Cityside's Cheshire Curate

And you are on the Cityside?

Yes.

So you are an English woman working in what is largely perceived as a 'Protestant' faith in the Cityside. Do you like challenges?

Well, maybe. I came to Northern Ireland in 1970. I came to university to Magee in 1970, and as I say to people, I never went home.

Why did you choose to come to Magee?

I had harboured a wish to go to Oxbridge, but In those days you had to sit an entrance exam, but my little brain didn't run that way. I did like the idea of a collegiate university and in the 1970s there were a lot of new universities - 'red brick universities' - as they were known, which sprang up. They were big places and I really liked the idea of a collegiate university and my Latin teacher had studied under Professor Le Lievre who had come as Provost to Magee. She had spoken to him about it and he just thought I would like it having spoken to him about it. So I was one of the few who actually chose to come to Magee because in the 1970s...

It wasn't exactly a clever place in the 1970s...

No, I don't think my mother and father realised exactly what it was like when I came, but...

What age were you?

I must have been 18. I came straight after my A Levels.

From where?

Ellsemere Port, it is in Cheshire, but it is just south of the Mersey in Liverpool.

Normally it is the other way round isn't it? That students leave here to go to England to study. I think you are the first person I have met that came here from England to study and stayed...

Well, I must say...

You are a very pleasant import, by the way!

Thank you very much! There are quite a few blow-ins, or whatever you might call them, and are still in Derry, who came to Magee. I know of five, it was the sort of place that maybe attracted people and then they just fall in love with the place or fall in love with somebody from the place.

Is that what happened to you?

It happened to me, yes.

So you ended up wearing a collar?

Yes. After I finished my degree I did some teaching, although it was primary school and then I had married and had my family and I had wanted to be at home with the children before they went to school. When the family were starting to grow up I indulged my other great love which is sport. When I came to the City I played hockey for Magee and then played hockey for Derry ladies and then I started to go to keep fit classes. I'm the sort of person who goes to something and says 'I can do that'. So I then decided to train as a keep fit instructor and started keep fit classes. Out of that I became the sport and recreation officer at Magee and I built the sport and recreation department at Magee, but that was part-time, and when it was built-up they needed someone full-time. I wasn't really qualified to do it full-time. So at that stage I had been going to Christchurch from I arrived in the City. Brian Hannon was Rector then. I'm very fond of Brian and Brian and Maeve were both at my ordinations - my ordination as a Deacon and my ordination as a priest. The day I was ordained a priest in Omagh, Brian and Maeve arrived and said 'It's OK isn't it, if we sit with your family?' It was such a delight, and to have the support of somebody like Brian is incredible. So, I had been going to Christchurch very early in the morning so people in Christchurch didn't know who I was even though I was going twice a week - early on a Sunday morning and on a Thursday morning. When I had my children I took them with me on a Thursday morning and apart from the usual, their first words were 'Amen' and 'Holy holy holy'. I used to take flash cards with me with 'Amen' and 'Holy holy holy' written on them and I used to say 'Wait for it! Wait for it! Wait for it!'

In the church?

Oh yes, this was at the Thursday morning service. Because, I suppose, it was one of the bribes that if you keep quiet you will get a biscuit after the service; I introduced to the church the idea of having a cup of tea and a biscuit after the Thursday morning service. That grew out of bribing my kids to keep quiet.

Do they still do it?

Oh yes. That is part of the fellowship. So, I had always been involved in Christchurch in some way or another. When I finished in Magee I became more involved. Now it wasn't too long after Magee that there was the fire in Christchurch, and I became more involved. The Archdeacon then, whether he had seen in me a gifting for administration, even though I am hopelessly disorganised, and he also put me on the fundraising team for the church restoration fund.

What sort of things have you fundraised for?

When I first came to the City I worked with Oxfam and then became very involved with the MS Society here and took over the flag days for years. So I did a lot of fundraising. It was one of those formative times for me, but for the committee there was only one person lived with MS on the committee, and they all did brilliant work, but those receiving the benefits were beginning to say 'We don't need this, we need that'. So I was part of that group that did a massive turnaround and brought on board people living with MS and their carers onto the committee .So I was delighted to be part of the revolution.

So you are a revolutionary at heart!

I was here at Magee when they closed it down, so I led a sit-in. So, yes, I am a bit of a revolutionary, but I'm too old for it now.

You led a riot?

No! Not a riot, a sit-in!

Ooh...passive resistance...

Yes. I didn't break any doors down! This was in the vice-chancellor's office in Coleraine and after that they made sure to change the doors so that they could never be barricaded. So now the doors open out. You cannot barricade a door that opens out. But that's by-the-by.

What did you eventually graduate in?

English.