Cork woman recalls time as palace employee

ROYAL WATCHER:IT MAY be known as Rebel Cork but Queen Elizabeth's visit to Leeside today will be monitored with more than a passing interest by one Corkonian – keen royal watcher and former Buckingham Palace employee Margaret Murphy.

A native of Friary Gardens off Friar’s Walk on Cork’s southside, Ms Murphy (79) worked for about a year in Buckingham Palace more than half a century ago but still remembers Queen Elizabeth II as a pleasant and vivacious young woman.

“She was Princess Elizabeth then – she was always very pleasant, she’d always smile at you whenever she would meet you,” said Ms Murphy, a mother of nine who began working at the palace as a stewardess in the late 1940s. She had an interest in the royal family while growing up and it was through her late father Cornelius Foley, who had fought with the British in the first World War, that she was able to get a letter of reference for a position.

She was attending a labour exchange in London when she learned that Buckingham Palace was recruiting staff. She got called for interview and got the job.

Ms Murphy, who now lives in Ringabella near Carrigaline, recalls evenings at Buckingham Palace when Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret would attend screenings of films in the palace and she and other staff would be allowed join them.

“I was very happy there,” said Ms Murphy as she proudly shows her wedding certificate from May 27th, 1950, when she married fellow Corkonian Eddie Murphy, and her address is listed as “Buckingham Palace”.

Ms Murphy moved to Slough after her marriage and the couple returned to Cork in the mid-1950s but she has maintained a keen interest in the royals.

“I got a shock when I heard the Queen was coming to Cork. I thought she would come to Dublin and she often visits the North but I never thought I’d see her come to Cork – I’m delighted she’s coming here,” she said.