It was romantic to meet under the clock

Widow Dorothy Collins, 77, from Rathfarnham, Dublin, was married to Rory and they had two children and two grandchildren.

I LIVED in Bray and I had met Rory Collins at a dance in Enniskerry. For about our third date we arranged to meet under the clock at Clerys. I came in on my bus and he came in on his bus from Rathfarnham. I’m always on time so I was there before him — but he turned up! I think I was terribly nervous but excited. You watched everybody coming and going and you were dying to see him coming. It was romantic to meet under Clerys’ clock and there were crowds of people waiting there.

There weren’t shutters on the windows of Clerys then, we used to look at the clothes in the window.

We’d go window shopping because no-one had any money. We’d go down Henry Street mostly. We weren’t that grand that we went to Grafton Street! Rory was a gentleman. He died on the January 17, 2010, and it still hurts. He actually died on his mother’s anniversary.

Somebody said to me, “Would you not meet somebody else?” I said, “I could never replace what I lost” — which is true.