Mary Catherine Scully

Red 4 Mary Catherine Scully

Nana's mother Jude Meany died in 1947 at the age of 75 years. She worked hard during her life to keep her children fed. She did every kind of work, from cutting seed potatoes, sowing and picking potatoes and corn, to thinning and weeding turnips and mangels. She left for work at six o'clock in the morning, huddled in her black shawl. She earned Two shillings a day. The women gathered at the parade and the farmers collected them in their horses and carts.

A load of kids from the street came to where I was, shouting, 'Your mammy's dead! Your mammy's dead!'. I could not believe what I was hearing. I shouted back at them. 'She is not, she's gone to the hospital to have a baby'. I got down fromt he gate on which I'd been swinging happily a few moments before. I ran screaming and crying into the house, and told aunt Sarah what I had just heard. Sarah checked with a neighbour and Mammy was indeed dead.