May Buckley

May Buckley’s memories reach back to the tragic burning of Cork city during the War of Independence, and she clearly remembers playing in the rubble in Patrick Street. May grew up in Sunday’s Well. Her father served with the British Navy in the First World War on HMS Fox. She remembers her father as a visitor to the house in her early days. Her recall of the Black and Tan campaign is described in a very lively manner. She recalls her time working in a cinema in London, and returning to find a job in O’Flynn’s butcher shop in Oliver Plunkett Street. There was a tradition of masonry in her family, and she explained how the masons wore a symbol of their trade, an embroidered apron depicting a trowel and chisel. Mary has donated a number of items relating to the trade to the Cork Museum. Her grandfather and her uncle both worked on the building of the Cathedral in Cobh. May relates chronologically the events of her life in this wonderful recording.