Liz Chapman, (Liz Riordan before she got married) was born in 1960, in Templeglantine, County Limerick. Liz lived with her mother, father, grandfather, and seven brothers and one sister. Due to having seven brothers, Liz had to fight for the things that she wanted, and she said that “whoever shouted the loudest was the one to be heard!”. Her family had kept a pig and a calf to earn more money, and every year the pig was sacrificed to provide meat for the coming year. Her family also grew cabbages and potatoes and bought milk from a local farmer, and then all Liz’s family needed was flour (for making bread) and sugar, which they got from a local shop.
When Liz was younger, she remembers that the sky was filled with bright stars, and it was an amazing view without the blockage of light pollution. She also remembers the weather was always sunny and rarely rained, and her family had a field at the back of their house where she and her siblings would often play and try to find entertainment.
Liz Chapman went to school at Templeglantine National School, a mixed school of boys and girls, at the age of five. The journey to and from the school took approximately one hour, and there were around fifteen children in each class, and one room containing many classes. Liz said that people had to bring firewood to keep the fire at school alight during the winters, and if you had none to give you would have to stay at the back away from the warmth. There was no paper but chalk and a slate and no exams were done as the main goal was reading, writing and mathematics (which was what Liz loved). Liz also said that she would like to change the fact that ‘children were seen but not heard.’
At the age of thirteen, she went to a big secondary school in the nearest town, and she started to realise that a lot of the children there were different from the children she mixed with in lower school. They wore fancier clothes and appeared to have more money than the people that Liz was used to mixing with. After three years at the school, Liz took the Intermediate Certificate when she was sixteen. To pass the exam, you had to pass five subjects (one of which must be Irish). Liz passed four subjects but failed Irish, meaning she unfortunately failed the whole exam.
Back then, when teachers started to talk about jobs for after school had finished, Liz remembered being told that girls could be teachers, nuns or nurses, but Liz didn’t want to be any of those, so she decided to work as a dental nurse assistant. Later Liz worked in a typing pool, as a bar worker, as a London transport office worker (after moving to England in 1983) and she even became part of the Northampton County Council where she worked in many departments over the years. After a long working life, Liz finally retired in 2021.
Liz met her husband, Graham, in Ireland when he was on holidays from England visiting his grandfather. They married in Ireland in 1985 and now have two daughters. Liz’s daughters since established their own families, giving Liz the joy of being a grandmother to three wonderful grandchildren.
Liz has been on many trips in her life, she has gone to Cape Town (South Africa), Malaysia, a Caribbean Cruise which was a joyful vacation on a large ship, sailing through the Caribbean to multiple islands) and she also goes back to Ireland regularly. Her hobbies include reading, gardening, and watching movies.
Liz also started volunteering for The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation in 2020, and hasn’t stopped since. She does many volunteer jobs to help people in need, including gardening, phone calls for isolated and lonely people, and helping at the food bank.
Liz is now the age of 65 and living happily with her husband Graham. She says one memory she will never forget is when the Pope came to Ireland in 1979, and Liz says when she saw him, she felt at peace. Liz says she is very proud of her family and their achievements. Liz wishes she was a little kinder when she was younger. She says that you should be kind to yourself and to others, and your most important asset is your health, whether it is mental health or physical health.
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