Ulster Voices : The Century Speaks

Personal memories of ordinary people give us a unique and powerful view of the past. This collection of reminiscences of Ulster people was selected by Owen McFadden from the many interviews recorded for a series of local radio programmes to mark the Millennium, called ''The Century Speaks''. These programmes, broadcast weekly from September 1999 to the end of the century, form part of the BBC''s ''Millennium Oral History Project'', a nationwide project to record the memories of people of all ages and social backgrounds. Forty BBC local and regional stations have taken part to produce the largest oral history project in the history of radio. Every interview will eventually be stored in the National Sound Archive in the British Library, to form a Millennium Memory Bank. The memories selected for this book are illustrated with contemporary photographs from a variety of sources, and offer vivid insights into the lives of all kinds of Ulster people from all walks of life. They describe days long gone, the struggles to get by, events both comic and tragic, and finally give their thoughts on life as we approach the Millennium. They are a fitting reminder of how we lived in the twentieth century.