Older Than Ireland: Part 2 of my interview with Jack

 

Jack was older than the nation of Ireland when I interviewed him; he grew up without electricity or cars, had lived through the Irish Civil War and World War II, and through the transformation of Ireland in the last few decades. This is the second in a series of interviews with Jack done in 2012, in which he talks about his family’s experiences during the Irish Civil War. 

This is part of my project to gather the memories of people who grew up in a leaner time, and find out what values and habits sustained them through adversity. Several decades ago, most Irish lived with firelight and travelled by horse, effectively living in a pre-fossil-fuel era. Most older Irish remember how to live without the things we take for granted.