Glenowen’s Golden Jubilee: The O’Donnell’s were one of the first families in Glenowen

As Derry’s Glenowen prepares to celebrate its 50th birthday with a fabulous funday, resident Katrina Fagan  reminisced about growing up there and their ambitious plans for the estate’s future.

The O’Donnell family has lived in Glenowen from the get-go.

Speaking to Derry Now, Katrina Fegan (née O’Donnell) recalled moving into the estate in 1972, when she was just 11 years old. Katrina still lives there today, apart from a short break when she was first married.

“My mammy, Pat, was the first person to work in the Spar shop when it opened in Glenowen,” said Katrina, whose daddy was Eddie. “There were seven of us: Antoinette (deceased), Charles, John, Eamonn, Billy, and Michael. We moved into Glenowen from Westway in Creggan, just after Motorman.

“Mammy was also one of the first on the Residents’ Committee. At that time, the Committee did a lot of fundraising for the pensioners up here, so we could take them away every summer on bus runs to Donegal.

“We lived in number 15. We were the first family in that house. I remember moving in very well. It was very exciting. I live down at the bottom of Glenowen now and this house was not even finished when we moved into Glenowen.

“It was horrendous to live through Motorman. My father put us all in the kitchen. We lay on a blanket on the floor. My father said the young soldiers coming into Creggan would be trigger-happy and if they saw a curtain moving, that would be the end of you. We stayed in the kitchen until the morning. We could hear the centurion tanks rolling into the green outside our house,” said Katrina.

Glenowen Residents' Association successfully campaigned for delapidated walls to be repaired.

Katrina’s mammy worked in the Essex shirt factory along with Brendan Smith and Larry Lawrence, the original owners of the Glenowen Spar.

“They offered my mammy and Catherine Doolin, who lived over the street, jobs there. Mammy must have worked there for 10 to 12 years,” said Katrina.

Growing up in Glenowen, Katrina remembered being friends with the McDevitt’s, McCoy’s, Bannon’s and Stewart’s.

“I went to St Mary’s,” she said, “and Antoinette went to Thornhill. I used to hang about with a girl called Bernie Breslin and we would have taken a wee walk here and there around the place but basically there was nothing to do.

“Eventually my mammy got funds for a big portacabin and it was put at the very top of Glenowen, as you come over the top reservoir into the estate. There was a big space there. I remember my father painted a big log fire on the side of the portacabin because he was a really good artist.

People Before Profit councillors Maeve O'Neill and Shaun Harkin joined Joe Blee, co-chair of Glenowen Residents' Committee to submit a petition to Apex Housing.

“There would have been pool tables and snooker in it and my brothers would have gone there. It was demolished later on, unfortunately,” said Katrina.

Katrina has lived in number 99 since 1986.

“I have lived in this house for the past 37 years. I like it. It is lovely and quiet,” added Katrina, “but we urgently need steps built outside our house,” she said, highlighting one of the key and potentially dangerous shortcomings in the overall design and layout of Glenowen.

“We need steps outside the house so everyone can access it safely.

“In 2014, I fell on the banking outside and broke my ankle. After that, I asked for steps to be installed. My husband had two strokes and the ambulance had great difficulty getting in here too.

“A man from Apex [Housing Association] came out and flatly refused. He said, ‘We are not putting any more steps into Glenowen’. I found him extremely ignorant and unsympathetic and that was the end of that.

“But you know, there are places in Glenowen where the steps run adjacent to one another, one set goes one way and another set goes another way,” said Katrina, who vividly recalled another incident in which the lack of access could have ended in tragedy.

She said: “My husband choked about two months ago. I phoned for an ambulance. The first responders and then an ambulance arrived and the paramedic asked me where the steps to access the house were. I said there were none and she said that was ridiculous.

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“The only way for me to get into my home is up and down a slippery banking. I was 25 when we bought this house but I am 62 now and that banking is getting a bit steep for me now. I’ll never forget the man from Apex. He was so arrogant towards me and so adamant that no more steps were going to be installed in Glenowen. He actually told me, if we installed them ourselves, they would be removed.

“I don’t think it is too much to ask for decent access to our homes for people who are getting a wee bit older. There are four houses in this row and we are all getting on and there are no steps. I have been fighting for steps since I moved into this house. Apparently there is no budget for them now because the Assembly is not sitting,” said Katrina.

Looking forward to the Glenowen 50th birthday funday, Katrina said it would be good craic.

“I am  bringing two of my grandchildren up, Kayla and Christopher.

“All in all, I would say Glenowen was a great place to grow up in. We had good neighbours in Foncie and Helen Patton next door and the Breslin family next to them. I loved it.

“However, I feel Glenowen has been largely forgotten about and neglected and that has to change.”