Bless 'Em All: Lanes of Cork

by EilisDeBarra (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $54.72

  This volume outlines the poverty, hunger and unemployment that dogged the people of working-class Cork. The men and women in the lanes were prepared to turn their hand to anything to make a few shillings. In spite of sometimes overwhelming poverty, parents made every effort to ensure that their children got the best food they could afford. Both grandmothers of Eilis de Barra were natives of Cork. In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war, she and her family moved into a house in Gunpowder Lane, paying rent of four shillings a week. The de Barra family quickly got to know everybody in Gunpowder Lane and became aware of the wonderful community spirit that existed amongst the families that lived there. In this book, Eilis de Barra recalls Coburn's Lane, Fuller's Lane, Brandy Lane, known today as Saint Finbar's Road, and the many other lanes, whose names never fail to awaken an intense feeling of nostalgia in the many fine people who spent their young days in them and grew up to live in better conditions.