Catering Staff in Quadrangle
Item
Format
JPEG
Title
Catering Staff in Quadrangle
Identifier
VHJ0014
Depiction
Four women, all wearing white coats, standing behind a trestle table in the college Quadrangle. The table is laden with bottles of beer/soft drinks, glasses, a bottle of milk and a box of drinking straws. One of the women, on the extreme right, is wearing glasses and smoking a cigarette.
Description
This group of four women comprised the catering staff of the university coffee shop. The coffee shop was located in a former sports pavilion on campus, and from its establishment in 1952/53 was the only place on campus where refreshments could be purchased. The coffee shop staff occasionally catered for other events on campus, and this image appears to depict an outdoors event taking place in the college Quadrangle. It may have been to celebrate a sporting event or it may have been one of the annual end of academic year parties which were held for academic staff in the Quadrangle, the exact nature of the event is unclear. Pictured on the extreme right is Mrs. Creaven, affectionately known to generations of students as 'Ma Creaven' who managed the coffee shop with her team from its opening until her retirement in 1975. Apart from Mrs. Creaven the other women in the photo are unidentified.
People
Mrs. Creaven ('Ma Creaven')
References
Interview conducted by Jackie Uí Chionna with Mrs. Susan Courtney, daughter of Mrs. Creaven, as part of The University in Living Memory Oral History Project in 2019.
Uí Chionna, J., An Oral History of University College Galway 1930-1980: A University in Living Memory, Four Courts Press Dublin, 2019.
Contributor
event
Social gathering
Party
Party
Spatial Coverage
Temporal Coverage
Period
1950s
Category
b&w
small group
informal
outdoors
small group
informal
outdoors
Keywords
Quadrangle
Coffee shop
catering staff
Mrs. Creaven
Ma Creaven
social event
Coffee shop
catering staff
Mrs. Creaven
Ma Creaven
social event
Creator
Unidentified
Publisher
University of Galway Library
Rights
This image may be used for non-commercial purposes under CC BY-NC-SA see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Rights Holder
The Library, University of Galway