Betty (Linda) Eagan, Blackrock and Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Ireland. Deaf from birth, Betty used sign language to communicate.
Exhibited at Bank of Ireland, Dún Laoghaire September/October 2020. Bank opening hours 10am-5pm, Monday to Saturday.
Linda Egan, known to everyone as Betty, of 8 Summerhill Rd., Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Ireland.
Born 28th September 1911. ( Home birth) Brentford, Middlesex
Died 14th June 1999, DúnLaoghaire.
Mother: Linda Finlay. Father: Michael Egan, who worked for Dunlop Tyre Manufacturer. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Michael_Egan
They married, Rathdown, 16th April 1906
After her husband’s death her mother remarried to Mr John Burgess, 22nd September 1919, Dublin North.
Betty’s Grand uncle was Lord Mayor of Dublin 1884, William Meagher
His wife, Betty’s Grand Aunt’s Worth dress, worn on the day of his inauguration is on display at NMI Dublin.
https://www.museum.ie/getmedia/e4cb5593-b265-40c2-a9f1-e6deeb7cd801/WhatsintheMuseumResourcePack.pdf
Betty used sign language to communicate.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2019/05-06/creation-of-sign-language/
She loved animals. A beloved pet dog as a child was called Nell and later a dog called Patsy.
Educated ( boarder) at St Johns school for the deaf Boston Spa, Leeds.
and at Dominican College, Sion Hill Blackrock
Betty was friends with the teachers and frequently visited the children at the Claremont Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Monkstown, Co Dublin.
She worked from home at 8 Summerhill Rd., as a chiropodist.
She recalled the bombing of Dun Laoghaire by the German Luftwaffe in 1940 and how a large fragment of stone landed across the road in her garden from the impact.
Newsclipping from the ‘Irish Press’, 21 December 1940, containing an article entitled ‘Planes drop bombs in two Irish Counties: Men injured and damage to property’. The article states that unidentified warplanes dropped bombs in Dublin and Monaghan. Several women witnessed the bombings and their accounts are related within the article, for example, ‘Mrs N English, an elderly widow, and her sister, Miss T Ryan, who live at The Bungalow, Rosmeen Park, a corner house, were having tea when the explosion blew in the glass of the windows … their first visitor after the explosion was an air-raid warden, Miss IT Moppett, who brought them tea’. Other witnesses included, Mrs J Shannon, Mrs Egan Burgess, Miss Aida Quinn, Mrs Herbert Doyle and Mrs CP Carroll
20 December 1940: At approximately 7:30 in the evening, two bombs fell on Glasthule near Dún Laoghaire (the first at the junction of Rosmeen Park and Summerhill Road and the second between Rosmeen Park and Rosmeen Gardens), injuring three people. A third bomb fell about half an hour later near Carrickmacross in County Monaghan.”
We are undertaking ongoing research on Betty’s life.
If you knew Betty and have any memories, anecdotes or information that you’d like to share with us we’d really love to hear from you.
Please contact the museum team at:
info@museumofchildhood.ie
or phone/text 087 6816760
Thank you .
