I am not trying to show a 'family tree' here, this would be too involved and not too interesting to most people. Allow me to place Thérèse and myself at the core of the family and I will show briefly where we came from and who our family is and what we are doing at the moment.
Thérèse is fortunate in that she has three sisters and a brother. They are Rosalie, married to Brendan O'Neill; Eileen, previously married to Charlie Morrissey; Greta, married to Joe O'Brien and John, married to Elmarie O'Sullivan. She is further fortunate in that both Rosalie and John live locally although since Rosalie and Brendan retired they live most of the time in their cottage in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry. Their cottage is across the road from the Championship Golf Links there and they are lucky in that they are interested in golf and are members of the club. Well, what better reason for retiring to Ballybunion.
Many would think that I was a spoiled child because I was an 'only' child. Granted, it had many advantages in that I didn't have to share the love and comforts available with siblings. But, and there is always a but, I have had a 'different' life in that I don't have siblings and my life has been impoverished, to a degree, by that.
Having said that I must plead with you not to feel too sorry for me. My loss has been amply made up by the five daughters that we have been blessed with. They are Oonagh, who now lives in Reigate, Surrey, England, with Tim Spriddell. Barbara, lives in Dorking, Surrey, England, with Philip Hopkins and their sons, Thomas and George. By coincidence these two towns, about six miles apart, are on the Greensand Way which is part of a medieval pilgrimage route leading to Canterbury and rather well chronicled by Chaucer.
Laura and Dave Kavanagh live near Cork with their son Mark. Dave spends the weekends in Cork but travels a lot in connection with his work which is based in Dublin,he also travels to the countries of the 'Six Nations Rugby League' of which he has organisational responsibilities. Sinéad and Larry Egar live in Cork within sight of Niamh's house. Níamh and David Wilson now have two daughters, Zoë and Katie. All in all we have the best of both worlds in that we have three daughters living close by us and two in England, living close to each other. This gives us an excuse to visit there a few times each year.
Uncle Joe
I am writing this paragraph on the 10th of November, 2002. In this part of the world, well in Britain really, it is known as 'Remembrance Sunday'. This is the day that the British remember those who 'fell' in all the wars that they waged. I suppose, when dealing with such matters, that you have to have a starting point. Remembrance Sunday probably started to remember and honour those who 'fell', that means got killed in the most horrible ways imaginable, in the Great War. Then later those who were killed in the Second World War. More recently they include the Korean War, the Falklands War, then the Gulf War and those who were killed in Northern Ireland. Politics aside I always think especially of my late uncle Joe O'Connor. Uncle Joe was an amazing inspiration to me as a child. Having left home he became known as Denis; this resulted from him being called by his second name at home and the first name that appeared on his birth certificate was the one he answered to in roll calls and the like having left home. This is a quirk of my family, I think, as I too am known by my second name and in situations where my 'full' name is used I have to answer to Michael!
I did not meet him too often as he lived in England. He left home at a young age and joined the Royal Navy, that is the British Royal Navy. I assume there are other Royal Navies! He became a communications officer on board a battleship and to me, when I was old enough to understand what he was, it was just magic. Imagine my uncle working as a radio operator on a battleship. He was special. When he come home to visit his mother, my Granny, he used to regale me with stories of his experiences. These were exotic in the extreme. He survived the Battle of Jutland during the Great War. This was the biggest and bloodiest naval battle of all time. After the war the Navy sent ships around the world 'showing the flag' and he was on the voyage that was known as the 'Empire Cruise'. He visited almost everywhere, I thought, but was most interested in his visits to the Far East and islands in the Pacific. He had many stories to tell of exotic animals, insects and people. Probably as I grew older I thought that, while he had those experiences he was also a good story teller and was able to enhance his stories to make them more attractive. Well, he always told me that the battleship that he served on in the Battle of Jutland was the biggest, the strongest and the best battleship ever built.
The Battle of Jutland, off the west coast of Denmark, took place on the 31st of May, 1916. It lasted for about twelve hours and Jellico, who was in command of the British Fleet, took a pounding, loosing fourteen capital ships and six thousand and ninety four crew members, mostly of the rating rank. My source for that is a recent television documentary that analysed what went wrong for the British on the day. We now know that it was not the accuracy of the German Fleet that spelled the fate of the British ships, it helped of course, nor was it the power and size of the explosive shells that they used; they were smaller and lighter than those of the British. We now know that it was the disregard of 'best practice' in explosives handling on the part of the gunnery crews on the British ships that caused the devastating explosions that sent them to the bottom. The German 'hits' did a lot of damage but the stored cordite exploded as a result of the fires from the German shells. From my reading of the reports of the battle and other sources it appears that the German fleet was trying to use accuracy in the firing of their guns and had some success. Their rate of fire was not high. The British were adopting a different approach. They had a policy of rapid fire at the expense of accuracy and hoped that this would upset the German gunners by just blanketing their ships and the waters around with shells. To achieve rapid fire from the huge guns they could not observe the best practice of keeping fire doors closed. As a result, cordite, the explosive used to propel the shells from the guns, was stacked up in passageways leading to the gun turrets and also became stacked up in and close to the gun turrets. They had created a situation for disaster and it very soon came. John Jellico has also been found remiss by retreating from the Germans as light faded in the evening when they turned away from the action and regrouped and headed for the relative safety of a German port. As it turned out the German Fleet did not put to sea again to engage capital ships for the remainder of the War. Jellico and the British Fleet were 'victorious' by default; despite taking severe casualties they inflicted enough damage to the German Fleet to make it unserviceable for some time, as well as that it is thought that the Germans had a re-think on their future strategies. Lessons were learned on both sides. Why do so many have to die.
I never remember asking him the name of the ship but some years ago I was looking through a book that I have that belonged to him. It is called 'The Empire Cruise'; it was written by V.C. Scott O'Connor. This is a coincidence, I don't know of any family connection to the writer O'Connor. On the opening page of the book it is said that it was 'Printed Privately for the Author by Riddle, Smith & Duffus, Windsor House, 83 Kingsway, London, W.C.2' (sic.) My late Mother has her name written on the inside of the cover in her lovely hand writing. I expect that he gave the book to her, she was his youngest sister, of seven sisters, and he was serving in the Navy when she was born so he never knew her as a 'sister' really. In the book I found a postcard addressed to uncle Joe. The addressee was Mr. D. J. O'Connor, H.M.S. Bellerophon, c/o G.P.O. London. I can't decipher the initials of the sender but the message was 'With all good wishes for a bright and happy Christmas'. The picture on the card is of signaling flags as used on ships and the message is 'A Happy Christmas' (Signaled by International Code) and the slogan 'Keep a Bright Look Forward'. The stamp shows the King at the time, would that have been George V? if so he was the last of the Saches Coburgs. The cost of the stamp was ½ penny and the stamp was cancelled or franked 'Manchester N' and the date was 21 Dec. 16. Probably 1916. A little bit of history no doubt. The first chapter of the book is called 'The Start' and I am going to type out the first paragraph as it shows a quaintness of phrase, probably popular at the time. It goes, 'On November 29th, 1923, on a cold grey morning, there weighed anchor at Devonport and Spithead six of His Majesty's ships, "Hood," "Repulse," "Delhi," "Dauntless," "Danae," and "Dragon," whose destiny it was to voyage round the world, to meet our kinsmen overseas, to carry to them a message of peace and goodwill, and to revive in their hearts and in ours the ties that bind them to us, and bind us to them.' The book was first published in 1925. On the side of the page by the first paragraph, Mother has noted that the H.M.S. Dauntless was the ship that Uncle Joe sailed on for that voyage.
Just recently I checked out the good ship H.M.S. Bellerophon to find that it was one of the original 'Dreadnoughts' and was indeed the biggest, the best, the strongest and the fastest battleship built. So, Uncle Joe was not stretching the truth. I located photographs of the ship and its brief history. It was commissioned in 1907 and was eventually scrapped in 1927. I feel that it was scrapped as a result of the 'disarmament' agreement that the U.S. got the British to agree to as they didn't want anyone to have a larger fleet than the one that they were building up at the time. H.M.S. Bellerophon obviously did the job it was designed for and survived the biggest naval battle of all time. I must now check out the "Dauntless" which I know from reading the book, was a 'Light Cruiser'. I last met uncle Joe at Christmas 1962 in Lismore. He died some years later having achieved a good age.
Another recollection I have of Uncle Joe is that he used to smoke the pipe a couple of times during the night. When he was at home in Lismore he shared my bedroom and his smoking and the flashing of his matches very often woke me. This was during years of the Second World War. Some nights we could hear the drone of what he identified for me as being aircraft. I can still hear his voice saying to me in a half whisper, 'they're Gerries'. Meaning that the aircraft were German. It is possible that German planes would plot a return course to their bases in German occupied France by flying over the south east part of Ireland where I lived, to avoid interception by British aircraft. Then it could have been British aircraft trespassing over Ireland on missions to the Western Approaches off the south west of Ireland. The Irish Free State had a policy of neutrality at the time so such flights should not take place but we did not have the facility to 'police' our own skies. Perhaps the historians can throw some light on this.
Another interesting fact about Joe, and he told me this himself, was that when he was leaving home as a boy to join the Royal Navy his Father, my grandfather, who did not drink alcohol, asked him to promise him that he would not drink either. Joe promised and kept his promise. In those days it was customary for those serving on board naval ships to get a 'tot of rum' each day. The value put on this was 1d (one 'old' penny) which was not as small an amount as we would now think. Over the years that Joe served in the navy he accumulated all of these 1ds for his time afloat, I think shore leave or shore duties were excluded, and either got the benefit of this money on each pay day or later as a lump sum. But he must have been unique in being a 'dry' tar. Unfortunately the family has not kept in touch with Uncle Joe's widow, Olive, or his daughter, Delia, but just the other day I came across a letter from Olive to my Mother so I have the address at which she lived then. That was about thirty years ago. I don't expect Olive to be still alive but I have checked on the name of the present residents at that address and they don't correspond to Olives name or her family name or the surname of her daughter who I know now to be married. However I will still keep trying. As a matter of interest you may wish to have a look at a website where I have a query posted. I have not had any response from that and it is there for over a year. Double click on the following website address and you will see my message. www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/bellerophon_class.html I am writing this on the 20th of December, 2003 and am very glad to be able to report that I have been contacted by a person who will help me with my search for career records of Uncle Joe. This person, a gentleman, lives in the UK and visits Kew from time to time, this is where the records are kept. This helpful contact is just what I need to progress my search further. I look forward to any information arising from that source. We have exchanged emails and that is a great start. June 2004 and I have just experienced the most amazing coincidence. Quite recently I came across two undated letters among my late mother's papers. These letters were from the widow of my late Uncle Joe. She had written them from an address in Devon. The dates of the letters must have been 1974 as it was written shortly after my uncle's death. I wrote to the current resident of that property asking if they knew anything about my aunt whose name was Olive O'Connor (nee Hatch) and waited for a reply. Just a few days ago I had an email from a man who lived in the house just after 'the war', around the late 1940s. What is amazing about the story is that he, quite coincidently, decided recently to go to visit the house to just reminisce. When he got there he decided to call to the house and to speak to the present resident. The resident told him that he had just received a letter enquiring about previous residents of the property. Now, I think that that is quite a coincidence. The former resident who called was most interested and asked for my contact details and he subsequently emailed me and sent me some photos of the house as it was when he lived in it. It has since been refurbished and looks extremely well, he told me. I have now had a letter from the resident giving me further information about the house and the area. Unfortunately neither communication had any details of my uncle or his widow but I am nevertheless very glad to have been contacted by these two people. All going well I will be in the Records Office at Kew, near London, on Friday next the 14th of January, 2005. Oonagh has made the arrangements and ordered some files to be available for inspection. I don't know, just yet, what information will be available but I must give it a try. If I get any useful information it may guide me on a further search. Any interesting items discovered will be reported on here. My visit went very well. I found the 'Public Records Office' to be an amazing place. Huge building with extensive reading and researching rooms with facilities such as microfilm viewers, computers and places to peruse actual documents. Unfortunately, having spent about four hours there I still did not find the Service records of Uncle Joe nor did I even find his Service Number. If I had that I feel that I would be able to find out much more about his service in the Royal Navy. At least I had the actual Log of the H.M.S. Bellerophon in my hands and looked through it. The information in this was of a nautical nature giving the speed of the ship, water temperature, air temperature and other observations of the weather. Perhaps the next time I visit I will get more information. I must confess that just before Christmas last, that is Christmas 2005, I felt that another visit to the National Archives at Kew would still not yield much information in the time that I would have available there. I gave serious consideration to employing a 'professional' archive researcher to try to get at least a starting point in Uncle Joe's Naval career from where I may be able to continue myself. I had been given a name of one such person by Rohan Greenland, a person that I have been in contact with for the past couple of years. Rohan's Grandfather also served on the H.M.S. Bellerophon and as he lives in Australia a visit to Kew was hardly going to materialise. Even if he did visit England he felt that he would not have enough time to do any research. He got his Grandfather's records from a researcher and the fee charged was not an awful lot of money and I was going to do likewise. Just today, the 24th of January, 2006, I had a phone call from Oonagh and she had found Uncle Joe's records, or some of them, in the National Archive files on the Internet. She was doing a bit of a search during her lunch break. Well, she would say that anyway! She downloaded the file, at a cost of a few pounds sterling, and emailed the file to me. It is a photo copy of the actual hand-written ledger so a bit of deciphering needs to be done. At least now I have Joe's Service Number and his exact date of birth and it does confirm that he was on the H.M.S. Bellerophon from July 1914 to December 1917. Interestingly it seems to say that he got 'badges' on three different dates. I don't know what these are just now, they may be to mark the fact that he took part in 'action'. March 2006 and I am able to close the chapter on Uncle Joe. I have had great help from someone in Dawlish that I contacted and they, very kindly, did a lot of enquiring locally and got me in touch with a niece of Joe's widow. This lady had all the information that I needed. Alas, what she had to tell me saddened me but such is life. Joe, he was known as Denis to his family and friends, died on the 6th of November, 1974 and his ashes were strewn in the Garden of Remembrance in Plymouth according to his wishes. Olive, his widow lived until 1997 and died on the 12th of March. Their daughter, Delia, my cousin had gone to live in the U.S. many years before that but sadly she died at a young age leaving three children, a son and two daughters. I am writing this paragraph on the 11th of March 2006 and Olive in particular is in my thoughts, tomorrow being the ninth anniversary of her death. I wish I knew more about Aunt Sheila, she could tell a story or two. She is now, in the year 2002, in her ninety eight year, I think. A great age but most of her siblings lived to a good age as did her mother, my other Granny, Granny Mason. When I was very young, living in Lismore, my Granny O'Connor often mentioned a German woman that she had met in the company of Aunt Sheila. This German woman was named 'Mor Nostle' or at least that is my hazy recollection of her name. It also appears that she was a big person, well big when compared to Irish women at the time, although having said that Aunt Sheila was also a big woman. It appears that Sheila visited Germany, probably worked there or studied there, before the Second World War. I imagine that she befriended the German woman while there and that she came to Ireland for a visit to reciprocate Sheila's visit to Germany. At this remove I really don't know why Sheila visited Germany at the time but it is part of family 'folklore' that she was very lucky to get out of Germany as the war commenced shortly after her return to Ireland. In recent years, on the death of her husband Joe Carroll, Sheila relocated to Lahinch, and my cousins, Odran and Jarlath, helped her in this task. Many months later Jarlath told me that he was going through her personal effects and found, to his surprise, a ticket to one of the Nuremberg Rallies that were so much a part of the rise of one, Adolf Hitler. I think that Jarlath may have been surprised at this more that I was because he may not have known or had forgotten that Sheila had visited Germany in the early 1930s, if Odran, Jarlath or myself were born at the time we were certainly too young to have been aware of this, we were born in or about 1934, 1935 and 1936. When I mentioned the 'German woman' to Jarlath he said that he had found a photograph among Sheila's papers that showed Sheila and another woman standing at the rail of a ship and that written on the back of the photograph was 'Galway'. My guess is that it is Mor who is seen with Sheila as they returned to Galway by liner from Germany and that this photograph recorded the event as the ship approached Galway or berthed there. In those days and probably up to the early 1950s, liners on the transatlantic routes called to Cobh, in Cork and Galway, as both ports were more or less on the route the liners took from North America to European ports. This story does not have an ending as I don't know if Sheila had further contact with Mor or if the war ended it tragically. At this stage Sheila is too old to be quizzed about these events. I have asked Jarlath to try to broach the subject with her if the opportunity presented itself. I last met Sheila two years ago and we had a very good chat about old times, she was in great form and little changed from the younger person that I remember. Sadly, Aunt Sheila died on the afternoon of the 5th of December, 2002. I don't know her date of birth other than that she was born in 1904. This means that she was probably in her ninety ninth year, a great age, and enjoyed robust health of body and mind up the end. We are all indebted to Odran and Carmel for the care they gave Sheila in her declining years. For me it is the end of an era. All my maternal and paternal siblings are now dead as are my parents so I am really the 'older generation'. One has to face up to the inevitability of their departure, they are truly missed. March 2006. Just recently I have had some information on Sheila's 'German' friend. A lot of thought and research has to be put into this but I feel that the German woman could very well have been from Poland and may have been a relative of Sheila and even myself. As they say, watch this space! Now that Laura has completely recovered from her cranial surgery of 2003 I am putting my 'diary' of her recovery here for the record. She is just great now. Didn't know for years what it is like to be fully fit and healthy. She admitted the other day that she is 110%. What more can you expect, what more can I say. Below is my 'diary' of her illness and recovery that I have transferred from the first page of this site. On Wednesday the 10th of September, 2003, Laura was in hospital having a very rare condition treated surgically. I think that she should have her own website, or perhaps a page in my website, giving details of her condition, how it affected her for the past twenty years, how it was diagnosed and eventually how it was rectified. At the moment she is still in hospital recovering but is expected to be released in a few days. Her recuperation will take at least six weeks and it may be much longer before she will be fully healed and be able to enjoy continuous days free of pain. Her condition is called Arnold Chiari Malformation. Most general practitioners have never heard of it! Since I wrote the above paragraph Laura has been discharged from hospital. She is now recuperating here with Thérèse and myself and will remain here until all her post operative pains and aches have healed. She is quite well, still not able to take much food due to various pain dulling medications that she is on that are upsetting her digestion. Every day will show an improvement and perhaps by the weekend she will be feeling much better. She is able to be up and about the house but rests whenever she feels like doing so. I don't think that she has been reading but has watched some television. A few good nights sleep will make a big difference too. Unfortunately the past thirty six hours or so have not been easy for Laura, she has had a little bit of a set back. We took her to the hospital today and she was checked out by one of the surgical team. He arranged for her to have a MRI scan of her head taken, which she did and that showed nothing untoward, just normal post surgical inflammation. Again a slight change in medication and she is at home again resting. It will take time and it is difficult to be patient. This is turning out to be a 'diary' of Laura's recovery. Since the above assessment in the hospital Laura has been at home but has had good days and bad days. Unfortunately the bad days became more numerous and her general practitioner admitted her to hospital as an emergency admission on Thursday evening at about 7.30 pm. She was assessed by the neuro medical people and they took blood for various tests to check if she had an infection or internal bleeding. All these tests showed that everything was normal. Again they changed her medication. She had a fairly restful night. The following day she had improved well and had a light tea in the evening just before they discharged her. She is now eating a bit better and generally feeling a little improved but is still on several medications. I think that it is going to be a long recovery for her. If she can maintain progress from day to day it will be great.
Great news today, Thursday, the 1st of October, 2003. Laura was feeling much better today, quite bright and spoke of taking a walk around the courtyard as the day was so warm, sunny and calm. Later in the day she still felt well and we drove her to a nearby shopping centre where she visited a few shops. She was very tired after that and had to rest when she got home but again it is another little bit of progress. Festina lente Laura's progress is slow but she is not having major setbacks like she did in the early days. Last Friday, the 10th of October, 2003, she went to have her hair done. This is a measure of how much she has progressed. She is still a week or more away from driving her own car or going back to her own house I feel. Yesterday, the 15th of October, 2003 was the end of the fifth week since Laura had her surgery. She was quite well all day and had stopped most of her medication since the previous day and was managing without them. Today, the 16th, she is still feeling quite well. A bit grumpy at breakfast but within an hour was feeling better. She has a consultation this morning with the Surgeon and it will be interesting to hear what he has to say. I'm sure he will be pleased with her progress but will he be pleased with what she has to say to him? Sin ceist eile!. On Friday, the 17th of October, 2003, Thérèse and myself went to Laura's house and did some work on erecting the garden shed that I started to construct probably eighteen months ago! It is now standing and ready for finishing off, this will free up space in her house as her garden furniture, lawn mower and other 'outdoor' items can be discreetly stored in there until next summer. Laura came with us and while she helped a little I made sure that she did not do anything too strenuous. Later, when we were leaving she decided to drive her car back to Blackrock. This was the first time that she has driven since her surgery. It is about four miles to Blackrock from Garryduff and was a useful 'proving' drive. That she felt like doing it is another sign of her recovery.
Today, the 23rd of October, 2003, is another sunny day with a bit of a chill in the air, wind from the North, reminds me of the Irish poem about that wind. A pleasant day all in all. Laura was in great form this morning and felt so well that she packed up her belongings and went back to her own house. She wants to 'try herself out' without the support of being at home. She is off most of her medication and except for a twinge of a pain in her upper back is feeling quite well. She will not return to work for at least another week or two but it is great to see her so well. We loved having her here and being able to nurse and nurture her. We are also extremely glad that she has recovered to such an extent that she now feels able to get back to her own house and look after herself. I am confident that she will not have any more setbacks. The aspirations expressed in the previous paragraph have been realised. Laura has continued to make an excellent recovery and things are looking up at last. She has seen her doctors and they have left her date for returning to work entirely up to her. She has been talking with her Chief Executive and has agreed to return to work on the 17th of November, 2003. That is tomorrow as I write this. She expects to be well able to deal with her duties but only time will tell. Getting back into a positive routine will help her to know that she is well and truly recovered. The months have flown by since I last wrote about Laura. The latest news is that on the 27th of May 2004 she and Dave Kavanagh exchanged their marriage vows here in Cork and held a very enjoyable reception for both their families and friends. The weather was the only aspect of the day that didn't turn out as planned and outdoor photography was rushed as rain was threatening. The photo on the left is of Laura and Dave with Dave's parents, Laura's parents, Dave's brother Peter and Laura's sister Oonagh both of whom were witnesses. For those visitors to the site who do not know either family the names from left to right are Peter, Noel,Terry and Dave Kavanagh, Laura, Frank, Thérèse and Oonagh Mason. So you don't know who Brendan O'Neill is! Well consider yourself to be a member of probably the smallest minority in Ireland at least. We often joke Brendan about the number of people that he knows, he is that sort of fellow. Put him into a strange place or town and within hours or days he will know most people there and they him. In more recent years Brendan spends most of his time in his restored cottage in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry, and golf has become somewhat of a passion with himself and Rosalie. I am not claiming it but it would not surprise me if it was I who introduced Brendan to 'Pitch and Putt' many years ago. I did play with him at Rocklodge, west of Cork City, nearly forty years ago. The name of his cottage in Ballybunion is 'Killeheny Cottage' and he rebuilt it from a neglected wreck to what it is today, a gem, and right across the road from probably one of the best links golf courses in the country. Brendan did most of the work on this cottage himself over the years and it will probably last for another hundred years before it will require major work again. There are many stories that I could tell about Brendan but one very amusing one happened about twenty five years ago. At the time Brendan was 'running' and in fact ran in many marathons. I know that he competed in the New York marathon once and ran twice in the Cork marathon and also twice in the Dublin one. He has probably lost count, at this stage, of the number of so called half marathons that he has competed in. He did not have the 'build' of a long distance runner, being more heavily built than the typical marathon person. However, with dedication and training he did make the qualification times for the various marathons. But back to the funny story - one day Brendan was in town and saw a couple of blackguards snatch a handbag from a woman. They ran off but Brendan ran after them. He did not try to catch up with them initially as he would have had to deal with the two or three fellows involved. Eventually one dropped out of the chase and then the second leaving the fellow, who still had the handbag, being followed by Brendan. Brendan just followed him, a few paces behind him, right through town and eventually the bag snatcher had to give up, he was breathless and exhausted. Brendan was only starting to warm up. He easily apprehended the culprit, got the ladies bag back and I can't remember what he did with the fellow, probably threw him in the river! I often have a chuckle at that story as I'm sure that the bag snatcher still has nightmares about that experience. In more recent years Brendan has studied art. He always had the ability to sketch and paint but took some courses to learn the skills and is now a very accomplished painter and sketcher in many media. I particularly like his acrylics, well I like acrylics anyway but Brendan has done some excellent ones. I'll let you see a sample of one of his rural paintings, it is titled 'West Cork' and shows the dignity that such rustic farm buildings have. I like that painting very much. Just recently Brendan has set up an Internet connection and can be contacted by email. If you would like to commission a painting or drawing by him I'm sure he would not mind an enquiry, let me know or email me and I will forward your communication. On the left is the cottage in Ballybunion that Brendan and Rosalie rebuilt. It was obviously photographed at night but Brendan was trying out his new camera and I think that it worked very well. To the right is the painting that I have referred to above. This is supposed to be about Antoin so a little about him. Antoin is now part of the O'Looney hospitality and entertainment business and trained in some of the larger hotels in the London area and the 'home counties'. While there he was working for a chain of hotels that promoted smoke free environments and ensured that users of their facilities who did not smoke would be able to enjoy their facilities free of tobacco smoke. It was as a result of this that Antoin decided to raise money for such a cause as the treatment of people suffering from lung diseases. Of all things he decided to cross the English Channel on a surf board; what made his escapade unique was that he was going to do it without a sail! Yes, he was going to paddle it all the way across with his hands. Well he succeeded and became the first person ever to cross the English Channel by this means. The following is an article about his feat. I scanned it from a newspaper cutting but the first scan gave me a huge file that would take several minutes to download on a dial up Internet connection so, judging others against my own impatience I scanned it again at a lower resolution. This time the photo was still good enough but the text is not legible. Cutting from the now defunct 'Sunday Press' newspaper. Date probably 1990. As the text on the above newspaper cutting is not legible I have scanned the text separately and it is shown below without modification. I can't remember the year that Antoin made the crossing of the Channel but I can see 'Cross Channel 90' on his board so I am assuming it was in 1990. If I am wrong in my assumption I hope to be corrected by a visitor to my site. Clare man Antoin O'Looney aims to see his name in the next Guinness Book of Records. Tomorrow night he sets off from the Dover coast to attempt a record breaking crossing of the English Channel - on a surfboard! The cameras of early morning British television will be watching closely as Antoin begins the 21-mile journey across the channel to raise money for the British Lung Foundation. A pilot boat will navigate the way, and he will propel the board using only his arms and hands. "It will take about nine hours depending on the weather," said Antoin. 'If the wind is up it will take a bit more." Twenty-six-year-old Antoin from Lahinch, Co. Clare, currently works at Trusthouse Forte's Castle Hotel in Windsor, Berkshire. He had planned the Channel crossing for some time but decided to make the trip for the British Lung Foundation to coincide with the hotel group's non-smoking campaign. "The Foundation are really doing some great work for children, smokers and lung research," he said. To date Antoin's scheme has raised £10,000 for the Foundation, which has Princess Anne as its main patron. And the surfer was presented to the Princess recently in Bath during the fund-raising campaign. "She seems very nice, but very quiet," he said. Antoin surfed winter and summer while growing up in Lahinch, where his parents Adrian and Carmel own the Atlantic Hotel. And it was at the age of 15, as he watched local swimmer Pat Conway train for a channel swim that he was first inspired to try the crossing on a board. Antoin has been training intensively since February for the crossing. Preparations have included: swimming with his legs tied together, weight lifting, running, and regular trips home to catch the Clare waves around Liscannor Bay. Recently he made the first surfboard journey between Doolin and the Aran Islands under very rough conditions, and last weekend he took the board on a 16-mile trip up a river estuary against the current. The surfboard has been especially designed and made by Roger Cooper for the crossing: measuring nine feet long by 18 inches wide it is unusually light. Antoin will be wearing a wet suit and goggles for the trip, and to dispel boredom a waterproof personal stereo will be attached to his back so he can listen to the radio. The navigators in the pilot boat will be feeding him a steady supply of bananas and water with glucose to keep up his energy and prevent the sea-salt drying up his mouth. Antoin will push off from the English coast between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, and to date has no qualms about the ordeal ahead of him. He readily confesses, however, that some people regard him as "'a bit of a fruit case”, to even attempt the crossing. And home in Lahinch many neighbours are bewildered by his crazy plan. My next job is to search the Guinness Records for the entry recognising Antoin as being the first to cross the English Channel on a surfboard. Watch this space. It will also be interesting to see if the 'Sunday Press' archives are available to try to determine the date of the news item shown above. Sarah (Fanny) Durack. Australia's First Woman Olympic Gold Medallist Born in Sydney in 1889, Sarah Durack (1889-1956) became an Australian sporting legend, breaking at least 11 world records during her 15-year swimming career. Competing in distances from 100 yards to a mile, her success is considered remarkable. She dominated swimming in New South Wales and was nominated to represent Australia at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.
Amongst protests from the Ladies Swimming Association because men would be in attendance at the events, compromising the modesty of women swimmers, Durack was not financially supported by the Australian Olympic Council. With true fighting spirit, Durack herself, raised the money to attend through public fundraising and sailed on a separate steamer to the Games.
Winning her first heat in a time that equalled the men's 100m win at the 1896 games, Durack was the first Australian woman to win a race in Olympic competition. She went on to win the event and become Australia's first woman gold medallist.
She was ready to defend her title at the 1920 Antwerp Games, but fell ill. She retired soon after and devoted her time to coaching. Durack's immense talent and commitment served as an inspiration to women athletes Australia-wide.
Sarah Durack died of cancer in 1956 at the age of 67.
She was a contemporary of my father being a few years older. I don't know at the moment what the exact relationship between them was but they were cousins. The photograph shown here bears a striking resemblance to my father and his sisters. I think it is the set of the jaw that is the strongest feature. Compare this photo with that of my Father in the 'golfing group' in my 'Old Photos' page. It is the same jaw line. Some of my 'Clare' cousins are still in touch with this branch of the family and if my Aunt Maura was still alive she would have the full family history.
Australian or New Zealand Cousins The 17th of May, 2004, was the 60th anniversary of the capture, by the Allies, of Monte Cassino in southern Italy. This was another appalling event in another appalling war. It took the lives of about 250,000 people, many of them were civilians and children. These did not want to wage war on anyone but were caught up in the horrible war games of others.
Two of my Mother's first cousins were in the Australian or New Zealand army and were both killed in action at Monte Cassino, they were brothers. I don't think that she ever met them as they were born and grew up in Australia or New Zealand. At the moment I don't know their names but I remember Mom telling me about them when I was a child. Their surname was probably O'Connor. She probably told me the story many times as it is one of those indelible memories from my childhood. I am currently trying to trace them and to get their names. It would be just great if I could contact any living relatives.
It is a bit of a 'needle in a hay stack' situation but I will try to get more information on them and include it here.
Flannan Egan, from Clifden, Co. Galway, is a first cousin of mine. His late Mother, Bee, as she was known, was a sister of my late Father. I don't ever remember meeting her but have a very scant recollection of being at her funeral probably in the early 1940s.
Flannan has spent most of his life in the Lighthouse Service at various locations around the coast of Ireland. He has many tales to tell of his experiences and from chatting to him he enjoyed every minute of it. I suppose it is unfair to sum up a persons life in a few words but Flannan's fifteen minutes of fame were when, in 1969 he became the first Lighthouse keeper to be taken from a rock station, the Fastnet off the County Cork coast, by helicopter. This was a routine crew change and the first by air in situations other than in an emergency.
The following is an extract from the Irish Lights publication, BEAM. 'On 29 October 1969 Fastnet became the first Irish lighthouse at which a normal scheduled relief was carried out by helicopter, when at 0950 hours Edward F. Hickey, Principal Keeper, returned to his station from Castletownbere in an Alouette III helicopter operated by Irish Helicopters Ltd. Flannan Egan, Assistant Keeper, went ashore on liberty on the return flight. This was a milestone in the use of helicopters in Ireland and in the history of Irish Lights'.
Flannan is also well know for making model currachs and other items of Irish interest and has sold these in large numbers to the tourist trade over the years. I know a number of people who have specimens of his workmanship.
An interesting story about Flannan. I last met him a few weeks ago at the funeral service of the widow of our late Uncle John of Scariff. Kathleen died peacefully after a short illness and as usual all branches of the Mason family were represented at the obsequies. I was chatting to Flannan and we spoke about helicopter relief of lighthouses and the like. I told him that there was a helicopter pilot living across from me and that he used to fly for Irish Helicopters and as far as I knew serviced lighthouses. Flannan not only knew him but was very friendly with him. What a small world. A few days later I was speaking to Joe, the helicopter pilot and told him that I had been speaking to Flannan and Joe was eloquent in his praise for Flannan. He mentioned spending several hours in Flannan's house in Clifden, waiting for a break in the weather to fly to a nearby lighthouse.
I have just started to 'research' my paternal grandfather, Michael Mason. This photograph of him on the left is the only one that I have. He has already been mentioned in an article about the Mass Rock near his homeplace. A man who certainly left his mark on our lives in many ways. I guess that this photo was taken in 1932, maybe earlier. Home photography was rare in those days so it is very likely that it was taken in a 'studio'. I wonder what the occasion was, it must have been something special. Must enquire from my cousins.
If you, the reader, have any information about him kindly let me have it and I will make it available here. You can 'save' the photo from this site or 'print' it directly form the site. The original is just a little larger then what you see here, about postcard size.
At the moment all I can say about him is that he was born in 1861 and died in 1934. I have not confirmed these dates but they are good enough to start with. I know definitely that he died some time before I was born in 1936. I don't know the names of his siblings or his parents.
My 'research' into my maternal grandfather, Thomas O'Connor is underway. Unfortunately, like so many other things in this area, I have left it a bit late to start gathering information on him. I know that he was born in Foynes, Co. Limerick, in 1854, and that there are still some members of his family living there. They may be distant cousins and it would be difficult to make any connection with them but I'm sure they are there. He married my Grandmother, Hanorah, in 1890. I think that they married in Lismore but I am not sure. He died before I was born and the year of his death is, and it is a guess, 1935. He served in the Royal Irish Constabulary but retired from it at a reasonably early age. I don't know if he served until the force was demobilised on the formation of the Irish Free State or if he saw the 'writing on the wall' and left before that. I have recently visited the National Archives in Dublin trying to trace his service records in the R.I.C. Unfortunately I have had no success yet. It is just a matter of turning pages and looking up microfilm records until I come to his name. There are quite a number of O'Connors listed and then he could also have been known as Connors, a fairly common corruption of the name. In fact my late Mother was known to some as Eily Connors while her correct name was Eileen O'Connor. Grandfather had many jobs in the years following his time in the RIC. He was quite skilled with his hands so was very employable. I know that he worked for 'Miss Currey' in Lismore.Miss Fanny W. Currey was born in 1848 and died in 1917 and was the proprietor of 'The Warren Gardens' in Lismore. He was in charge of the dafodill breeding programme that Miss Currey started there. By deduction this would have been in the later years of her life and not after 1917. I found postage stamps from the Netherlands in my home in Lismore and asked my Grandmother how they came there. She told me that 'Grandfather had business with people in the Netherlands'. I don't know when the daffodil production ended but Miss Currey had died before the Great War ended, maybe the business continued after that when the Dutch were restocking their bulb fields after the ravages of the War. Grandfather was a keen gardener and my Mother often told me about having to put sunshades on his specimen roses in their own garden to keep them from being bleached by the sun. I was told recently that he drove a lorry for Mr. Paxman in Lismore. The Paxman family had a butter 'factory' there and it was situated at the 'head' of the canal that linked Lismore to the navigable part of the Blackwater just West of Cappoquin. This would suggest that they a lot of their produce and maybe their raw materials, were shipped on the canal to and from points further away. My readers may have seen Jeremy Paxman on the BBC television programme, 'Newsnight'. He also is the compere or question master on the very interesting quiz programme called 'University Challenge' also on the BBC. Jeremy, I have read in Eugene F. Dennis's book, 'Lismore', is a descendant of or at least a relative of the Lismore Paxman family. I remember Mr. Paxman and my Father told me that Mr. Paxman was known to boast that he could make butter from 'axle grease'. Low fat or salt free I wonder!
The photograph shown here was probably taken before he married. Photography was not an everyday hobby in those days and the personal 'box camera' had not been invented. The studio that this photograph was taken in was in Belfast and Grandfather was stationed there before his marriage which was in 1890. So it is quite an early example of photography and a credit to the photographer, the original photograph, which I have, is still in very good condition.
If you, the reader, have any information about him kindly let me have it and I will make it available here. You can 'save' the photo from this site or 'print' it directly form the site. The original is just a little larger then what you see here. It is a 'professionally' taken photograph and the mount bears the name of a photographic studio in Belfast. This suggests to me that it must have been taken on a very special occasion, perhaps his wedding to my grandmother.
I doubt if any of my family, now living, know who Myra Kelly was. I don't remember meeting her but I was very close to her when I was a little fellow many years ago. Myra was my Mother's best friend. They lived within sight of each other and must have gone to school together and spent many hours in each others homes. My Mother had another very close friend, Dorothy O'Brien and I knew Dorothy very well and her brother Paddy. Sadly Myra died when she was just a very young woman. In those days many people died in their youth from illnesses that now are rarely experienced or that are relatively easily cured. Two of my Mother's sisters, Francie and Eileen, died in their teenage years or in their early twenties.
Myra's parents lived at the end of our street and I remember them very well. Her Mother died when Myra was quite young and her father, Joe, married again. This is always difficult for the child and while Myra's step-mother was a fine woman, and I knew her very well, my mother often told me that Myra dearly missed her natural mother. The 'new' Mrs. Kelly, was a professional confectioner, she also ran a shop and kept a few paying guests. One of her long time resident guests was Chris Houlihan, a member of the local Gárdaí and from Feakle in Co. Clare. Chris was a very close friend of my Father who was also a Clareman. Mrs. Kelly's husband, Joe, was the local representative of the electricity supply board and I can remember him changing fuses on the pole across from my house with a long pole specially made to do the job without having to climb to the height of the wires. Joe was very deaf and spoke loudly. Everytime that I would meet with him on the street he would call me over and ask me to 'never forget to pray for the girl who made my first pair of bootees'. That girl was his only daughter, Myra and greatly loved and missed by him. I may not be good at the prayers but Myra is never far from my thoughts. I'm sure that not having a child of her own she lavished her love on me, I hope that I was able to show her my love, small and all as I was. I don't know when Myra died but it must have been not later than about 1939 or I would have remembered her.
There is a sequel to this story and it moved me greatly as it unfolded. On a recent visit to Lismore I asked a local if he knew where Joe Kelly was buried in the local cemetery. He said the not alone did know where he was buried but that he had actually buried him as he was working as a grave-digger at the time of Joe's death. I hadn't asked him about where Myra was buried as I presumed that he would not have heard of her. I examined the gravestone where Joe Kelly was buried, I then found the inscription for Myra which gave the date of her death. To my amazement it was the 21st of September, 1937. I can't describe my emotions on seeing that as it was my first birthday. I was very moved, moved to tears really when I thought of my mother fussing over me on my first birthday and at the same time mourning the death of her closest friend Myra. My birthdays will never be the same again.
Most of our memories of early childhood are sketchy. We probably sub-consciously forget the unpleasant parts and remember the better parts. I don't remember much of my early days at school but do remember the teacher that I had in the infants classes in the local Convent. She was Eva Wright, Miss Wright to us of course. She was a great person and looked after all her young pupils with great love and respect. I can remember her making little model steam trains and wagons from matchboxes using a few slices of the corks from bottles as wheels and a cork from a 'medicine' bottle as the funnel. This funnel would be topped off with a little bit of cotton wool for the steam and smoke. Steam trains were the norm in those days and Lismore, my home town, was served by the Great Southern Railway and was on the line from Mallow to Rosslare so we had a lot of traffic each day, both passenger and freight.
Miss Wright performed another very important function in the 'scolastic' year and that was preparing her care for their 'First Communion' preceded by their 'First Confession'. Her pupils would be about seven years old at that stage and I have some very sketchy recollections of it. Apparently Miss Wright did a 'dry run' with the children in the Confessional before allowing her care take the serious step of confessing to one of the local Curates. I'm sure that she heard many a funny tale from us little people but such was the dignity of the occasion and her intergity that she would not tell of her experiences.
Shortly after that I passed from the Convent and attended the local Boys school and don't remember meeting with Miss Wright again. She lived locally so I often saw her. Some years later she married but as far as I know was not blessed with a family of her own. She would have been an excellent mother and tutor. Her husband's name ws Michael O'Neill, I don't think that he was from Lismore but I knew him well to see. What probably made him 'distinctive' was that he had a 'Villiers' auto-cycle that he used to go to work. It was the only one in the town and required pedal assistance to get up the few hills around the town.
Probably fifty years later I was called to a hospital in Waterford where my Aunt Nor had been taken having suffered a serious stroke. She was unable to talk to me when I arrived in the hospital and while I was sitting with her I heard a faint call from across the hospital ward. I was being call by my name. Aunt Nor could not have told anybody my name as she could not then speak. I looked around and went over to the person who was calling me. It was Eva Wright. She was very ill but recognised me after all the years. She was the same lovely person but sadly was very ill and just wanted to go home to die. She asked me if I could 'put a word in' with the nurses for her, to allow her home. She had a box of sweets by her bed and she insisted that I take them for my own children. She knew that I had children and knew all about me. I left her shortly after and when I returned a couple of days later to visit my Aunt I was deeply saddened to hear that Eva had died.
She is mentioned by Eugene F. Dennis in his book 'Images of Ireland, Lismore'. In fact there is a picture of Eva and her husband in the book on page 28. A 'Lismorean' is a 'title' that the author gives to people from Lismore who were exceptional. I consider Eva Wright to be among the greatest 'Lismoreans'. I'm sure that the countless children that knew her and their parents have nothing but nice things to say about her. I was glad to have met her in her last days and had the opportunity to tell her how nice she was.
Aunt Sheila
Laura
Brendan O'Neill
Antoin O'Looney
