ORAL HISTORY ARCHIVE:
BILL KIRK
Interviewed by Richard West
Location: Artist's home, Newtownards, County Down
Date: March 2006
Still taken from: 'Sandy Row' by Peter O'Doherty
Chapter 2:
(Chapter 2 of 15, Running Time: 00:09:13)
Chapter Index: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
Chapter 2 Synopsis:
- Vivid Memories of Air Raid on Newtownards.
- Taken to Hills on Donaghadee Road for safety.
- Witnesses Aerial Dogfight by night - Aged 4.
- Develops a sense of estrangement from the town.
- Immersed himself in Rupert books as a way of avoiding trauma.
- Lived opposite an Army Base for Welsh & American troops.
- Father was in the Home Guard.
- Anxious at School - didn't like Teachers or Schoolmates.
- Aged 10 or 12 told by an Uncle that his Mother had a breakdown while carrying him.
- Didn't feel good in his young life.
- Mother dies of TB in 1948.
- Three years later Father dies, also of TB.
- Aged 14 makes a resolution not to end up with TB.
- Becomes an obsessional cyclist - very competitive.
- Aged 34 diagnosed with TB - has a kidney removed.
- Attributes his survival to cycling.
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