I think this is the cottage, and I’ll verify with old family photos (when I can find them!).

View Larger Map

From visiting Jimmy with my Dad I remember that the cottage had one main room and two bedrooms, and there was no bathroom. The main room was full of Jimmy’s junk (ahem, antiques), and had an open fire where Jimmy boiled a kettle and cooked directly on the fire using a griddle.

A few weeks ago, my brother recently received a package from the Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum in Armagh, containing copies of a number of letters written to my great-grandmother, Mary Anne Adams during the Great War. My Dad had donated them to the museum in the 1980s.

We had not seen quite a few of these letters before, and they have helped us fill in some blanks in my grandfather’s experiences of the War, training in Ireland and England, fighting near the Somme in France and Ypres in Belgium, getting wounded (twice – 1916 and 1918) and even working on a farm near Rouen while recuperating from illness.

The letters tell nothing of the fighting, but do indicate what it was like for young men to be away from home for over four years, and illustrated how letters from home were a lifeline. The modern equivalents (email, text, e-blueys) are probably equally important to today’s front-line soldiers.

We’ve been able to update the site with the new letters, and also use other documentary sources to give an idea of where the events happened (reading beyond the “somewhere in France”). Read the whole story on the updated Letters from the Front website.

My grandfather and grandmother first moved to the village in 1926, my father was born there and lived all his life there, and me and my brothers grew up in the village. My parents built a new bungalow on a greenfield site opposite my grandparent’s house in 1967, moving in in 1968, and lived there for the rest of their lives.

The house as a building site in 1967

The house in 2010

My grandfather and father were heavily involved in the local branches of the Orange, Black and Masonic orders, they were both founding members of the local Silver Band in 1947 and they had a really strong personal identity with the area.

However my brothers and I all moved away in our late teens and have lost our connection with the village on the death of both our parents. While I am really pleased that we’ve been able to sell the house to a young family and we hope that they’ll be very happy there, the sale breaks that 84-year link between our family and “The Bawn”.

There’s something about our identities that will always mean that we’re from that particular place. We’ve been shaped by it’s history, particularly during the troubled times of the 1970s and 1980s, but also by the history of our family in that small area. The view from the front of the house across to Garvagh Hill is imprinted on my brain and I’ll never ever forget that I’m from “The Bawn”.

These are the old varieties I remember my Dad growing:

• Home Guard
• British Queen
• Navan

I’m looking forward to seeing how they grow with minimal interference!

Just what Ireland needs, a new superhero.

a) There’s no trace of irony.
b) You couldn’t make it up.

Update 16/12/2007 - from Quentin Devine on YouTube

I had lunch in the Yellow Door Deli with my Mum today. The front of the shop is the bakery and deli counter, and the front window is full of freshly baked loaves. There is a surprisingly large eating area at the rear of the deli, which was busy but still warm and welcoming.

As soon as we ordered, the waitress brought us a small selection of breads – wheaten, sourdough, cheese-topped white, tomato, herbed. I was a bit more full than I intended when the rest of the food arrived. I’ll be more prepared for that the next time.

There was a wide choice – various sandwiches using the in-house bread, soups and main courses. Mum chose the fusilli pasta with chicken in a cream sauce, accompanied by sourdough garlic bread. She pronounced it “lovely” with a big smile on her face! I chose a sandwich – confit of duck, hoisin sauce and sesame seeds on a sourdough roll. It came with nicely dressed leaves and small portions of greek and potato salad. Nicely packed and just the right amount.

We declined the offer of cake or patisserie for dessert, simply beacause we were both full.

Looking around at the other tables, the other dishes looked equally good. In particular, the brown stew came in a large bowl with potatoes and caramelised root veg. Had we been there for breakfast, there were some further tempting things on the menu (French toast with bacon and maple syrup for example).

Overall, this was a real find. OK, it’s made it into the Guardian directory and UKTV food heroes, but it was so different from the more typical Northern Irish lunch offerings that it is worth a visit. There’s not many places in Co. Armagh I could say that about.

My only negative comment is about their website. Not only does it use Flash rather than proper XHTML, but it has white text on a light yellow background on some pages, with no way of changing font size or colour, or even selecting the text to highlight it. Some screens are unreadable. Sack your design team and find someone who knows what they are doing!

I was 8 when the first soldiers arrived in Northern Ireland.

My Dad, a ‘B’ Special, had been away from home a lot just before, policing riots in Derry.

I remember the first road block they set up outside our house. I was fascinated and wanted to welcome them with a cup of tea like I’d seen on TV. I thought that was the thing to do.

I remember the road noise of Land Rovers driving down country roads. They could be heard approaching from about a mile away.

I remember going with my Dad after he joined the UDR in the early 1970s to help fill sandbags at an electricity substation near Tandragee.

I remember my Mum and Dad inviting two soldiers for Christmas dinner – I was around 11 or 12, and they brought me a leather football.

I remember waiting in my Dad’s car as he worked in army barracks – Gough, Glenanne, Drumadd.

I remember meeting older soldiers in the UDR – our postman had fought at El Alamein – a natural choice for Company Sergeant Major. WW2 was as close as we are to the Falklands conflict.

I remember checking underneath my Dad’s car for bombs each morning.

I remember his personal protection weapon in his bedside drawer.

I remember him attending countless funerals.

I remember waiting for him to come home from duty each night.

And I remember people who didn’t.

I am glad Operation Banner is over.

I wonder if having Irish passports will be an advantage in an independent Scotland come 2010? Come to think of it, we’ll be able to apply for a third (Scottish) passport each if Scotland does become independent (heaven forbid!). Handy for crossing the border at Gretna.

I was just googling the BBC website this evening when I came across this article on Markethill RUC Station during WW2. The article mentions the following events that my Mum has always mentioned:

• American GIs at Gosford.
• German PoWs at Gosford – and also at Markethill RUC station.
• Sounding the air raid siren at Markethill.

My grandfather William Thompson was the station sergeant during the War and my Mum remembers him sounding the air raid siren, and also visiting the PoWs and GIs at Gosford. She remembers that the GIs brought bananas, oranges and chocolate for the first time in many years.

My Mum has a good picture of Markethill RUC station before the Troubles made external alterations essential! I must get a scan of this…

Other links of interest:

• PoWs in Gosford – I think the foundations of the PoW huts are still there, except the model chapel built by Italian PoWs seems to have disappeared from the main car park.
• American GIs in Gosford
• History of Gosford Castle.
• History of Gosford

The BBC News at 10 has just asked how the Twelfth might be turned into a “cultural celebration”. Some in the Orange Order have even dreamed how the Twelfth might rival Rio’s Carnival.

That set me wondering what £100k of government funding might lead to?

• Bouncy Walls of Derry?
• Opportunity to recycle the Bavaria beer trousers discarded by Dutch football fans?
• Womens Orange Order samba dancing teams?
• Drag queens dressed as the Queen Mum

Ideas gratefully received below…