Coffee

Margaret Heagney 21^st July 2017 Deerpark Social Services Centre, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway

Coffee

Interviewer: Clare Doyle (CD)

Interviewee: Margaret Heagney (MH)

MH: Oh, everything came from the garden, we bought hardly nothing

CD: You didn’t have to go to the shop hardly at all

MH: No!

CD: Probably for tea leaves maybe, and that was it?

MH: Tea and sugar.

CD: Right

MH: And I’d say that was it.

CD: And did you ever drink coffee when you were small? Did you have coffee in the house?

MH: I remember when the war was on, I remember I was cycling from Athleague into Roscommon going to secondary school, and em, mammy would say, “now, go into such a place and bring a jar of coffee”. And I said “how will I ask for that, what’s coffee?” Sure, I didn’t know! And she said, “just say coffee, and they’ll give it to you!”

CD: Right

MH: And that was what I said. So, I used to bring the jar of coffee every so often.

CD: And do you remember the first time you ever tasted coffee?

MH: I do, and I didn’t like it, I was never very fond of it. You’d have to put an awful lot of sugar on it

CD: Right, to make it taste nice as it’s a bit bitter

MH: Yes, yes.