Ruth Finnegan interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 8th January 2008

0:09:07 Born in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1933; parents both from Ulster; both liberal people who tried to fight the distinctions between Catholics and Protestants but I still grew up thinking that the world was divided into two; parents both Protestants but mother particularly regarded herself as a Nationalist Protestant; did a great deal in the 1930's to form a Labour Party that was non-sectarian; after the War father became President of Magee College and helped to turn it into a university college which was non-sectarian; he was Professor of Classics;  mother's family were missionaries and she had a degree in English from Queen's, Belfast; once married devoted herself to five children but later wrote plays for the BBC and taught; I was the first child and two brothers born before the war; during the war we were in Eire and a sister was born towards the end of the war and a brother after; still a very close family; three of them having travelled all over the world went back to Northern Ireland

5:54:20 Father an Ulster man in attitudes and rather withdrawn but softened later in life; during the war he cycled to school with me and we had many wonderful conversations; he inspired me about classics describing with a dry Ulster wit which affected my later interest in language and the artistry of language later on; mother was a character, always the one who had to tell polite lies and entertain people where father always told the exact truth; she was a wonderful story teller; very outgoing and loved people; during the war my father was a pacifist which was difficult when rest of the children would bring contributions for the war effort and we were not allowed to; this left-wing background, seeing the good in everybody, later fed into my anthropology

10:20:12 First went to the Londonderry High School kindergarten; we then moved to Donegal and I went to the little church school where there were twelve children above the kindergarten; we were all taught together; look back at that school as where I started to learn; had to walk two miles across a bog to get there; one of the first things I read was a translation of Homer's 'Odyssey'; after the war came back to Derry and I went back to the Londonderry High School until I was thirteen; learned a great deal there; parents felt they wanted us to have some education outside Northern Ireland so I was sent to a Quaker boarding school in York called 'The Mount'; parents made huge sacrifices financially and emotionally; wonder if it was worth it as academically I think I would have got a better education staying where I was; however the music and drama there were important; once I got there I was very happy and made friends but was always miserable when I left home

16:11:13 For the first years at that school thought the teaching was rotten compared to Northern Ireland; coming up to School Certificate decided to do Greek in one year which was a real challenge; hard to give up subject I enjoyed later although I wanted to do classics; did elocution as an extra which encouraged me to learn poetry and to concentrate on delivery which later on underlay my interest in performance

18:55:10 One teacher [‘Percy’ – Mr Percival] at Bootham, the boys’ school, used to run a joint choir on Sunday mornings for both The Mount and Bootham; he was an inspiring teacher who affected all who took part with an abiding love of music; another teacher who inspired me was Miss Shepherd who taught us Greek; in the sixth form she taught us ancient history; we realized that often her notes were wrong so we got into the habit of checking them ourselves; think we learned more from that than anything else

21:41:00 At that time The Mount was really quite narrow and the Headmistress did not encourage girls to go to university; at that time you could apply for both Oxford and Cambridge by staying on for an extra term to take the examinations; I and two others who were studying classics did so; I was lucky enough to get interviews at both Somerville and Newnham; was attracted to Oxford to do four years and Greats with philosophy and ancient history as well; Somerville also more attractive as Dame Janet Vaughan so interesting and challenging; difficult at that time as so few places for women and no scholarships; father was worried about how it could be financed as State Scholarships were not open to people from Northern Ireland but I did get a State Exhibition from Northern Ireland which was topped up by the local authority; also got a loan from my school

27:02:06 Oxford was wonderful; delight to read the huge amounts of Greek and Latin literature; I worked very hard; remember one particularly inspiring lecturer, Eduard Fraenkel, and E.R. Dodds the professor of Greek who taught us about mythology; my tutor in ancient history was Isabel Henderson who encouraged us to think for ourselves; still singing but didn't manage to get into the Bach choir; felt a little bit of an outsider coming from Northern Ireland but thought I did as well as the rest; became involved in the Labour Club where every week there would be a speaker such as Bevan, Attlee; members like Tony Howard, Jeremy Isaacs, very interesting; in time became the Chairman; within the club a number of us became supporters of the Movement for Colonial Freedom; I did not go on into politics but some of the left-wing values have continued

37:40:03 [extraneous noises in the background] I got a first in Mods and a first in Greats; I knew I did not want to stay at Oxford but wanted to contribute to the real world and wanted to teach; at that time to teach in a state school you had to do another year so I went to teach in an independent school, Malvern Girls College, for two years; I loved the teaching though I was shocked by some of the values there; having taught for two years thought I would like to do some research; toyed with the idea of Sanskrit at SOAS but then thought I would like to study something to do with Africa