The Nolans - Survivors: Our Story

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Dedications

To Carol, Jane and Vicky, my girls, who got me through the toughest times with laughter, tears and wine. To everyone Ive loved and lost along the way who have made me the woman I am today: you will stay in my heart always! To Mum and Dad I wish you could see all I went on to achieve. I miss you so much.

To my beautiful family, Ray, Shane, Jake and Ciara for loving me no matter what. I love you with every beat of my heart.

To Amanda at Urban for never losing her patience with endless phone calls and emails, Im definitely going to find you a husband! Last but not least Id like to dedicate this book to my manager Neil. You found me, you held my hand, you believed in me and because of you I survived!

Coleen

To my wonderful mother, who Ive always tried to emulate as a person; she was everything a mum should be and more. To my hero... also my father who, with all his faults, I loved dearly. And finally to the two most important people in my life, Erin and Steve. Erin for being a truly wonderful daughter, all I dreamed she would be. My little ray of sunshine and my inspiration.

Last but by no means least a truly amazing man without whom I couldnt have got through. He has been by my side, my rock and shoulder to lean on literally, every step of the way, caring for me and Erin, holding my hand, holding me and loving me more than I ever dreamed I would be loved. Thank you Steve. Truly my world!

Bernie

To all my family and friends, especially my brothers and sisters Im here because of you. To Mum and Dad, I know you would be proud. I love and miss you so much. To Lloyd, Sarah and Lucy Lastic, your dad loved you more than life itself, as do I!

But especially for my Brian whose encouragement, support and never-ending love made me the woman I am today. I love and miss you every minute of every day, and I will always be your Linda. Big hugs from Hudson xxx.

Linda

To my family, you are all special people. To all my friends throughout the years thanks for your love and support. To the newest member of my family, Maddison, and my beautiful grandaughters Ava and Sienna, who enrich my life.

And finally, to the lights of my life, my gorgeous husband Ritchie and my wonderful son Danny. I couldnt exist without you.

Maureen

Contents

Maureen

Our Dublin Home

Maryville Road was teeming with kids from first thing in the morning until darkness fell over the flat, open street. All day girls were skipping and boys kicking footballs, babies were parked up in prams getting the air and toddlers were scrabbling around on the pavement. All you could hear was laughing, shouting and singing. Hardly ever did a car grind past, so the road belonged to us children. It was a time of pure happiness.

Mum, can we go out to play now? Id ask before Id even finished my porridge in the morning.

It didnt matter if it was winter or summer, red-hot (which was rare) or lashing down with rain (which was a lot less rare). Whatever the weather, us kids from the St Annes council estate in Dublin would still be playing out until Mum came charging down the street yelling that it was time for bed.

I was the fourth Nolan child to appear and there were still another four waiting to make their appearances after me. Eight kids might sound like a total nightmare to lots of people nowadays, but down our street in those days we were considered quite a small family. The Brennan family two doors down had twenty kids !

Our house was full of music all the time. Dad would be playing his Frank Sinatra records in the front room while Mum would be singing show tunes in the kitchen. Then there were the rest of us kids all over the house, making all sorts of racket with tin lids, spoons and any other implement we could lay our hands on.

No one in Maryville Road had much money, but the terraced houses were scrupulously tidy and the small patches of grass out the front were kept neater than bowling greens. Ours was just the same.

We had two rooms downstairs: the back room, where we lived most of the time, and the parlour, which sounded dead posh when Mum said it. There was floral wallpaper on the walls and a floral three-piece suite which almost matched, but not quite! On the floor were Mums pride and joy, her vinyl tiles. At weekends she would drag us in from the street, tie rags to our shoes and get us to dance around the parlour. We thought it was all great fun. It was only later that I worked out she was actually getting us to polish the floor! She was canny like that, our mum.

Upstairs there were three bedrooms. Mum and Dad had one, the girls slept in another and the boys in the box room. At Christmas wed all sleep top to toe in the same bed as a special treat, although I cant remember any of us sleeping much at all because we were all so excited.

From the start I was very much a middle child. I always felt very loved by my parents, but by the time I came along everything had been done before by my older brother and sisters, so nothing I did was particularly surprising. Then, after me, came the babies who were doted upon. So I just slotted in somewhere in the middle, pretty much unnoticed a lot of the time.

Middle kids are often fairly uncomplaining and easy to please. I guess I fitted that description. And in a family where you had to shout to make yourself heard, I was very, very quiet. I was a boringly good mouse! But the thing that made me feel really special was sharing the name Maureen with my mother. I liked to think that gave us a closeness that the others didnt have.

My closest ally in the family back then was my brother Brian. He was just a year and five days younger than me and also very quiet, so we got on well. Brian and I played together all the time, although it was usually me having to join in with his boy games. Even though I was desperately quiet, I got to be quite good at making pop, pop, pop machine-gun noises from behind Dads armchair.

Our family was pretty much divided up into the Boys (Tommy, the eldest, who was born in 1949 and Brian, born 1955), the Girls (Anne, who was born in 1950, Denise, 1952, and me in 1954) and the Kids (Linda, Bernie and Coleen when they turned up). When I wasnt with Brian, I was with my older sisters, Anne and Denise.

Tommy was five years older than me and even when he was probably only around ten, he already seemed like an adult to me. He was the leader of the boys gang in Maryville Road and I utterly hero-worshipped him from afar. He seemed far too old and cool to have anything to do with me.

Anne was the leader of the girls gang in our street. She was strong and tomboyish, and would stand up to anyone who bullied the younger kids. Shed climb trees and spit down on people who were causing trouble or jump off really high walls to show she wasnt scared. Once she broke her arm and then broke it another four times afterwards because, just as it was mending, shed hit someone with her plaster. I adored her.

Denise was always going to be a singer. Even when she was still in a cot, shed sing that old song Oh My Pa-Pa. Shed sing from the moment she woke up until she went to bed at night. She was also brilliant at practical things and at looking after the younger ones. She virtually brought up Bernie when Mum had all the rest of us to look after.

I felt this incredible pride and sense of security at being part of The Nolans. Dad always said that family came above everything. And, being naturally quiet, it gave me a tremendous confidence to know I belonged to something as big and strong as my family. Thats not to say everything was perfect. There were tensions between my mum and dad even then, but I was way too young to realize it.

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