Celebrating Derry’s Factory Girls
Joe Campbell mural in Derry’s craft village.
Hi everyone!
Well, as promised, here is the first of a number of interviews I’ve carried out over this past week.
Where do I start? What a wonderful lady to interview! She is known by most – if not all – of Derry. The lovely, Mary White (née Doherty).
We spoke late last year and I can still hear the unending enthusiasm and love in her voice for Derry and her experience of working in a shirt factory. She talked of her long-time friends when, as a Catholic, she first began to work in the early 60’s in Welch Margetsons. The site was next to a Protestant area of the city, The Fountain, and so 60% or so of the employees were Protestant.
“Politics was never brought into the factory. We just got on with our jobs and soon we were friends. It was funny mind-you,” she recalls, “we never got St Paddy’s day off but we did the 12th July!”
Within a matter of years, Mary left the factory to have her son, Gary. Living at the bottom of Blighs Lane, between Creggan and the Bogside, she and her family lived in the very heart of the troubles. It soon became too much when one day her husband noticed a soft drink can had been stuffed and taped around the exhaust of his car. The usual course of action would’ve been to call the army’s bomb disposal team. However, in his anger, he quickly kicked the can off and away. He was lucky it wasn’t a real device; he wouldn’t have survived. Instead, it’d been planted to entice the army into the area – a trap. She remembers how upset he was when phoning her from Du Pont where he worked. They soon moved.
Full of vigour and life, Mary has so many tales to tell during these troubled times….
…“Jim, my husband had white hair from a very early age and was well known in the town. As he was walking to his car one day, an army foot patrol were making their way past. Jim was suddenly stopped by one of the soldiers who asked his name. Jim White, he answered. The soldier immediately took offence and quickly grabbed and pulled at Jim’s hair! He thought poor Jim was taking the hand and was being sarcastic pretending to be the snooker player, Jimmy White. It took some time for Jim to prove who he was until he presented his driving licence! It didn’t matter that Jim White the Derry man didn’t look anything like the real man himself!”
Another tale tells of a soldier who stopped Jim along the Quayside in Derry at an army checkpoint. Recognising Jim’s iconic white hair and his family from hours and hours of watching the streets from one of Blighs Lane Army watchtowers, he told him a story.
One Christmas Day he’d watched Jim, Mary and their little boy and girl walking along the street with their Christmas presents including a doll and a pram. Mary recalls they were on their way to show off their gifts to their granny. With tears blinding him, the soldier continued to observe the family. It turned out he’d a daughter and son the same age and for obvious reasons was missing them that particular Christmas Day.
Left to right in both photos: Helen Cunningham, Rose Doherty and Mary White
Mary recalls the old days as being tough but continues to work with many other factory girls to promote and celebrate the legacy of the city’s once thriving industry. Artwork, designed by Joe Campbell and painted by UV Arts can be found in the heart of Derry’s craft village. A factory girls sculpture has been commissioned and once life returns to some form of normality work will commence and it will be placed in the heart of the city centre.
Thank you, Mary and all those wonderful and the proud Derry factory girls! :)
