A troublesome railway passenger

James Kirk (1841-1916) had an eventful career as a railwayman at Newtownstewart. Employed as a Surfaceman (track worker, p-way man) for the Irish North-Western Railway, James was called as a witness at the trial(s) of Thomas Hartley Montgomery, who was accused and eventually convicted of the murder of William Glass in the Northern Bank in 1871. More of this in a future posting.

By 1876 the INW had merged with the Northern Railway of Ireland and the Ulster Railway to form the Great Northern Railway. 

James had moved on to become a Night Watchman by the time he had this unfortunate encounter with an overcarried drunk, as reported in The Londonderry Sentinel, Saturday February 21, 1891

The Manor of Newtownstewart - 1852 map

Last year, while on an Ulster Historical Foundation Genealogy course, I ‘found’ a wonderful book of bound maps of Newtownstewart & the surrounding area in PRONI.

‘Maps of the Manor of Newtownstewart, in the parish of Ardstraw and County of Tyrone, the estate of Daniel Baird, Esquire. Surveyed by R. H. Nolan & Co. 1852’

The maps are beautifully hand-drawn and coloured. Each house in the town is numbered, with an index that tells us who was living in each dwelling place in 1852.

Names of interest / potential interest in the town for my family tree are:

27	John McCrossan	177	James McGlinchy
80	E McGlinchy	207	Patrick Donnelly
111	Mark Mullan	249	Hugh Tolan
115	Hugh O’Connor	260	Catherine McCrossan
117	M McMullan	283	James O’Connor
168	William McGlinchy

Plots of land outside the town have T. Connor, Hugh Tolan & J. Connor Senior (2 plots) as tenants

Main Street, Newtownstewart, in the early nineteen-sixties

A poem by Bridie Stankard, first published in History West Tyrone, Journal of the West Tyrone Historical Society (2007).

Most of the names in here are very much from my era and, of course, there’s a thrill in seeing my father’s name in print…

In the friendly town of Newtownstewart there’s a street you must pass through

And a hint or two I’ll give you if you’ve business there to do;

From McMaster’s to McDevitt’s it’s a shopping centre grand,

You will not find its equal in the whole of Ireland.

You can watch the model railway train and marvel how it works,

As you sip a cup of tea you’ll get in Frankie Kirk’s

His assistant, Miss Rose Bradley, will serve you with a smile,

Her pleasant courteous manner makes a visit there worthwhile.

If your car runs out of petrol, one more drop you cannot squeeze,

You will get her filled up quickly at Barney McNamee’s

And down the Castle Brae you’ll find that Barney’s not alone

There’s another petrol station manned there by Alfie Hone.

Wouldn’t it be just ideal if there would be a marriage

Between that petrol station and John McGlinchey’s garage?

For drapery and hardware and all kinds of useful goods,

No need to visit Omagh, just call into Francie Hood’s.

Whilst Mervyn Millar loads the feeding stuffs upon your cart

You can let his brother Bertie, book your cattle for the mart.

If you feel the flu you’re taking or lumbago splits your sides

You will find a cure for every ill in Hassard’s or McBride’s.

Beside the Back Street junction as you go through the doors

You will find a warm welcome in the New Reform Stores.

A friendly greeting then takes place between Drew Quinn and me

With Armour Beattie in the background to act as referee.

If you must attend a function, or a passing-out parade,

Drop in to Samuel Carson’s, get a suit that’s tailor-made.

A nylon frock, a jumper, or Parisian hat that tempts

Will be found by every lady in the shop owned by John Kemps.

Mincemeat, steak and sausages and even bullocks’ hocks

You will find them in profusion in that shop of Bob Kinloch’s.

Whilst Armstrong they tell me is doing a roaring trade

Although not long in business he’s already made the grade.

The Houstons and the Gallaghers are long established there,

Of pleased and happy customers they’ve merited their share.

To the friends you meet whilst shopping your troubles you can tell

Beside a cheery fire in the Abercorn Hotel.

And as for public houses where many a cold could kill

The number on the Main Street at five remaining still:

No need to look for pep pills or expensive monkey glands

Or travel to some spa resort in far off foreign lands.

Just stroll into the Central Bar a visit there will pay,

The sign outside announces you’ll get ‘Younger every day’.

To the bottom of the Main Street the men are all decoyed,

By the pleasant helpful lassies that the Roches have employed.

If you want to take a taxi, Crudden, Roche or Jack O’Neill,

Moorehead or Philip Harkin you’ll find ready at the wheel

They will reach your destination, deposit you with care,

And you’ll even find a bit of change left over from the fare.

If you want to give a party when your friends are gathered there,

O’Neill or Joseph Hamilton will soon supply your fare;

If you need more drinking glasses or pretty china delph

From Mr Hazlett’s large supply you can choose them for yourself.

And now that I’ve concluded, here’s my advice to you.

Support the shops of Newtownstewart if you be passing through.

If life’s troubles overcome you and like giving up you feel,

There’s an undertaking business carried on by Jack O’Neill!

International toy emporium

From the Ulster Herald, 14 December 1968…Tokyo indeed!

Finding the farm

Cassie O’Connor (1883-1951) was brought up with her maternal grandparents – Francis McCrossan (1826-1907) and Anne McCrossan (ne Mullan) (1826-1895).

c1860, when Griffith’s Valuation was carried out in our area, Francis (my g-g-grandfather) was already a householder in Glassmullagh.  

Using the Ask about Ireland website http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/#

I entered as much as I knew about Francis and found his details in a scan of the original document:

Here’s the (readable) detail:

The website then links you to the original map. I was looking for 2A / 2B, Francis' farm.

The map is great – you can zoom in to find what you’re after and there’s a slider where you can merge the map with its Google Earth image…

I struck gold!

Next step was to go out there to have a look…

Still standing…but it has gone downhill a bit since Google took their snap. Maybe with a lick of paint...?

Cassie O'Connor's farm, Glassmullagh

I struggle to find living relatives in Ireland who can help me with any family history detective work. I was aware that my father had been left a farm by his mother – Cassie O’Connor - and that he had sold it not very long after her death but all I knew was it was in Glassmullagh, a townland a few miles outside Newtownstewart.

Glassmullagh is on this map of townlands, right at the bottom, sandwiched between Dunteige and Lisnacreight.

Cassie died on 14 December 1951 in Strabane and the farm was first advertised in the Ulster Herald on Sat Jan 5^th 1952

It looks like Frank didn’t sell it first time round because it was advertised again in the Derry Journal two years later, on Fri 26^th Feb 1954

I eventually found the farm by going back a lot further in the family tree and with the help of Griffith's Valuation and the internet. In my next post I’ll run through how I did that, if I write it down I hopefully will remember it myself next time I need to do this!

Kirk's shop

This is the earliest picture I have of my dad, Frank Kirk, the shy looking boy on the left. I don’t know who the other kid is.

I’m guessing that this was taken on the day of his first Holy Communion, the suit and tie wouldn’t have been his normal outfit. Frankie would be seven in this picture, which makes it 1928. 

The boys are sitting on a bench outside what would soon be known as ‘Kirk’s shop’ in Main Street, Newtownstewart. The shop had been owned & run by Lizzie McGlinchey who died on 14 May 1928. Beneficiaries in her will were her sisters, Agnes Kearney and Bella Kirk. 

The shop then passed on to Bella’s eldest son, John James Kirk. It looks like this photo was taken not long after Lizzie’s death, with ‘J.J. Kirk Proprietor’ added under the ‘McGlinchey’ sign. 

As far as I’m aware, Lizzie always kept shop in the same place but this piece from Barney McCool in the Tyrone Constitution (7 November 1980) suggests otherwise: 

There were a few small shops beside there which have also been incorporated into Hood’s buildings.  Do any of you remember Lizzie McGlinchey’s wee shop or Maggie Mullan’s with its wee bell which jingled every time the door opened?  What memories in a sound!  You could have got brandy balls there – four for a penny, and conversation lozenges as well and washed them down with a tuppeny bottle of lemonade. (‘70 Years ago’) 

I think Barney got that wrong and Lizzie always traded from the same location, on the other side of the road, just across from the Bank. 

My dad worked in the shop from an early age and took over when John James died on 1 March 1955.  

In the early ‘60s Frank bought the house next door and incorporated the living room into the shop as a toy showroom. The shop was a typical village store, one of two newsagents in Newtownstewart. Frankie sold groceries, stationery, greetings cards, sweets, cigarettes, records (for a brief time), fresh fish every now & then, stamps, books, toys, ornaments, cutlery, ice cream – anything and everything. The shop also took in parcels from Ulsterbus – the most interesting for me were cardboard boxes with a couple of ferrets inside and big reels of film for the Gorey Cinema. 

For a while dad had a café in the back of the shop, though that must have closed in the mid-sixties, my memories of it are sketchy. Up until the end we still had a Coca Cola fridge, big globe light shades, a ham slicer and all the shelves were there that had been lined with bottles of soft drink when the café was a going concern. 

Apart from the toy showroom, the shop wouldn’t have changed much from John James’ day, until the early ‘70s when my dad did a little DIY and changed things around a bit, most notably getting rid of a small office that John James had where he could keep an eye on all that was going on. Frank had an architect draw up plans for a bigger refurbishment but that was not to be. My father died on 27 September 1976. 

We sold the shop to the Gallaghers who subsequently sold to Pat McNamee. Pat still runs the shop, it’s now a Centra store, unrecognisable from the days when the shop was Frankie Kirk’s.