Riding bikes in the Derry countryside, family loss and passion for dance

My mother came from a big family who were very interested in Irish culture and organised carnivals and dances and things. Daddy came from a musical family as well, his sister played the piano and daddy liked to dance and sing. We didn’t have electricity but we had the wireless and mammy and daddy would sing; Daddy played the mouth organ a bit too. We had a piano in the kitchen that sometimes appeared to magically play on its own until I discovered it was the twinkly toed mice playing the keys from the back!
When we got bigger, we were taken to dance classes and I really took to that, sure I’m still dancing now! I won a N.I Miss Céili Competition in 1969 culture, language and dance. That was the first year it was held and it turned out to be the one and only as the troubles started and that was that. So, my claim to fame is that I am the one and only Miss Céili. I remember falling one Sunday evening and cutting my knee and crying really sore. Daddy said, ‘Mary it’s not really as bad as that’ and I cried ‘but I might not get to dancing class on Wednesday!’

I’m glad to still be fit to dance. I feel very fortunate that I can still teach children, so I still have children in my life, and I can teach céilí dancing in some of the schools as well. I also teach an older group of people who are over 60. I’ve always wanted to dance so that’s been a great joy. I’ve got my brother Joe who still dances as well and we meet up and dance together. I used to drive my sisters mad because I wanted to listen to Irish dance music but they wanted to listen to modern dance music and they called me square! I remember on a Saturday night, Céilí House was on the radio and it was a joy to listen to. Myself and Joe still laugh about it because that was bath night and we were allowed to take off our vests and dance. I remember wanting long hair so I took mammy’s scarf and wrapped it around my head with clips in it to dance around the floor.

Sometimes it didn’t feel lucky having all those brothers and sisters but I always had someone to play with. We all had bikes and there was a woman who lived beside us, Maggie McGregor, who was very good to us. She would take us out on our bikes and we could see the whole countryside. She would have been delivering the religious magazines, and sometimes the odd kitten, so she would go round to all the houses and we would go with her. Maggie wouldn’t have had an indoor toilet either so that was a novelty to me, to go to the toilet outside.

I have A Level Irish and I’ve been to the Gaeltacht a few times but it wasn’t until I was in the Gaeltacht the second time that I really appreciated the language. I left my teaching job 20 years ago and the first thing I decided to do was go into the Cultúrlann to Anne Doherty and say ‘Anne, I want to come to your class’. That was great but after Anne died, I didn’t go back. I just practiced then and now I use what I have. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Anne was a big loss.

My grandfather died when daddy was six months old with the Spanish Flu in 1916. Granny ran the shop, then, with three children. Auntie Nan and daddy were sent to their granny in Bellaghy to be reared and then, later, Nan ran the shop. She wasn’t able for it in her last year but it was her lifeline. It was one of those shops where you opened the kitchen door of your house to the shop and had a counter that lifted up. It was ancient. She used to ask someone to come in to help in the shop on a Sunday to sell the papers. She had six papers that she sold and the same people had been buying for about 60 years. She didn’t want to let them down, and I would say they probably didn’t want to let her down either! Nan was my godmother and when she was dying, I had taken ill and couldn’t get to the hospital to see her. She was expected to die for a week and, eventually, I had to pull myself together and go to the hospital. She died when I got there. I believe she was waiting on me.

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