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of the fishcnnen shook up the weatherglass and said, "the glass is crazy, we better not go
out Ifishing)today.·.201
Interview with James Doyle
On April I, 1984. I used a questionnaire to intervicw my father. Jim Doyle. in his
homc in Colliers. I believe the taping would havc been more successful ifit \\ere done in
the kitchen "here Jim is used to talking. Thc interview ilSClf was rather difficult to
conduct because ofthe need to ask sensitive questions. Jim madc it clear thaL in his
experience, there was no connict on the Labrador, just people doing their work. I
interspersed my morc sensitive questions with ordinary questions abouttr3vel
arrangements and work rounds and followed up the intcrview with some \\Tiuen
questions and a telcphone convcrsation. Unfortunately the tapc and the pcn cannot
capture the way Jim's face lit up when he remembered tricks he played on the Labrador.
It seems thut the light moments are what he chose to remember.
Jim was born in Colliers in 1913, the second child ofJamcs Doyle and Mary
O'Brien. Jim's fathcr had lived with his Uncle Jim and Aunt Mag. Their only child, Mary
Ann, died and therefore, Jim's father inhcritcd thc house when his uncle died, and Aunt
Mag ruiscd Jim and his sister when their mother died in 1915. Mag died in 1926,und Jim
continued to live there with his father and sister unti11943. when he married and moved
to Riverhead in Colliers.
Jim's father, Uncle Jimmy Doyle, was a fishcnnan whose house was a gathering
place where as many as twenty men came to court his daughtcr, havc a drink. sing a few
'" M FLA 86-013_ C8692.
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