Bridie Meaney (née Bambrick) (b. 1922)

Bridie Meaney is a Carlow woman who grew up at Bawnree She was the only girl in the family and she had nine brothers. She recalls the hard times during her childhood, and her early days working as a domestic in Paulstown as a young teenager having left primary school. Bridie married James Meaney, a builder, in 1950 and the couple had nine children. She remembers the hungry fifties, when she would thumb a lift to Kilkenny for provisions, and to sell her eggs. Every fortnight she would purchase a stone of sugar and fourteen pounds of butter for her large family. The family owned a small plot of land on which they kept two cows, a pig and bonhams, and the poultry.