A 1950s Irish Childhood: From Catapults to Communion Medals

By Ruth Illingworth

To the young people of today, the 1950s seem like another age. But for those born around then, this era of childhood feels like yesterday. 1950s Ireland was the age of De Valera and John Charles McQuaid. It was the age before television, before Vatican II, and before home central heating. It was a time when motor cars and public telephones had wind-up handles, when boys wore short trousers and girls wore ribbons, when nuns wore white bonnets and priests wore black hats in church. This delightful collection of nostalgic photographs and memories will appeal to all who grew up in 1950s Ireland and will jog memories about all aspects of life as it was.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press Ireland
• Release date: Dec 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9780750986731

Book preview

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1

Infancy

For many children in Ireland in the 1950s, life began in the home. While increasing numbers of babies were born in hospital, home births were still very common. Mothers gave birth with the assistance of district nurses or midwives. In some areas, where electric light did not yet exist, babies entered the world with tilly lamps or even candles providing light. Fathers were rarely present at the births of their children, because it was considered unseemly for them to be there. They waited in another room of the house, or, if the birth was in hospital, at