PADDY O’DONNELL, BORN 1933 and TERESA O’DONNELL, BORN 1940, DERRIES

Paddy and Teresa O’Donnell were recorded at their home in Derries. Paddy grew up on a farm at Drimalough, five miles away. He discusses sheep farming and the general way of life in his young days there. Teresa O’Donnell discusses her own family, the Boyles, and she explains that the home in which she and Paddy live is the original Boyle family home where her grandmother was born. She recalls her mother, Mary Agnes Boyle, who was a renowned dressmaker and who passed the skill on to her daughters. Teresa’s father died when she was two-and-a- half years old so her mother had to work very hard to make ends meet and to rear Teresa and her sister. Paddy remembers joining Bord na Mona where he worked for 29 years and he later worked with the Turf Co-op for twelve years. He has many anecdotes about the facility and the workers there. Thirty-three years ago, Paddy and Teresa became involved with the Tourist Board and they opened a guesthouse which they still run. Teresa discusses the type of person who would arrive seeking accommodation in the early days.