The General Hospital

Julia Sullivan, known as Shelia, came to Leicester on Sept 13, 1955. She already had two sisters here: one was working as a nanny for an English family and the other, Eileen, was married to an Englishman, Eamon Snee.

Julia was one of eight children and the youngest of six girls. She was educated at the Convent school back home in West Kerry and longed to pursue her interest in horses. However, her father felt it was not a career befitting a convent educated girl and expected her to get something better.

When she first came to Leicester she lived with her married sister on Duxbury Rd, off Uppingham Rd and later moved into nurses’ accommodation at The General Hospital on the outskirts of the city near Evington. 

The General Hospital, Gwendolen Rd.

Coming from the country at home she loved living on the outskirts of town, as it was then, and hearing the animals and horses in the morning. The new Goodwood Estate had been built but not yet around the General Hospital where you could still see working farms.

Shelia earned £7/17/6d a month and the highlight of the month  was going to Brucciani’s on Horsefair St. for coffee and cherry cake. She could also buy a new skirt in M+S for 29/11d and a blouse for £1!

She loved to go dancing at the “Irish venues”: Sacred Heart, The Co-op Belgrave Rd, The Trade Hall  St. James’ St., St. Peter’s parish hall on King Richard’s Rd and the Corn Exchange (which she remembered didn’t have a bar). And of course there was always De Montfort Hall on St. Patrick’s night. She and the other nurses would search the drawers for odd 3d. bits at home to give them the money to get in to the dances. 

Sheila belonged to the Pioneer Association, a Catholic temperance group, and she had taken a pledge not to drink. She kept this till she was 23 when at a nurse’s party she held onto the same drink all night so that the others wouldn’t keep on at her!.

The nurses had an English lady, May, who looked after them in the nurses' home and lived on St. Saviours Rd. She treated them all well and the girls would bring her back presents from Ireland when they went home. Sheila remembers May having a particular present from Ireland with Irish writing on it that said…Made in Japan!

One year there was a polio epidemic back home in the National schools and Shelia’s mother told her not to go home for the annual holiday in September. Sheila was given permission to take her holiday ay Christmas which was unheard of. She travelled back with another nurse, Mona Carey from County Clare, and turned up at Holyhead without a ticket and had to wait two days with no food to get a ferry home. When she arrived in Dublin she was due to stay with another nurse, Marie before carrying on home to Kerry the next day. This arrangement fell through and Marie arranged for Sheila to stay with a blind friend. Sheila spent a long night worrying if the friend would be able to wake her up on time in the morning….. which of course she did!

Sheila says that most people at home in West Kerry were self sufficient and lived a much better life that the city people: city life in Leicester was new to her and she had never had chips or seen a Brussel sprout!

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to:
The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.

Dore Rd

Joe Cusack, from Westport, was actually heading towards Birmingham on the train but didn’t have enough money so got off at Leicester.

He first lived in a flat in B+B in Saxby St because he had seen the vacancy sign in the window. He then moved to Mere Rd.

He met his wife, Lily, one night at The Corn Exchange dance and she was living on Mere Rd with Elisabeth Grimes from Castlebar.

He saw an advert for a job labouring in the engineering on Abbey Lane. He later went to City of Leicester to take his exams to be a Capstan’s Inspector. At home he had worked in the catering trade.

They married and in 1958 bought a house at 8 Dore Rd. for £1,600. They later moved up to Wigston Magna and Jo moved to work for Northbridge Engineering, Vicking Rd.

In the 1949/50 Jo was called up but had gone down to Cornwall to avoid going to Korea. The police found him in Penzance but he didn’t pass the medical. He was given an X-ray in a mobile van and it showed a shadow on his lung but a check later in Leicester proved this to be an error.

His brother, Jim, had a second hand/bargain shop on Charnwood St. and a music shop, Power Music, on Green lane Rd.

Another brother, Padraig, had been in the RAF, Palestine police, and he came to Leicester afterwards.

Jo only went home for funerals or back to stay with Lily’s family

Jo and Lily have 3 sons, Tony, Jimmy and Paul. They went to Sacred Heart, St. John Fisher and Corpus Christi. 

 

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to:
The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.

Gotham St

George Corry came to Leicester in 1958 where his cousin Michael Howard was working as a ward orderly. Michael had told George that there was work in Leicester and that the money was good.

Michael worked at The Hilcrest, Sparkenhoe St. and spoke to the ward sister/assistant matron who was from Belfast about George needing a job and she told him to come up to see her. He went up on the Monday and started work the next day earning 15/- a week. Most of the staff, nurses and ward orderlies where from either Ireland or the West Indies.

George first lived in was a room in a terraced house in Gopsall St but only stayed a couple of weeks. He then had a room around the corner in 22 Gotham St which cost him 7/6d a week. He got all his food at work and worked 7-5. Some shifts included a break between 2 and 4 which meant you had to then work till 8.

Gotham St.

He lived in Gotham St for a couple of years and shared a room.

A friend of his lived in Tichbourne St, but he and his girlfriend, were killed by a faulty gas pipe in the house.

A friend in Gotham St asked George if he’d like to move over to another place and so he moved to Tennyson St. Here he had a room on the top floor of a 3 storey building. He did his own cooking using a cooker on the landing shared with a lady who had the other room.

Gotham St.

George remembers going to 7.00 mass at Holy Cross on a Sunday and being late for work. However, the Matron was Catholic too and he’d have been in more trouble with her if he hadn’t gone!

He remembers dances at The Corn Exchange, Sacred Heart, the Palais de Dance. and Joe Willis running dances at The Trade Hall.

George married Sorca Gregan and they  moved to Eastleigh Rd then Latimer Rd.

He worked at Wolsey Hosiery.

George’s two children Gerard and Sara went to Christ the King and later English Martyr’s school.



If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to: 

The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester or join The Irish in Leicester group on Facebook.

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.