Memories of the Rossville Flats: "If there was nothing on the TV you could look out the window"

For many years the Rossville Flats were one of Derry's most recognisable landmarks.

As images of the the Troubles beamed around the world the Rossville Flats were often at the centre of the footage.

In the heart of Derry's Bogside the flats were home to many families from the 1960's to 1980's and had a number of notable residents including former Eurovision winner Dana and former Mayor of Derry John Tierney.

The flats were built in the early 1960's as a possible solution to the lack of housing in the Derry area.

The flats opened in 1966 and originally housed 178 families. The Housing Executive made the decision to demolish the flats in 1985 with the final blocks being demolished in 1989.

Derry News reporter Gareth Cross spoke with former staff and residents of the flats to get their memories of a turbulent but often happy time in Derry's history.

Eddie Breslin was the former caretaker at Rossville Flats from 1978 until they were demolished. He shared with us his memories of the flats and the people he met there.

"The flats came down in 1989, I was the caretaker there from 78-88," said Mr Breslin.

"The caretaker at the time was a man named John Dunleavy, he was the resident caretaker and lived in the building.

"The original caretaker was a man named Davy Patterson who was there when the flats opened in 1966.

"I still work for the Housing Executive and have been with them for over 38 years.

"I started off as assistant caretaker and there another few assistants, Paddy Miller, Lee Barlow and some other men who helped out with work around the flats." Mr Breslin talked about his memories of his time at the flats.

"The flats are famous for a lot of iconic things, the Battle of the Bogside, Bloody Sunday, and the Hunger Strike period," he said.

"I was there during the hunger strikes and hijackings, bombings and shootings were common.

"A lot of rioting went on and there is a famous photograph of a police land rover with a cooker on top of it that was thrown from the Rossville Flats.

"I would have always referred to them as the Rossville apartments although some people may not like that term being used."

Mr Breslin described the structure of the flats and shops below.

"John Dunleavy told me that when the flats first opened in '66 there were three blocks, 157 apartments ranging from one bedroom to five bedrooms," he said.

"There were a lot of large families living in the flats. There were nine garages on the ground floor to facilitate for 157 families.

"The flats had car parking spaces, 30 cars for 157 families.

"There were shops along the front, there was McIntyre's butcher shop, Molly Barr's sweet and newspaper shop, a playschool and Hugh Quigley had a confectionary and greengrocer shop.

"There was also the local chinese, which there was always a lot of talk about. It was very popular at the time and there was a takeaway at the back of it.

"It was called 'The Sunflower' and the proprietor was a man named Tommy Ho who was from China.

"Next door was a supermarket and bakery. That was around my period, there were other shops previously and there was a chip shop at one time."

Mr Breslin explained what his role as caretaker at the Rossville flats entailed.

"My role at the flats would have been cleaning the flats and stairways," he said.

"There were two lifts at the flats which were constantly broke. The lifts were on three walkways, and the flats were approximately 90 feet high.

"Because they were so tall lightning conductors had to be installed even though at their highest point they were lower than Butcher gate.

"There was a Housing Executive office at the flats and they were erected by Lang Brothers in 1965-66. "There were three blocks altogether and each block had a title. There was the Rossville Street block, Joseph Place block and the Fahan Street block.

"Around 1984 they knocked down the Rossville block and then they knocked down the other two in 1989.

"The vast majority of the residents would have moved into new properties in William Street, Brewster's Close, Lower Road and the Little Diamond. Mr Breslin recalled that there was a British Army post at the top of the flats.

"The British Army had a post on the top of the flats. They had a helicopter landing point there. There were constant raids by the army around the flats," he said.

"We also had a few explosions in and around the flats and the army were attacked constantly.

"There were two soldiers killed in the early 70's at the top floor so the army closed off the access point on the fifth floor.

"It was only accessible by them and ourselves, the caretakers.

"The lift room was up beside the army building. If someone got stuck in the lift we would have had to go up and manually move the lift to the next floor.

"We had to get access through the army and sometimes it was quite difficult as they wouldn't come down incase they would be attacked.

"Sometimes they would take their time coming down so it could take hours to get people out of the lifts, we often received verbal abuse when we did get them out!

"We had to get up into the shaft and move the lift to the nearest floor level.

"I had been up in the army living quarters as part of that role and they were in quite cramped conditions. They were living in a really enclosed area."

Mr Breslin said that despite the negatives there was a great community spirit at the flats. He talked about some of the legendary characters who lived there.

"It was trying times but there were a lot of good families there, and it was a terrible tragedy they had to knock them down," said Mr Breslin.

"I think what happened was the majority of the flats were vacated due to damp conditions.

"The families were great and there was a lot of camaraderie, one of the great lines I always remember was due to the rioting was that if their was nothing on the TV you could look out the window. "We had some famous characters in the flats, there was Dickie Valley who had an alsatian called 'King' who was allegedly an ex Securicor guard dog.

"They were ferocious dogs, one day a terrier dog came around the corner and he ran.

"There was also Dickie McCarron who's house was very popular for men to play cards. They had a card school going most nights.

"We had a great family atmosphere and everybody got on really well."

"We had former Mayor of Derry John Tierney who was from the Rossville flats and former Eurovision winner Dana, her father owned the barber shop at the front. We had a lot of famous people coming out of the flats. Mr Breslin has a tempting offer for former Rossville Flats occupants.

"There's an address that I know of that a lot of people won't remember, 9A Joseph Place. If anyone can tell me where it was then I will buy them a free pint!

"I have very happy memories, outside of the bad times there was great community spirit. Mr Breslin is currently in the process of putting together a book about the flats.

"Myself and Terry Lamberton are currently in the process of compiling a book about the flats, it's 50 years since they were built and we have done a lot of research and conducted interviews with former residents about the various characters and craic and life in the flats," he said.

"We hope to have that out sometime in 2017."

Deidre Conaghan's claim to fame is that she was the last person to move out of the Rossville Flats. She started her family at the flats and has many happy memories.

"I'm nearly sure I was the last to move out of the flats, I had my two sons there and they are now 32 and 30," said Mrs Conaghan.

"I moved into Garvan Place when I was 17. When we lived there the flats were great craic, there was always something happening.

"I raised my two boys there and my twin brothers were born there too. "We moved in when I was 15 and I'll be 50 now in June. We left just before they were knocked down.

"I moved to Corporation Street then, it was very sad to leave because we had brilliant craic and when the riots were going on there was always something.

"We were just around the corner from The Rocking Chair which would have been my local and still is."

Mrs Conaghan talked about life was like at the flats bringing up her young sons.

"There was a great sense of community and everybody was there for each other," she said. "If something was going on you could always depend on your neighbours.

"It wasn't great for kids because of the riots and the balconies but it was safe enough.

"My eldest boy Gavin had a go-kart toy and with his brother Gareth they used to fly around the balconies on it. It was the best thing I ever bought them. They had a ball."

She talked about what it was like to live in the flats in the middle of The Troubles.

"Our flat was raided at one point with three children, my brothers and my son," Mrs Conaghan said.

"The army came in and they had to be lifted out of the cot. There was a whole big thing around it afterwards and it was featured in local newspapers.

"When I lived in Garvan Place there was rioting one night and the bullets were bouncing off the windows. I had to sit on the staircase with my son, I was terrified. That was the scary side being so close to the riots which were raging at the time.

"I'll never forget one night we were watching Top of the Pops and there was an act on dressed like Snowmen. I always remember we could hear sirens and we ran out and one of the top flats was on fire. I believe an old man was killed."

Mrs Conaghan admitted that she missed life at the flats.

"It was very quiet towards the end, it was getting eerie," she said.

"Everybody that left just fired everything over the balcony into the back square. It was sad leaving, it was the end of an era and the end of the flats. I had been there since I was 15 and we left in 1988.

"I would love to go back to the flats if they were still there. It was the place to be. It was a good community and there was always parties and community events and you had a birds eye view of the riots."

Annette Harkin was born in the flats and spent the first eleven years of her life there. She talked about spending her formative years in the flats.

"I was born in the Rossville flats in 1972 and lived there until I was just turning eleven when we left," she said.

"I grew up in the flats. "I always remember everybody's door being open. We lived on the eighth floor and there was nine of us in a two bedroom flat.

"Everybody was like an aunt and uncle and you would have been in and out of everybody's flat."

She talked about her memories of living with an army camp on top of the flats.

"We used to go down to the shop for the army and get them the paper, chocolate and fruit etc but when the Trouble started we were told we weren't allowed to do it anymore and then they started deliberately sticking the lift on us," Mrs Harkin said.

"The army did play a big part in life at the flats. They lived on the roof.

"We used to all go over and do drama at Pilots Row, there was us (the Ryans), the Lambertons, the O'Neills, the Meenans and we all used to go and do drama. On our way home once the army stuck the lift on us and we were all trapped inside for three hours. The fire brigade had to come and get it open.

"I was born 19 days after Bloody Sunday. I remember the police coming into the flat and raiding it.

"I remember a lot of fellas up on the roof throwing washing machines and whatever they could get off the building and down into the riots.

"There was a lot of damp in the flats, there were mushrooms growing out of the walls at one point.

"The flats had a fire escape that joined each flat to it's neighbour but it was like a piece of plywood and when the rioting got really bad it was all taken down.

"I can remember rioters running through flats to escape the police and the army. Mrs Harkin said that despite their being tough times at the flats it was the good that stands out.

"There was much more positive than there was negative, there was great community spirit," she said.

"On a Saturday night everybody would sit out on the balcony and people would sing, my mother was a great singer. It was just like a big sing-song.

"The flats were like our own town, at the bottom we had Molly Barr's shop and Danny Quigley's playschool and we had the first Chinese in Derry.

"They were the best days of my life. When we moved from the flats to William Street it broke my mother's heart. Life was easy in the flats, and everybody was like your family.

"There was a big wall down at the bottom of the flats were a painting was done and all the children in the flats were asked to take part.

"It was around Easter time, I went down with my younger sister and we were wearing our Easter clothes and we got covered in paint and you can imagine our Mum wanted to kill us!

"We had a small park down the back of the flats with slides and swings but they didn't last long with the Troubles going on around us." Mrs Harkin said she would happily return to the flats if she had the chance.

"I live in a house now and I have three children of my own but if the flats were up and running I would happily move back," she said.

"You knew everybody and everybody knew you. You could be in one house for your lunch and another for your dinner. It was a great place to live, the best in the world."