MICHAEL PARKINSON, AGE 81, SLEVOIR, TERRYGLASS (Part 1)

I spoke to Michael Parkinson, better known as ‘Mikey’, about his early schooldays, and the memories he had of his teacher and of walking through the fields to get to school each day. He told me that his grandfather had married locally and was an agent for Captain Firman from Macloone, who was an absentee landlord. His own father was a steward for the Hickie estate. Mikey goes on to describe the working conditions and the workforce there and he spoke about the previous occupants of Slevoir – the Synge and Maunsell families. Another part of the interview focused on his own grandmother, and how he would sit and listen to many of her stories about the Famine, the evictions and the land agitation.