Olive was my aunt.

She was born in Derry about 1908. She was the daughter of Benjamin Norman and Josephine Palmer, and lived at 17 High Street, in the Bogside.

She had one brother, Benny and three sisters Margaret, Anne and her own twin, Martha.

Olive married Hugh McVeigh, a teacher from Derry, in St Eugenes Cathedral on 14 August 1930. They moved to Castlederg, County Tyrone, and had one child, also called Olive, who was born on 24 August 1931. Olive caught the decline and died on 01 August 1932, a year after her daughter was born.

Their daughter was raised by Hugh and his second wife Anne, whom he married in 1937. The family moved to Dundalk, and Olive taught in a school in Cullyhanna, Co. Armagh.

She went to Canada on a teacher exchange programme, and met her husband, a Hungarian called Naj. Unfortunly the marriage didn't work out, but Olive still lives in Canada.

Hugh became a famous author, writing the book "Oft in the Stilly Night". He died in February 2001

 

Olive McVeigh