BRIDGET BRACKEN (née SMYTH), ATHBOY, BORN 1919

Bridget Smyth grew up in a clay-walled, thatched cottage in Bohermeen on the lower slope of Faughan Hill. She has many vivid memories of her youth, which include dancing and the great efforts made to get to dances, and the entertainment and bonfires on Faughan Hill to celebrate the Fianna Fáil election victory in 1932. She recalls the division of the Allenstown estate by the Land Commission, the Economic War of the 1930s, and De Valera being credited with taking the rust from the frying pans of Ireland with the free Government meat distributed at that time. In 1938 she gained employment at Templeton Carpets (later Navan Carpets), where she worked with eight employees and she remembers Seán Lemass officially opening the factory in 1938. She was trained by Scottish women who came to Navan for that purpose.