The McElroys talk about the rivalry between their street and another street
Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 1st August 2011 by Liam Physick
David and Steve McElroy mention the bitter rivalry between their street and another street: Steve remembers he had no friends on that street, and that the children from the two streets frequently fought each other. David admits he has no idea as to the origin of this animosity
Interviewee: David and Steve McElroy
Interviewee Gender: Male
Date of Interview: 25th March 2011
Interview Transcript
Steve: Our route to school, actually, which used to be quite interesting as well. They used to be a little street called Listen Street – remember it?
David: No. (Jenny laughs)
Steve: (in a mock Welsh accent) Yes, I remember it well!
David: Which . . . ?
Steve: There used to be a, there used to be a little street . . .
David: Is that the one that . . .
Steve: It’s straight opposite Hart Street . . .
David: Hart Street, yeah, that’s it.
Steve: . . . straight opposite Hart Street, and, going to school, sometimes we’d be, like, running the gauntlet (they all laugh), because this was . . . honest to God, keep your secret, (indecipherable due to laughing all round) making a show of us and some of the family (indecipherable) . . . and this street on – honest to God, it was a very, very short street, and if you go, if you go to Chatsworth Street, the distance between Chatsworth Street and the back of St. Anne’s School . . .
David: St. Anne’s School.
Steve: . . . it, it’s no distance at all, and yet, local legend had it that, at that stage there were 100 kids lived on that street, and it certainly felt it, cos there, there were . . .
David: There were a lot of them, certainly.
Steve: . . . there were a lot of, you know, a lot of mean ones, as well, so you’d, you’d always get a good smack when you went down there, wouldn’t you?
David: That’s, yeah, because we, because it was a Catholic school, not, obviously, I wouldn’t say we were in very small, sort of, numbers, but there, there were much bigger non-Catholic schools around and, it did have a bit of a reputation, I don’t really know why, but the, the children in there as being, you know, quite hard, and . . .
Steve: Yeah.
David: . . . you know, if they saw you and didn’t like you, the, you know, it would, you could easily get yourself . . .
Steve: You know, I’ve never had any mates off that street, at all, you know. I did have a lot off Chatty and off, like, Chadwick Street and (indecipherable) Street, but not, but not there.
David: I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m just trying to, I mean, I’m struggling to remember names, now, but I can remember one lad who lived at the bottom end, therefore perhaps wasn’t quite as tainted as the, the ones further up . . .
Steve: Yeah.
David: . . . but, no it was, as I say, it was a strange road, but 100 children, I, I, that does surprise me.
Steve: But, I mean, but that, that’s what it was like, you know, there were always millions of kids around, were they, everywhere?
David: But then, yeah, that wasn’t . . .
Jenny: And they didn’t, did they, did they go to St. Anne’s School or . . . ?
Steve: I, I don’t remember anybody, I was, I was never friends with anybody off that street at all. We, we had friends who, you know, lived on the same street and in Chatsworth Street, but funnily enough, the kids on Uxbridge Street, we were always fighting them, weren’t we? (Jenny laughs)
David: Yeah . . . the origins of which, I would, I can’t remember, but, yes, there were an enmity there, but there, again there didn’t seem to be as many children of our age in, in that street . . .
Steve: Out of work, yeah, they were, they were always fighting, weren’t they?
David: There was a school there, wasn’t there on the . . . ?
Steve: There was, yeah, St. Catherine’s, yeah.
David: Yeah, yeah, so, maybe, yeah, because of its location, it had a, some influence on . . .
Steve: Yeah, it was only, like, when you got to the, kind, of, like, early teenage years we actually started talking to kids on the other street as opposed to, like, throwing stones at them! (David and Jenny laugh)
David: Ooo, yeah, that was, that was very prevalent, wasn’t it, sort of, way of showing your disaffection!
Steve: Yeah.
Categorised under: Change & Communities
Comments
I lived in Lissant Street. I recall the fights. I don’t think it was because of being a RC school it more Your on our patch. During the summer the was a summer play groups held the and we all went there. I attend St. Catherine’s, that was for boys just an Infant school Girls had a Junior School. The other Junior school was Chatsworth Street. I attend Sefton Park Junior School then Edge Hill on Durning Rd. The was a chippy on the corner of Lissant Street. If I recall it was 1956 when the school was open. In away the school being it more of a play street then a short cut. I lived in 66 which was the top end right end same side as the chippy. Once the later the school became part of the street and the early battles finished. The church boundary was drawn was right down the middle. I recall the St Anne’s father on a Friday Night visiting. I recall a woman joking with him as he crossed over to visit some one. You best to check Father your passport is in order. It is ok he said the Pope has cleared it with the Boss.