St Eugene’s Flute Band, Newtownstewart

(Left to right)

Front row: P McGuigan, A Hackett, F McGonagle, H McGuigan

Second row: J Devlin, E Gavigan, L Orr, L McGonagle, P Morris, B McNally, E McNamee, J Carlin, J McSorley, J McAleer

Third row: WJ Gallagher, H Duffy, J McNamee, D Moore, E Morris, E McNamee, E McNally, J Devine, W McLaughlin

Back row: E McNally, F Kirk, J Harkin, H Harkin

One of those photos I can remember from when I was no age – I think this was originally part of a calendar. Was tickled as a kid to see my dad with hair.

Tyrone Feis Winners 1945-46-47

Sarah Clyde McErlane

My grandmother, Sarah Clyde Cameron (1890-1971). Sarah’s maiden name was McErlane; she looks very young in this photograph, maybe 17/18.

National School, Newtownstewart

My old Primary School, in the Main Street. There was an earlier National School (Mill Street?) but this school opened in 1879.

Originally there were separate schools for boys and girls; amalgamated in 1938.

The Girls’ School opened in 1867, Principal was Mrs Ellen Fisher. Mrs Fisher was succeeded as Headmistress by her daughters Miss Annie Fisher and Miss Christina Fisher in turn – the Fishers were in charge throughout the entire existence of the separate Girls’ School.

Boys’ school principal in 1905 (when records start) was Charles Browne – the C Browne in the Newtownstewart Cycling Club photo. JJ McAnulla was principal from 1911-1941; Con O’Donnell 1941-1943; Michael Cassidy 1943-1960; Seamus O’Kelly 1960 until the school closed in the early ‘70s and St Patrick’s PS opened up in Dublin Street.

In my time there were two classrooms in the building above and two further classrooms in wooden buildings at the back. I believe these huts were left behind when the Americans left the area after WW2

Dublin Street, Newtownstewart

The Kirk family home in Dublin Street, Newtownstewart. The house stood almost directly opposite the start of Methodist Lane. Judging by pictures of Dublin Street in the first years of the twentieth century, this building was built sometime after that. The house was demolished in the mid-1980s.

Two photos of John James Kirk outside the sitting-room window – no idea who the others in the groups are – JJ is in the light suit.

Paddy Kirk (1901-1931) with companion.

Mary Agnes Kirk (1900-1989) at her front door. Mary was the sole inhabitant of the house from 1965 until it was demolished in the ‘80s. She then moved into the council house that was built right next door.

The Dublin Street house was home to the following members of the Kirk family: James (1841-1916), Hugh (1875-1937), Isabella (1875-1965), Mary Agnes (1900-1989), Paddy (1901-1931) and John James (1903-1955).

It was also home to my father Frank Kirk (1921-1976) and Patrick Joe Conway (1910-1975?). Both boys were ‘adopted’ by the Kirks, to borrow the terminology used in the 1911 census – there was no legal adoption process in place in Ireland until the late ‘30s.

Newtownstewart Cycling Club 1908

This great photograph appears in the Billy Dunbar book and a booklet produced by Ardstraw East parish in the late 1980s. It shows the Newtownstewart Cycling Club c1908 – the club was founded 3 years before.

Left to right: JJ McAnulla, C Browne, E Muldoon, H O’Connor, H McBride, P Woods, J Lynch.
JJ McAnulla became Headmaster of the National School, Main Street in 1911 and remained in that post until 1941 when he retired. Hugh McBride was secretary of the Cycling Club, a local publican – father of Brian & John McBride.

Of most interest to me is Hugh O’Connor (b1866). Hugh was my g-g-uncle – circumstances dictated that I don’t have many photographs of the Newtownstewart O’Connors so this one is precious.

In the 1911 census Hugh was living with his mother Anne, brother Michael and niece Alice Donnelly in Dublin Street. He lists his occupation as Insurance Agent; he was unmarried

Hugh O’Connor bankrupt

Notification in the Newry Telegraph (7^th December 1852) that Hugh O’Connor (1829-1895) was due to face a bankruptcy hearing in Omagh on 5^th January 1853. Hugh was a grocer – his shop was the one on the far right in the picture above, in Main Street, Newtownstewart.

Port Glasgow Timber Ponds

The timber ponds at Port Glasgow today, with Dumbarton just across the Clyde (and a cameo appearance by me). Two towns closely associated with my family.

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries logs imported from North America for shipbuilding were stored in these ponds, seasoned by the salt water. As iron & steel became the standard material for ships, trade in timber gradually decreased. The last wooden ship built on the River Clyde was launched in 1859 but the ponds were still in use up until the start of the First World War. The pond stakes reappear when the tide is out and are visible for miles

Balshagray Farm, Jordanhill, Glasgow

The three eldest children of Lachlan Cameron and Sarah McErlane – Jimmie Cameron (1919-1988), Henry Cameron (b. 1920) and Annie Cameron (1922-2013) were all born in Balshagray Farm in Jordanhill, Glasgow. 

According to Stuart MacLean’s website ‘Jordanhill Local History’ the farm was ‘on the north side of Mitre Road, west of Orleans Avenue.   A section of the original steading wall can still be seen at 38 Mitre Road. A date stone for 1829, saved from the old building when it was demolished, is incorporated into the boundary wall between two houses directly opposite the site, at numbers 39 and 41.’ http://www.wsmclean.com/bygones.htm

The farm’s full name was High Balshagray Farm – here it is in a map from 1860 https://maps.nls.uk/view/index.cfm?id=74953120#zoom=4&lat=9781&lon=3869&layers=BT

Lachlan and Sarah lived there with their growing family until at least 1922, when my mother, Annie, was born. They must have moved there not long after they got married in 1918.

For a brief time, Lachlan’s sister Ann (1862-1919) and her husband Myles Ward (1862-?) lived at the farm with them. By 1919 the Wards had moved to Gibson Street, in the West End – Ann died there, a victim of the flu pandemic. Interesting to note the Highlands (Cameron) / Irish connection – Sarah not so long away from Co. Derry; Myles came from Co. Fermanagh.

I wonder if this could be Lachlan or Myles in this postcard – the farm was demolished in 1928, not so long after the Camerons had departed to go back to Balloch.

https://glasgowpunter.blogspot.com/2014/11/walking-through-partick-past-and-present.html

Holy Communion pictures - Glebe School, Sion Mills

Argyll Motor Works, Alexandria

The Argyll Motor Works opened in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire in 1906 and functioned as a car factory until the company went bankrupt in 1914.

The works were then taken over by the Admiralty as a munitions factory and the building is still known locally as the Torpedo Factory.

My grandfather, Lachlan Cameron worked there during the First World War and was recorded as a Munitions Worker when he married in 1918.

The Argyll 15/30hp was produced in the factory and could achieve a maximum speed of 40mph

Those who couldn’t afford their own Argyll 15 could build their own, as demonstrated by this group of worthies at Ballagan. The garb in this (and other) photos suggests that these were taken just after the war

Cameron family, Ballagan Farm 1920s

  Some more pictures of the Cameron clan at Ballagan Farm, near Balloch – 1920s

Drumquin arms raid, 26 August 1920

Fascinating article by Liam O Duibhir on the first daylight arms raid in the War of Independence - in Drumquin, 99 years ago today

http://www.theirishstory.com/2010/08/26/drumquin-the-first-daylight-arms-raid-in-the-irish-war-of-independence/#.XWPwCPZFyDt

The Glebe National School, Sion Mills

Mary Agnes Kirk (1900-1989) qualified as an assistant teacher in 1918 and taught all of her working life at the Glebe National School, just outside Sion Mills.

I remember at least one visit to the school with Mary but I must have been very young because she retired in 1965 / 1966.

Two school photos – it would be great to put some names to these children.

The Glebe National School today…

Newtownstewart postman walks 138,000 miles

According to the records in PRONI, Hugh Kirk (1875-1937) joined the Post Office on 30^th January 1899.

Here’s Hugh outside the Post Office on Main Street, with the National School in the background. A nice sunny day and Hugh looks like a cheerful chap, cap at a jaunty angle in both pictures.

Christmas 1974

I have a few photos of my dad's shop from the outside but these are the only ones I can find of the inside. Camera work is a bit shaky. Coming up to Christmas - 1974, I think. I remember the gingerbread house that's just behind me in the last photo

Frank & Annie's wedding 1960

My parents - Frank Kirk and Annie Cameron - got married in St Kessog's RC Church, Balloch on 16 April 1960. The wedding reception was in the Balloch Hotel, next door.

Any help in identifying any of the guests would be very welcome!

Hard border – a lesson from history!

Reading Diarmaid Ferriter’s The Border – the legacy of a century of Anglo-Irish politics (Profile Books, 2019) and the following passage made me think of something close to home

‘…it has been maintained that the “general web of smuggling” was indulged in to a greater or lesser degree by the majority of the population in the border counties for the simple reason of the border line’s “invisibility” …

My mother (who was two months pregnant at the time of my dad’s court appearance) continued to be mortified by the memory of the occasion for the rest of her life. My father maybe less so – I can remember many occasions sitting on books and toys as we were waved past the customs at Lifford as he stocked up for the Christmas rush!

Customs Post, Killea, County Derry

Henry McErlane - Rochester 1937

Henry McErlane (1889-1956) was my grandmother’s elder brother – my great-uncle. When his mother died the children were split up – my granny to be brought up by her paternal grandparents in Ireland, her two sisters to an orphanage in Rothesay. Henry stayed with his father and spent all of his working life in the Merchant Navy.

By the late ‘30s Henry was living in Rochester, close to Chatham Docks. He married Elizabeth Lacey in Medway Registry Office on 25^th September 1937, at the grand old age of 48. According to his marriage certificate his father, John, was still alive at that time – aged 75.

The couple’s home address was 8 Davis Square, Corporation Street, Rochester.

Like most locations associated with the McErlane family (!) Davis Square is no longer there. The flats of St Clement’s House (the ‘L’ shaped building in the picture above, enclosed by Corporation Street, Blue Boar Lane & the railway line) stand where Davis Square used to be.

Henry & Elizabeth lived five minutes’ walk from Rochester Station (both the new & old ones) and the Registry Office that they got married in. I pass by most days, unaware until recently of my only family English connection

Lyon's Lane, Port Glasgow

Henry and Sarah Clyde McErlane were both born in 18 Lyon’s Lane, Port Glasgow in 1889 and 1890 respectively. Their father John worked as a Shipyard Labourer; the family – mother Elizabeth & older sisters Jane and Margaret moved to the Port in 1888/89 and were still there by the time of the 1891 census.

Lyon’s Lane was described in the 1856 Ordinance Survey Name Book as ‘a narrow lane or alley leading from King Street and terminating at Fore Street. It is wholly paved and lighted up with gas’.

In the 1896 Ordinance Survey Map the street is unnamed – it’s the lane running parallel to and directly to the right of Church Street, just above King Street in the extract above.

MacDonald’s Scottish Directory & Gazetteer 1893-4

Only two businesses listed in the lane in this gazetteer…

Blacksmiths – Lambie, W., & Sons, Lyon’s Lane

Coal Merchants – Kelly, Neil, sen., & Co., Lyon’s Lane; best qualities of household, steam and smithy coals always in stock; also metal ballast for ships

Dockhead Close

A couple of streets away…

All but the main streets in central Port Glasgow have been knocked down. Next time I’m up there I’ll have a look to see if there’s any trace of Lyon’s Lane!