Alice Daly (née Clarke) (b. 1903) (part 2)

Alice Daly was born in Skibbereen in West Cork and in this recording she remembers her brother William Clarke, who enlisted with the British Army and fought and died in World War One. He enlisted at age 17, having given his age as 18. This tragedy was to forecast another for the family as Alice’s father, Royal Irish Constabulary Constable Alexander Clarke was shot dead in Skibbereen on the day of the signing of the Truce on July 11 1921. Alice has clear memories of joining her father as he walked the miles from the Skibbereen barracks to the barracks at Schull, before the latter was shut down. In her early adult life, before her marriage to Denis Daly of Bansha, she would sometimes make the trip back to Skibbereen to visit friends but has always held the place, and her memories of it, in the darker recesses of her mind.