Step Inside: Discovering the Charming World of NI Granny's Home

1 June 2025

There was something deeply comforting about visiting your granny's house, no matter where in Northern Ireland you were. Whether you called her Granny, Nana, or Nanny, her house was a time capsule. Granny’s house didn’t change with the times. While the outside world moved on, inside her sitting room was a world of its own. It was often warm, cluttered, and a little bit magical.Television: The television had only a few channels, the biscuits were kept under lock and key (usually in a tin), and her mantelpiece told you everything you needed to know about her values, her generation, and her fierce pride in home and family. Whether you were from Armagh or Antrim, Catholic or Protestant, city or countryside, there's a strange and wonderful overlap in the memories we all share of our grannies' homes. Here are 10 things that were almost definitely part of that world.Religious Memorabilia: Catholic homes had the Pope, the Sacred Heart, and maybe even JFK. Protestant grannies had Queen Elizabeth II, sometimes with a wee plate from her Silver Jubilee. Either way, it was pride of place on the wall.Biscuit Tins: You’d get excited for a Bourbon Cream and find thimbles, pins, and a half-finished hem instead.Ornamental Display: Spaniels, porcelain ladies or ceramic cottages, often arranged in symmetrical formation on a doily-covered shelf. You’d get a slap if you knocked one.Woolen Armrest Covers: From Crazy Prices, Stewarts, Wellworths, or even Safeway if you were posh. To “keep them nice.” You’d stick to them in summer and slide off them in winter. Even in July.Heating Sources: Coal, peat, or a two-bar electric heater. Whatever it was, it was roasting and comforting.Almari: One for warding off evil, the other for warding off musty pillows. Filled with items no one was allowed to touch. Cups with gold trims, crystal glasses, maybe even a silver spoon set "for display only."Telephone Table: Usually near the hall, complete with an address book full of relatives’ landlines and the emergency number for the priest or minister.Mysterious Cupboard: Usually in the "good room", filled with faded rose petals, wood shavings, and the faint whiff of lavender and mystery. Looked nice. Smelled odd.Closing Note: For all the latest news, step inside the charming world of NI Granny's house.