Neil and Breda Somers

Breda Somers grew up in a house situated opposite the workhouse in Callan. She remembers as a child playing in the empty building. She told me that the Sisters of Mercy had a hospital there at one time and that a local woman, Bridget Ronan, operated a knitwear factory called St Bridget’s in the building, which gave employment to many local women. This continued up to the 1950s, when the premises was sold. Her husband Neil speaks about his time running a public house in the town. The recording includes a story about the pauper’s grave and Breda displayed a famine pot which has survived from the old workhouse building.