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On14 May 2022, May Mc Donald, who is from Ballyholland, near Newry, turned 100. Prior to her birthday she sat down with her granddaughter, Noelle Murtagh, a Museum Assistant at Newry and Mourne Museum, and recorded an oral history interview for the Museum, speaking about her life, family and all that she had seen happen in the area over the last century.
May and her twin sister Margret were born in 1922, the 9th and 10th children of James and Annie Madden on Billys Road, Ballyholland in 1922. Her siblings were Charlie, Rose, Dan, Bridie, Lily, Pat, John, Alice, her twin Maggie and Jim.
She grew up on her parents’ farm and has many memories of working there. She recalls “picking potatoes in the fields and lifting the corn and the hay. My father mowed with a scythe. We used a horse and plough. We weren’t allowed to go near the horse.” Other memories include milking the cows and churning their own butter. May also helped on their neighbour’s farms. When asked if it was hard work May laughed, saying “Well, you had to it for the house. You just did what you had to do.”
The family also slaughtered their own pigs which they scalded in a large cauldron and hung for two or three days before being sent to Newry to be butchered and sold. May and her family would shop at Newry market but not every day as it was a long walk into the town. They would buy their bread from the Mc Cann’s and Willis’ bread vans which went around the area.
The farm had no electricity or plumbed water. The house was lit at night with tilly lamps, with oil bought in the shop. Water would have to be carried up to the house from the well.
May attended Ballyholland Primary school along with her siblings, walking to and from school every day. She was taught by Master Mc Guigan, Mrs McShane and Miss Callagan. At the time there were about 80 pupils enrolled in the school. May recalls that “Some days there would be more pupils than others, according to what work they were doing. If they were farmers, they would be kept at home to help their fathers and mothers.” She remembers a very different era where the teachers would “slap your hand if you didn’t know it [i.e. lessons]”.
After school May moved on to Newry Tech and then attended agricultural college in Fermanagh with her twin sister, Margaret. Whilst there she studied cooking and farming.
In her late teens and twenties, May enjoyed attending dances in the area. Along with her sisters, brothers and neighbours they would walk to dances in Mayobridge, Burren, Saval and Newry. The dances were held in halls where everyone danced to accordion music. May’s favourite dance was the Quickstep. Men would have to ask women to dance. However, there was also Ladies’ Choice in which the women got to ask the men to dance. Often a suiter would offer to walk a lady home asking, “have we far to go?” They would then have had a long walk back to their home!
In her twenties May worked in Foley’s Bakery Shop on Monaghan Street, Newry. The shop sold bread and cakes and May recalls that they were delivered to the shop on a bicycle that came along Merchant’s Quay from the bakery on Dominic Street. May walked the two miles to and from work every day before saving up and buying herself a bicycle.
In 1939, with the out-break of war May recalls being issued with a gas mask and thankfully never having to use it. She recalls the whole family having ration books, but as they lived on a farm, there weren’t many shortages. However, she did miss sugar. She often attended dances in Newry Town Hall with the American GIs. May remembers being warned to stay away from the American soldiers and that “The men from round about were very jealous of the Yanks, but sure they were lovely dressed”.
In February 1954, May married Paddy Mc Donald in Newry Cathedral. May and Paddy had always known each other as Paddy was also from Ballyholland. He worked as a plasterer in London during the war and after he returned, set up Mc Donald Brothers Building Contractors in Newry with his brother Terry. After their wedding reception in the Park Hotel, Omeath, May and Paddy travelled by ship and train to London for their honeymoon.
When they first married they lived on Temple Hill in Newry and then moved to Mourne View, the cottages in Ballyholland. Finally, Paddy built a house for the family on the Ballyholland Road in the 1960s in which May still lives.
They had six children, Mary, Valerie, Monica, Martina, Josephine and Desmond. May chose to have her children in Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry. She recalls that “Some people had them at home, but I preferred Newry and the hospital because if something went wrong you were there”. Having had five girls in a row people would comment “Oh another wee girl” but May said “Oh I was content. I was happy.” May maintains that it wasn’t difficult raising her children, “No sure, one rears the other”. However, hand washing clothes was hard.
May and Paddy like to socialise in Bennet’s in Warrenpoint and visited Gyles Quay beach in county Louth most Sundays in the summer. In the 1980s Paddy had a stroke and May cared for him until he passed away in 1991. In later years May went to Mass daily and attended yoga and art classes in Newry Library.
When asked had there been many changes in Newry in the last century May replied “No, there’s not much, not in my life!”
The Museum is currently offering free tours of the exhibition galleries on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 2.00 pm. These must be booked in advance by calling our Education Officer at 0330 137 4422.
Newry and Mourne Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday 10.00 am – 4.30 pm. Please call 0330 137 4422 or email museum@nmandd.org for further information.
Please visit our website at www.visitmournemountains.co.uk
