'The Tyneside Irish, that's where they used to go. They used to put them
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in there. Used to call them the Tyneside Irish.'
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And these were your uncles on your mother's side.
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'Aye, the Dempseys. Oh, there was none of the Tunneys in the Army’.
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(In fact my father was error here. His uncle William Tunney, who later emigrated to the USA, served in the Irish Guards during World War One. Thanks to William’s son Bill for this correction.)
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‘My uncle Jack was wounded--my uncle John--he had a hole through here [gestures to hand]. It used to affect his thumb and his finger. He had a pension for it right up till he died. There was like a hole through there, through his hand.'
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When did he die?
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'Bloody hell! I can't remember. He was living round the North. He was living where his daughter was living, Maggie, my cousin Maggie--why Joan's still living in the same house.'
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You'll have started school in 1925?
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'Earlier, I think. We used to have to walk, we used to walk to school. Used to go down the pit yard, over the duff heaps and along the Gassy Gutter. There was a path and a style. Aye, four times a day we used to walk that. Umm, there were no dinners at school. We used to come back.'
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Who was the headmaster?
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'Mr Bonar when I first started. Mr Bonar, he used to live in the Villas. Oh, he was a grand fella. Baldy, big tashe, he was a great fella him. He had a massive funeral when he died. All the school was out. We all walked down behind the coffin from the Church and he was buried at Wheatley Hill. We all walked down behind the funeral.'
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In what year?
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'I might have been 10 or 12.'
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And then there was Mr Finity?
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'No, there was another one before that, there was a Mr Smith. He was on the photograph of the footballers, but he wasn't there long, he went down Middlesborough way. Oh, aye it was rough. Finity! No good that fella! I don't know why, I just couldn't get on with him.'
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He had a way of jangling his money as he talked you once said?
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'That's it! The bugger was walking about. "Character! Character!" That's how he used to go on. A bloody hypocrite!'
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'We used to all get up about eight o'clock.'
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And your father?
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'He was usually at work, he was always on first shift. He always went to work at about 3 o'clock in the morning because he could do meetings and that in the afternoon. My mother used to get us all ready. My grandmother used to come up with Maggie when she was little. She used to come up about half past eight and she used to go with us--because she wouldn't go to school Maggie. You used to have to drag her there!'
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You were all together?
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'They used to, our Katie and Maggie. I used to go on my own. There was only the four or five classrooms. There was no hall or nothing. Our top class was upstairs. It used to be the staff room that and there was about 30 of us there, 15 lads and 15 lasses. That's where Finity had his office and we used to do our lessons up there.'
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NEXT: More on St Godric’s
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