T. L.: Well, do you remember then what the city was like while the first World War was going on, and then there were troubles in Dublin at the same time?

M. T.: Yes, well now my husband lived in Grafton Street, and he can tell you about putting his head out through the window to watch the soldiers down below, because they lived in Grafton Street. They lived… his father was the manager of Lawrence’s toy shop in Grafton Street – a lot of the older people will remember that – and they lived over the shop, which was customary in those days for… a lot of business people lived over their businesses. And my husband remembers putting his head out the window to watch the soldiers down there and getting put in very fast by a soldier to ‘get the so and so out of there’. He often talks about that. But they were in a very awkward position there in Grafton Street because of course a lot of it was destroyed, although not as bad as O’Connell Street, or Sackville Street as we always knew it. It was always Sackville Street.

T. L.: Well you remember the… you remember the city being destroyed at that time.

M. T.: Oh, yes, yes.

T. L.: And the post office and all that.

M. T.: Yes and all that, and then there was all the Troubles too here you know? During the Troubles here and O’Connell street was…

T. L.: Burnt down.

M. T.: Burnt down, both sides of it, and it really was very dreadful.

T. L.: And up around Phibsborough you didn’t have, much contact with that?

M. T.: We… not a lot, but I remember… a policeman being killed right at the corner of our house. There was a lot of sniping, that sort of thing going on, you know, with police and soldiers and that. And I can remember somebody said, ‘Ah sure he was only a policeman’, but my mother was very annoyed about that she said he was a human being the same as anybody else.

T. L.: I know. It must have been a period of conflict for people who weren’t nationalists, who weren’t looking for…

M. T.: Yes, yes. People… who weren’t… involved in any of these things and all they wanted was to get on with their work and live a peaceful, quiet life. ’Twas difficult to work up enthusiasm for it, when you weren’t particularly interested.