Memories

Memories containing the words .

Rice, Laurence Joseph, Cornamucklagh, Omeath,Co Louth, by Laura Rice

14 September 2017

Your Message Dear Kevin Woods,

Thank you for all the work you have put into recording the history of Carlingford and the Cooley Peninsula. I only wish I’d discovered the site sooner. My husband, Karim Hamdy, and I are traveling to Omeath next week (from Tunisia where we are at the moment) so that I can see where my great grandfather was born and grew up. Lawrence Joseph Rice (1847-1928) immigrated to Elmira, NY in 1865. He lived there, married Ellen O’Connell, and raised 6 sons and a daughter. When he retired, he returned to Ireland to visit family for about 5 months in 1920. Information from the passenger lists on his trip over say his destination was Cornamucklagh. The manifest on his return trip gave his last contact as G.J. McArdle in Newry. I’ve been trying to figure out who his parents were but have found nothing conclusive yet. His sister Bridget Rice immigrated to live with his family in 1914. When he died, the obituary says he was survived by Bridget (14 years his junior) in Elmira and a sister Anna Rice in Omeath. I know there were several Rice families on the peninsula, but none of the baptism records seem to list a Lauce, Bridget and Anna in one family, though there is a Lauce Rice, son of Owen Rice and Cath Sloane, who was baptized in 1847. Any insights you might have would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for all the pictures and information about the peninsula,

LauraMore > (0 comments)

Rafferty, McKitrick, Killen,

23 May 2017

Patrick Rafferty :
I greatly enjoyed going through your website on the people and places of Carlingford. I even came across a couple of “Rafferty” references”. Much of my interest in the people and places of Carlingford stems from my interest in my family’s history.

My great grandfather, Thomas Rafferty, was born in Carlingford on 3 Jan 1868. A year or two later he immigrated to America with his parents, Patrick Rafferty and Mary (McKitrick) Rafferty. (His parents’ marriage was registered in Dundalk on 4 Jan 1866).

In 1892, Thomas Rafferty married Margaret Killen in Ovid, New York. Margaret Killen was born on Carlingford in April of 1864 (or thereabouts). Margaret was the daughter of Michael and Elizabeth Killen of Carlingford, and the granddaughter of Mathew Killen and Margaret (Ryan) Killen.

Much of the information on the earlier Killens comes from an exchange of letters I had in 1998 with George Killen of Carlingford. He would be my grandfather’s first cousin. I had been directed to George Killen by another of my grandfather’s first cousins, Fr. Joseph Burke, S.J. I was told that Father Joe made a number of visits to Carlingford. He passed away in Philadelphia in 2003. I have lost contact with George Killen. If he is still around he would be about 87 years old.

I will be on holiday in Ireland in June, and will be staying in Carlingford from June 11 to 14. I was hoping that perhaps you could recommend some people or places or cemeteries I should visit while I am in Carlingford.

Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Patrick Rafferty
email:
mobile: +973-941-6228More > (0 comments)

Mary Ellen Olson - Oakes -McKevitt

3 May 2017

Hello! I am the great-great granddaughter of Owen McKevitt who came to America from County Louth in the 1870s. He married Margaret Oakes (from Carlingford) in 1874 in San Francisco, CA. Owen's brother Hugh was the witness. I came across Owen's poetry on the McKevitt family website. If anyone has any copies, I would love to see them. Maggie is buried in Silver City, NV. She died after giving birth to my great grandmother in 1877. A son, Tom McKevitt was born in 1875. Any information would be greatly appreciated! My email is:
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Cathal Delaney

29 March 2017

Newry Street Post Office :

The first twenty years, or so, of my life I spent in that village and what a wonderful
boyhood l had!
My mother, Frances, ran the Post Office from approx. 1946 until her death in 1957. She
had worked in the old Post Office before her marriage. It was situated in the building
where Eileen (Mrs.Thornton) now lives. She had been sent there as a newly trained
morse code operator to assist the elderly postmistress, a Mrs.Martin. By co-incidence
shortly after her marriage she would end up living right next door and some few years
later that's where the new Post Office was based.
My father, Charlie, worked in the railway offices at Greenore Junction.
At the far end of the Newry St. you can just make out small notice boards on
the wall of that second last house. It was the old Police Barracks. My grandfather
William was assigned there from Dundalk as sergeant. He originated from Roundwood
Co.Wicklow. Cardinal Logue befriended him. It was partly because, we think, he admired
the practice of the police March through the streets to Mass every Sunday and
he enjoyed participating in target shooting quite often with my grandfather. My father
recalled how the Cardinal was in fact a 'crack shot'!
Where the cinema was built there used to be an old store and before that the old
courthouse. It was burnt down in the 'Trouble'.
I well recall the fun we had while the cinema was being built; some jumping onto the
running boards of the lorries as they shunted and stalled and pranged amidst the
clouds of dust and the blasting of rocks and not such genteel language in accompaniment.

My maternal grandfather was a deep sea schooner skipper. He shipped out of Annagassan
harbour which was an important port estuary in those days. In retirement he was the Pilot
there and had many unusual experiences. Once he piloted a fanciful yacht carrying the
young bride and groom setting off on honeymoon from Castlebellingham Castle just
after their wedding. They were aristocrats, one a Bellingham.

My paternal grandmother had nine children. Her funeral, we understand went from Cford
to her native Cootehill area by train. William remarried and had three more boys, born
here. Vincent, Christopher and Richard.
My paternal grandfather is buried in Holy Trinity Cemetery. My maternal grandfather is
buried in Killsaran.
May Jesus enfold them all in His love.

Cathal DelaneyMore > (0 comments)

Kevin Woods

29 January 2017

Gathering Winkles and Rasberries

There were a few places that you could get summer employment as a child in the 1950s in Carlingford. Gathering winkles and offering to sell them to Michael John Boyle on the North Commons was fraught with disappointment. The winkles could be too small or picked from the wrong side of the shore. You ended up with no money and having to throw the days labour across the sea wall where they often mysteriously disappeared.
We picked raspberries and strawberries at 2 pence a punnet in one of 3 field farms, Rogans on the North Commons,Vincent Kierans on the Greenore Rd and Callaghan’s of Mullatee who supplied raspberries to Fane Valley for jam making.

Most of us age 10-12 preferred working with Callaghan’s. They supplied mugs of tea and thick slides of cottage loaf sandwiches filled with ham and mustard at lunch time. I picked there with assorted Woods and Mc Kevitt families children, Bernie Mc Cann from the Grove, the Ryan sisters Ann, Pat, and Deirdre daughters of Tom the Customs man. Mick Sheilds a nephew of the Callaghan’s, Mc Cormack’s from the Greenore Rd, Marjorie Donnelly from the Central Bar. Anthony Delaney from the Post Office .A few Mc Ardles from Newry St, .Helen Keenan from Tholsel St who later left were her family for Canada, Roisin Sheilds from the Castle Hill,Oliver Connolly from the railway cottage at King Johns pier and others that now slip my memory.

The day began at about 9. You were given your drill to work with a corresponding worker on the other side of the canes. Mick Callagan left you 12 empty punnets in a tray to be filled. The prospect of earning big money stretched out before you - 2 shillings and 4 pence when the 12 were filled, in today’s money that equated to 11 cent.

About 11.30 a.m. concentration would wane and the first squashed up handful of Raspberries would hit the back of your head. It was difficult to ascertain where they had come from due to the height of the canes but it would not take long before the whole field became in embroiled in a full scale Raspberry fight. The thought of money flew out the window and before long you were bloodied from head to toe with raspberry juice. A roar from Annie Callaghan normally restored order.

As I remember it, Mick Callaghan had a wee gra for the girls that we “men” envied.He too would gather raspberries and when his big cupped hands were full he would head to the nearest girls punnet and drop the lot in there filling it to overflowing. Ann Ryan was a favourite. She could have made money without working but in truth was the best thrower of a ball full of squashed fruit in the whole field.

They were wonderful happy days. It was the time of the Top 20 and Radio Luxemburg.
“Around The World” was No1 for 12 weeks on the trot. Jim Reeves was singing love songs and the first boy girl relationships were beginning to bud.
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