Independence

I left Limerick in November 1973. Ran away at 15 going on 16, to Wood Green to my grandmother. She wasn't too happy to see me, she was shocked. I was quite grown up at that time. I went to work at Maynard's Sweet Factory. I spent all my money on clothes, I sent half my wages home to Mum. I was the oldest of ten children which is why I ran away in the first place. I wanted to go to New York when I was 18 to work for an Irish-American family but I never got there. Till last year. I couldn't get a passport because I couldn't get a birth certificate then. My mother had me before she was married and I was registered in her maiden name. She never told me that. They married afterwards.