Memories

Memories containing the words .

John J Murphy -1829/1906

29 January 2017

John J Murphy, son of John Murphy & Rose Fagan, and Mary Carne daughter of James Carne & Biddy Boyle all of Carlingford in early 1800's
emigrated to America in 1851 -
Have their history available
I'm the great-grandson of John J Murphy /
Peter R. O'Brien - email
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Mary Ellen Campbell

29 January 2017

Hi Kevin
I love the site and thank you for your recent help, it was very much appreciated. I found a photo of my Glenmore O Neill connection. She was Annie O Neill married to Thomas Hughes in Belfast. She was daughter of Owen O Neill and Sally McKevitt. From your site I gather there is a McCann/Donnelly connection. Any further information would be great. Again Kevin thank you for all your help and this great siteMore > (0 comments)

Clodagh Rogan

29 January 2017

Spending many a Saturday from early morning till late at night visiting my grandparents and uncle with my Dad Peter and my siblings. I looked forward to visitng John's Castle, crab fishing and going out on the speed boats (during the summer months).Our uncle Patrick used to take us over to the village on a Saturday evening to buy comics and sweets. We'd arrive back in Kells very late and exhausted from the days activities.More > (0 comments)

Kevin Woods

29 January 2017

Can the person who filled in the memory of Lizzie
Nicholson on the Castle Hill contact me at

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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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