Hannah

ICON: Photo of Hannah
Courtesy of Wexford County Council Public Library Service.

Hannah set off for England on the cattle boat when she was only fifteen.

Here are some of her Hannah's recollections of her journey:

'I remember the boats and I remember the barriers. Travelling on the rough boat to Holyhead, not yet sixteen, sitting on a bale of ropes on the upper deck, getting soaked many times and feeling so lost and alone. I had to pick myself up, because I still had a long journey in front of me and I did not want to meet the people who I was going to work for looking like a drowned orphan.'


'The biggest barrier one had to overcome when first arriving in the UK was of course the language barrier, the two different accents. It was a case of "Pardon?" from both sides. It was so hard for a while, of course everybody took the mickey for my "threes" and "films" and a lot more words also.'

But Hannah went on to settle in London and married a man from England. She even ended up having a chat with Prince Philip one day: in the book Returning: Wexford Women's Experiences of Home and Abroad, Hannah recounts a story of meeting several members of the English Royal Family years after she moved to England:

'Then, when I was working as a waitress as Goodwood Racecourse, I met most of the immediate Royal Family. I served lunch three times a week there. I served drinks and lunch to the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and Princess Anne.

'I had a joke with Philip at lunch.  I had to serve Philip with the cheeseboard. He asked me what they were and I had to admit I didn't know, or like, cheese. He thought this was the best he had ever heard and the Countess sittng next to him said he would be telling that story at dinner parties for the next year.

Then I had a chat with Charles at teatime and served him a cup of milk and a slice of cake, because he had to shoot off to play polo.''