Down Longfield: A Memoir

Down Longfield is a vivid and nostalgic memoir of growing up in rural Northern Ireland, just miles from the boarder, in the turbulent fifties and sixties. Near the small village of Forkill, the Murphy family – Bridget, Barney and their seven children – weather the day-to-day challenges on their Longfield Road farm under the shadow cast by the IRA’s boarder campaign and the feared ‘B’ Specials. Through the innocent eyes of childhood, Marie McCartan shares the resilience and warmth of an ever-vigilant community living under curfew beside a patrooled boarder, where smugglers outwit customs officers and a temporary classroom is in the hall across the street from the RUC barracks. Much more than an historical record, Down Longfield weaves a lively tapestry of family life in the last century, filled with mischievous children, unruly animals and colourful tales of superstitious neighbours, eccentric relatives and the occasional ‘Yank’ visitor/ As Marie, her siblings and friends embrace teenage dances and late-night escapades, they aalso fce the escalating conflict that would change their lives.