Lily celebrates 90th birthday with family and friends

It was a big day in Derry’s Long Tower Parish and a bigger one for the Rankin family.

On Thursday, July 30, 1936, Lily Rankin was born in Southend Park in the Brandywell, the youngest of seven.

Lily’s mother and father were Lizzy and Bob McGilloway, her brothers were, Danny, James, Bobby and Willie, and her sisters were, Mamie and Peggy.

Speaking to The Derry News before she got her hair done for her 90th birthday party on Thursday night, Lily fondly recalled her late husband Joe (Rankin), who she met at a dance in the Embassy Ballroom on Strand Road.

Joe, who was originally from Belfast, was in the Royal Navy when the young couple met. He later became a postman but sadly Joe died at the age of 38, leaving Lily to bring up their young daughters, Bernadette, Deborah, Edel and Elisha.

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“I left Long Tower Primary School and went straight into work in Tillie and Henderson’s Shirt Factory [at the city side of Craigavon Bridge] when I was 14,” recalled Lily, “and we worked from eight in the morning until six at night, for two pound one and a penny a week.

“My first job was attaching the cuffs to the men’s shirts,” she added.

Tillie and Henderson’s was a great factory. I never knew an enemy there. There were never any rows. It was just work, work, work. Everybody was very friendly and very helpful, all the years I was there.

“Then, when you went home, you never stayed in one night because the Navy was in. The Navy was in here in their thousands. We would have gone to dances in the Embassy, the Guildhall, the Corinthian and Our Lady of Lourdes Hall.

“You wouldn’t have missed going to a dance, and you didn’t miss your work because then you wouldn’t have got out to the dances. I loved the singers Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, and I loved going to the dances and having a good look around,” laughed Lily, who also worked spells in the City Factory and the Star Factory, and a couple of others.

“I would have gone to the dances with my friends from work because my sisters were a wee bit older than me,” reminisced Lily. “There was Emma McIntyre - Gay McIntyre’s sister - Sheena Brogan, and Bernie and Annie Cassidy who were sisters.

“Sometimes, depending on what you wanted, you would have bought the material and somebody in the factory would have made your dress for going to the dances. We would also have bought clothes in Littlewoods and Woolworths,” said Lily, who used to make matching outfits for her own daughters when they were children, according to Edel, as well as patchwork quilts for the beds, and curtains.

“Mammy worked all of her life and we wanted for nothing,” said Edel. “She worked in the Alana Restaurant on Strand Road and in the canteen in Wellworth’s in Waterloo Place.”

In spite of her disbelief that she was 90 years old, Lily said she felt “great” and was looking forward to her party.

“I must say, I don’t feel 90. I am so well looked after. Stay close to your family and you can’t go wrong,” smiled Lily, who also revealed she had never smoked or taken a drink in her life, and she loved singing.

“I remember ‘The Corner Boys’ singing on the way home from the dances, in the Brandywell,” said Lily.

“The Brandywell was the best place in the world to live. Everybody was very close and you knew everybody. You worked with everybody.

“We had the best neighbours, Barney Long and Lizzie Kerr and Mrs McIntyre and Nan McSwine and Mrs Downey and Mrs Hagan. I was also friends with Birdie Long and her daughter and Edel are now best friends.

“Sheila McSwine also lived in Southend Park. She was the wife of Fay Coyle who played for Derry City. Their son, Liam Coyle, also played for Derry City.

“All good people,” said Lily, warmly. “My mother loved going to bingo up in Our Lady of Lourdes Hall. I had a happy childhood in the Brandywell.

“Just follow the rules and you couldn’t go wrong. I danced my life away but I never missed a day in the factory and I was never late once, no matter how late I was out the night before,” she mused.

“Where we lived in Southend Park, our back bedroom looked into the Brandywell football ground and every time there was a big match on, our roof was full of people. You wouldn’t have got on our roof for diamonds,” said Lily, who, back in the day, would have bought her threads and bobbins and needles and her braid for her curtains in the Foyle Street Market.

“Mammy was sewing up to just before Covid,” said Edel, “she had her own Singer sewing machine.”

Summer holidays for Lily meant trips on the train to Buncrana.

“I used to sit on the roof, there were so many people inside,” laughed Lily.

“Everybody was in good form singing ‘Will I make it? Will I make it? Will I make it?’ to the rhythm of the train. We would have gone to the beach for a picnic and in for a swim”