Date of Birth: 22nd June 1932

Place of Birth: Bunclody, Co. Wexford

Date Interviewed: 1st September 2009

Summary: Kitty Hayes-Mahon lost both her parents when she was still very young – in fact her mother was just 27 when she died of TB. Kitty and her older brother were raised by their grandmother and Kitty still lives in what was her granny’s house in Bunclody. Kitty could read before she went to national school. She also attended FCJ Bunclody. Her skills at baking bread had her winning competitions for 21 years in a row! Kitty wanted to pursue nursing as a career and she landed a job in St. Senan’s Hospital in Enniscorthy. She talks of her work as a psychiatric nurse and of helping to administer electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). She believes that some patients benefited from this treatment. Kitty talks of the reasons why some women were placed in the psychiatric hospital. She also nursed in St. Dympnas in Carlow. At the end of the interview Kitty recites a favourite poem, The Beauties of My Beloved Bunclody.