Maghera Heritage Centre
Maghera Heritage and Cultural Centre hosted a relaxed evening of traditional music and song last night – Saturday 29th October. Mick McElkenny, Phillip Hutchinson and Laurence Moran brought back memories of earlier years of neighbourly get-togethers among friends.
Alice McMurray joined the trio for a few nostalgic songs and we must thank everyone involved for their input – particularly Pat Rafferty for organising the evening and Annette Rafterty for the welcome refreshments.
An Entrepreneur born on the streets of Maghera.
When I was around 5 years old my dad had a joinery workshop on Glen Road. There were always a few trimmings and cut-offs lying around from the various wooden products he’d make. From these, myself and my friends would make bows and arrows and toy guns. We’d also steal a few sheets and planks to make tree houses and huts. If anyone was to dig up around what is now Fairhill Park they’d find the remnants of these old huts. This used to be a field in which we spent our summer months play fighting around the ruins of the old Fairhill school.
One day the entrepreneur in me kicked in and we discovered a wonderful use for the left-overs from my Dad’s work. At this time central heating was only for a few futuristic people. Everyone else had a fire and used sticks and coal to heat their homes. Myself and my neighbour filled turf bags with sticks. We got my dad to lift them onto a wheelbarrow and off we went on our trade mission along the houses of Glen close and Glen road.
Our customers were more than happy to hand over £1 for a turf bag of fire-lighting wonder. In a day’s work it wasn’t uncommon to get £10 – £15 between us. Although our entrepreneurial skills were working overtime at this young age, our savings and investments’ strategies needed some work. We’d take our sales for that day and make our way straight to Patsy Cassidy’s shop. (Now Kelly’s Eurospar). In those days £5 or £10 would buy enough sweets, ice lollies and lucky bags to cater for a party of around 30 children.
I loved my early days in Maghera. It was a wonderful, friendly town where everyone felt like family. I owe my current business skills and bad teeth to the story above
PUBLISHING
Maghera Historical Society and Heritage & Cultural Centre have published two books so far and two issues of their bi-annual magazine ‘Maghera Times’, with the third issue due out in November. We welcome any suggestions or submissions for future publications. If you are an author, poet or historian with interesting stories or information relating to Maghera or the surrounding area we would love to hear from you to discuss the possibility of publishing your work.
It was standing room only at Maghera Heritage and Cultural Centre on Thursday night, 27th October, when locally-born Professor Dan Bradley returned to his roots to deliver a fascinating lecture on ancient Irish DNA. Professor Bradley has led a team, at Trinity College Dublin, which sequenced the first ancient genomes from Ireland shedding new light on the genesis of Celtic populations.
The science of genetics is really the science of inheritance and provides a wealth of information about ourselves and our ancestry. Using a technique called whole genome analysis, the team examined the remains of a stone-age woman farmer, one of the first farmers in Ireland, who was buried over 5,000 years ago in Ballynahatty near Belfast and those of three men buried in Rathlin Island during the bronze age – between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago. The results give a fascinating glimpse into where we came from who we are and what characteristics we share as a people
Among many fascinating observations Prof. Bradley illustrated how early Irish farmers were similar to southern Europeans. It also appears that with the advent of the Bronze Age genetic patterns changed quite dramatically as newcomers from the Black Sea area of eastern Europe settled in Ireland. Prof. Bradley also observed that Ireland has the world’s highest frequencies of genetic variations pertaining to lactase persistence – the ability to drink milk into adulthood – and certain genetic diseases, including one of excessive iron retention called haemochromatosis. This appears to have resulted from the Bronze Age migration which eventually arrived on Irish shores
Prof. Bradley was closely questioned in a follow up Q and A session which continued over tea and late into the evening. Thanks to Dan and his team, the question of who we are may not be as simple as many of us thought. Many thanks also to those involved in arranging the evening. In particular, to Prof. Bradley who gave so generously of his time and also Annette Rafferty who yet again provided the welcome refreshments.
CIVIL PARISH OF MAGHERA FIELD NAME RECORDING PROJECT
This heritage and community initiative has evolved as part of our initiative Maghera Roots. As part of that project we have identified six farmers from the Maghera area, all of whom are willing to participate in sharing with us their stories of how they remember the farming practices carried on in the mid 1900s. A key element of the project is to identify and record each farm as they remember it, the location, field sizes and the specific field name.
In the earlier times each farm field was referred to by a coded name rather than by a number, for example ‘Rock Field’ (where rock was quarried for drains and buildings) or ‘Clover Hill’ (because of its ability to grow an abundance of clover) Naming, recording and archiving each field as it would have been then is a very significant part of our farming history and must be passed on to our next generation thus adding to the conservation of our shared heritage.
As a further development of the Maghera Roots Project we plan to involve the wider farming community by consulting with them and asking for their co-operation in helping us to identify and record as much as possible of the greater farming spread encompassing an area which will take the Civil Parish of Maghera with its thirty-nine townlands.
Including farmers and their families, as well as all those interested in the project, in helping to gather information and compile a register of field names will lead to greater community interaction and appreciation of this local heritage. To ensure the accuracy of the recorded details we will be asking for farmers within the area to contact us and give us their help in making the project a success. Volunteers from the local community will be enlisted to help with the various stages during the process, thus enabling them to learn new skills and all taking part will be included in the decision-making process in planning the development of the overall project.
At a time of rapid changes in farming practices and rural ownership patterns it is vital that this knowledge is recorded and preserved before it disappears forever. We will be gathering information, stories and folklore about individual fields as well as documenting their name and location.
Similar projects are on going in Counties Kilkenny, Louth and Meath.
If you are interested in becoming involved or have information and memories to share please contact the project co-ordinators, James Armour and Maeve O’Neill at the Heritage & Cultural Centre T. 028 7954 9835 or E. info@maghera-heritage
FROM THE BEAGH TO MAGHERA: Growing up on a family Farm in the ’50s
By: James Armour
Editor: Maeve O’Neill
Publisher: Maghera Historical Society, Maghera, ©2015.
From the Beagh to Maghera is a first-hand account of growing up on a family farm outside Maghera in the 1940s and ‘50s. Set in the moment when the tractor replaced the horse and mechanisation changed farming in Ireland forever, it poignantly captures, with a warm heart the joys and struggles of farming life in a close-knit rural community as seen through the eyes of a child who grew up in that period. This book is firmly rooted in a particular time and a particular place. It is a heartfelt glimpse into an era that is lost forever and that still tugs on our heartstrings.
The author explains how his great-great-grandfather came to farm at the Beagh in 1866. Since then four generations of the Armour family have continued the tradition. From the Spring ploughing, harrowing and sowing to the Autumn threshing, the age-old customs and practices of farming are recorded in detail as they were passed down over time. The farm itself is brought to life, the fields named and the farmyard and homestead illustrated. From 1949 until 1986 the author’s mother, Maggie Armour, kept a diary of events on the farm. These descriptions of everyday life and the warmth and closeness of the community add another dimension to the book.
The home was at the heart of the farm and the litany of weekly tasks, all carried out without electricity or running water are also remembered as are Soirees and Guest Teas in the local school, visiting with neighbours and life in the town.