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| Title |
Smuggling across the border. |
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| Description |
We smuggled surely. You couldn't live on the border and not smuggle. Oh the smugglin', oh it was an awful time. I was always an anti partitionist, I think it was the smugglin' racket made me one because I saw decent men goin' down and blackguards comin' up. The border ruined the country, it ruined morals, it ruined Ireland, it ruined the people, it ruined everything. If you could smuggle and get away with it, it was grand. If you were caught, you had to flee the country or you had to go to jail. I know lads, went to jail and they're no more guilty than I am. I could have been in jail ten times from smugglin'. If you went just across the border into Cavan, it was the emergency, they weren't at war you see. So, durin' the emergency they were on tighter rations than we were. They only had half an ounce of tea. So we might give a half pound of tea to some of our relatives, kinsmen across the border and they would give us a pound of butter, because they had butter. And so there was always a sort of, you could always exchange. They had plenty of cigarettes and drink but we weren't interested in cigarettes. I never smuggled drink. The Yanks when they came, they would give any money for whiskey, because, y'know, the Yanks, Enniskillen was full of Yanks, the six counties were full of Yanks and they had pots of money and all they wanted was something for their money and lads would carry whiskey to the Yanks.
Ref: 90-06-28.
Interviewer: Sandra Matchett, Fermanagh County Museum.
© Fermanagh County Museum. |
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| Speaker |
George Sheridan |
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| Sound |
90-06-28.mp3
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