s husband had died. And he was talking about when we were in the country, about working for this farmer and all in the field. And one of them paid you and all. And I remember, we worked in a potato field and this big farmer, Mr Crawford, he gave us 2 pounds fifty. 2 pounds 20 shillings a week one. I mean, that was good money then. That was 64 years ago! And that was our Chrissy and Rachael and me. And we worked, and he gave my mummy that for the 3 of us every week. We had that money.

And then Mrs Crawford, the farmer’s wife. Well, there was 2 or 3 of her daughters went to school with us, every night she would make a big pot, a big big pot, maybe as big as that table. One night it would be a big big pot of custard. Everybody would come in with their dish, “Help yourself”, sit at your table. The next night it would be farolla. Next night it could be porridge. She made something different every night. [Farolla] is like a custard, only it’s white. It’s white custard.
[you never hear of it now at all]
well, you can get the, what do you call the one you can get now? It’s not farolla. You put it in corn squares. Cornflour, you know cornflour? It’s white, you know. You can make it up as a custard.
[it’s a wee bit rougher than cornflour, it’s got a bit of wheat in it]
it’s smooth like custard when I remember it.

[taste?]
oh yes, it’s sweet. You put sugar in it, same as custard. Aye, you put sugar in it, you know?
But Mrs Crawford, she made every night her ... and I remember this. When we were working in the fields one day, coming back up to the house or something, and Mrs Crawford, her big farm, and here was this ladder. A big ladder, outside one of the buildings. And there was a big pig on it. Dead, like — it was dead, now. “Oh, my Da’s brought the butcher in. My Da’s brought the butcher in to butcher the pig” — you see?
Well, you see to this day? He did butcher it and made it, we had pork and cabbage one day for our dinner, and I’ve never tasted bacon like it ever in my … that as well. Pork, I remember, because you used to come back and have your dinner and all. A big dinner. And you used, in the fields, when the men were working in the fields I used to go up to Mrs Crawford and she used to give you a big bag with tins of tea and lovely wee sandwiches and things. You sat in the field and eat them. You know, it’s a lovely sensation sitting in a field and eating, taking your tea and all. We used to bring it in, what you call it, taking the men’s tea down to the field. You know? And then again, what in our sees big thrash all, everything. Again, it was what you called the mill. It used to come to each farm, and each one got a turn of it. But all the farmers came to the one farm to work on it. A big, big big thing and it come through, and they had to catch it all. But now, it’s all automation now. But that’s what they called it then, the Mill. And it went to each farm house, all the farmers went to the one house to work on it, and time like that. Farmers all got it done.

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