Society > Family Life > Irene Madlin’s Pyrmont Family
Irene Madlin’s Pyrmont Family
Interview with Robin Davies, 2017
Mary Bell married Bill (William) O’Reilly in about 1926. They and their four children - Irene (born 1928), Mary (1936), Bill (1938) and Barbara (1941) lived at 173 Harris Street. That is where Robin Davies interviewed Irene and Mary in 2017. Before she married Bill, Mary worked for “the Sugar House” [CSR], like everyone else in the neighbourhood. Bill drove trucks on the docks – although he was a drunk. According to his daughters “they all were drunks, all the men!”
Nearby – at 242 Harris Street - lived Bill O’Reilly’s extraordinary mother, whose legs were cut off by a tram (see Events). Undaunted, she would go up the steps on her bottom and make the boys’ beds. She had a wheelchair for going outside, and an artificial leg, but she fell over when she put it on so wouldn't wear it!
The family and their neighbours were all working class and there were lots of kids to play with. After kindergarten at Maybanke, they went to school at St Bede’s, half of whose kids were Catholic and half Protestant. Irene recalled that “we didn’t mind mixing with others, it didn’t matter what colour they were - we all used to bash each other”.
Children played basketball and tennis on the courts next to Maybanke kindergarten – now part of the Pyrmont Community Centre. The baths were another favourite place where kids could race and play water polo. One night Irene jumped in and was covered in oil from the ships: at home her mother gave her the rounds of the kitchen! An old man who lived opposite St Bede’s ran the baths. It cost a penny to get in - and a penny for a scallop from the fish and chips shop in John Street. (The children earned sixpence pocket money doing chores: washing up, wiping the dishes and sweeping.) And children would pay threepence each Saturday to crowd into a film at St Bartholomew’s church.
In Irene’s young days CSR still used draught horses: at Easter and other festivals, they were dressed up and paraded along Harris Street while the drivers threw lollies to the kids. The kids loved the horses dressed up with feathers. On Anzac Day the colourful horses would come down Harris Street with a band and stop at the war memorial that was then on Harris Street.
Social support was welcome. Castrol oil company distributed food parcels to families, and Mr and Mrs MacDonald ran a soup kitchen and gave out clothes (from a place now occupied by Gallon). So did the Uniting Church, who also provided a laundrette managed by Glad Donahue from Ways Terrace.
When they left school, the girls worked in Festival Records - Irene in the office, while Barbara sleeved records and Mary worked on the cassette machine.
Irene met Harry Madlin at a Catholic church dance and they married in 1951 in St Bede’s. Harry was in the British merchant navy, then joined Castrol till he retired. Mary met Andy Christian when they worked at the Government Printing Office in Harris Street. They married in 1960 and divorced in 1976.
A high point in the girls’ lives came in 1954 when the Queen visited Sydney. Frank Sartor got tickets for Irene, Mary and their sister-in-law Diana to the party at Town Hall welcoming the Queen and Prince Philip. They dressed up and had a limousine drive them to the Town Hall. As they arrived, the crowds cheered and clapped, thinking it was the Queen. They sat around tables and some stood. The Queen walked around and nodded at them.
Irene Madlin 2017
Robin asked Irene how she and Mary liked Pyrmont today: Irene reckoned there were some good things and some bad – with a lot of history being destroyed. And they did not like the casino!