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I'm Kevin Bond. Did you know my Granny Carlin from the River Row?

Posted Tuesday, March 23, 2010

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Kevin Bond

Thanks for latest email.

Hope Phil has been in touch by now.

You are right in that my grandfather was a painter, decorator and signwriter - there was always an advert in the fanlight above the front door as I recall.

Your father is right that my mother Philomena (Mena) as she was known had a younger sister, Susan Nula, where Nula became the preferred name.

Nurse

My Aunt Nula also came to Worcester and too became a Nurse (my mother was a Nursing Sister) and she died about four years ago. She had two children, one of whom died about seven years ago. .

I spoke with my mother this morning on the telephone and she obviously remembers your grandfather well, my mother thinks his name was Mick McLaughlin.

My mother said he was a small man and to distinguish him from the larger built Mick McLaughlin up the Town, who was a butcher, your grandfather was known as "wee Mick" and the butcher was known as "big Mick".

Facts

I've also cleared up one or two facts / corrections to earlier emails:

1. My mother’s cousin who taught music, Sister Evangelist, was in fact from the Carlin (grandfather) side of the family and not the maternal line (Lafferty) She was the daughter of my mothers father's sister (my mother’s aunt) Ellie Carlin who married into the Shannon family. Sister Evangelist's christened name was Eileen Shannon.

2. It is Maureen Kiely who appears in the photo with my mother and others at Thornhill who married Cyril Cussack.

3. As I said previously my grandmother Carlin (nee Lafferty) although educated in Greenock was born in Moville.

My mother's grandfather Lafferty managed a distillery near Greenock but always kept a home in Moville on the Malin Road.

Moville Heritage

All the children were born in Moville to retain their Irish heritage. My grandmother Ellen (not Helen) had two sisters Casey and Mary; and two brothers Phillip and Charlie Lafferty.

Phillip emigrated to America (Brooklyn) and had five children.

Charlie married and had eight children, boys and girls, although my mother can only remember two of the girls.

Perhaps your sister married one of my mother's Uncle Charlie's son's?

Quigg

Charlie lived out Moneydarragh way near Garrareagh where another cousin of my mother lived, Kathleen Doherty nee McLaughlin.

My mother's Aunt Mary Lafferty married into the Quigg family and had no children and she eventually ended up also living in River Row a few doors down from my mother's home.

My mother's Aunt Casey married a farmer Phil McLaughlin and had eleven children, one of whom was the aforementioned Kathleen (Doherty).

It was the eldest of these eleven children, Phillip McLaughlin who was brought up my my mothers grandmother Lafferty, referred to in a previous email, who ended up out Gleneely way

William Carlin

4. What is now Barron's Cafe / B&B was not owned by the Lafferty's but by my great grandfather William Carlin who had a grocer and hardware store there; he also owned a corn merchants up the Malin Road.

5. William Carlin was also the band master for the Town brass band and my grandfather Carlin took this over for a while after William's death.

My mother was born in a grocer store/pub that my grandparents owned situated up the Malin Road.

It is now a private dwelling.

My grandmother became seriously ill at one point which was eventually diagnosed as meningitis.

She was incapacitated for a very long time during which time my grandfather ran the business and ran up large debts.

Best Customer

As my grandmother told my mother "your father became the best customer" meaning the drink, and gave tick as if it was going out of fashion.

They had to sell up the property to settle the debts and moved to River Row.

My mother's granny Lafferty owned a pub in Bath Terrace called the Tam O Shanter which eventually became the Commercial Bar, when it was sold, and I believe today it is now a Bank.

Rita McDonald

My mother remembers a Rita McDonald who married a Hugh Barr.

She doesn’t remember her going to Thornhill though.

Also her sister Nula never went to Thornhill, she was educated in Moville.

Thornhill

My mother won a scholarship to go to Thornhill.

I've passed your father's telephone number to my mother and I hope she rings him some time.

I will try and call him sometime soon.

I'm just off for a couple of days to see one of my brothers, he's the off to Ireland with his wife to meet up with an Irish couple from Cork they met many years ago on holiday abroad, and ever since they meet up once or twice a year.

McGeoghan

Just another piece of info, my mother said today that one of the McGeoghan's a daughter of a cousin of hers, her cousin being a daughter of her Aunt Casey mentioned above (a former Lafferty).

She thinks her cousin married a man called Faulkner and they came from Redcastle way??

I said my mother was as bright as a button as she nears 92, even if she is physically frail!

All the best Kevin.