Patrick Mc Kay Falbane Churchill,

Pat Mc Kay and times at Lough Veagh

Patrick Mc Kay stands outside his home at Churchill as night closes in and looks across the valley beyond and talks about the olden days in the neighbourhood and the old school friends who are now deadand gone forever……but the memories of an earlier time in the village and at Lough Veagh still linger in his mind as if it was only yesterday.

I am honoured to have had Patrick Mc Kay as my Uncle.  When he passed away in 1996 i was left his Railway timekeepers pocket watch, This is something that i was so proud of,  it meant more to me than Money, It was handed down to Uncle Pat from his Late father, Today i dont have that watch in my home, ive asked for it many times. But the place it is presently the occupant failed to give me the watch, I cant understand why people are so unkind.

Signed  John O Donnell (cotter)

Patrick Mc Kay was born in Drumnashamra in 1908 and was one of a family of four, his sister is alive and well and living in Creeslough and they went to school in the village of Keelogs  just outside Churchill.The Village then had a two teacher school and Master Leavy and his wife were in charge of education and it was not yet compulsory to attend.That old schoolhouse is now empty and Pat recalls the many happy days he spent within it’s walls and it was the only education which he and the many others were ever to receive and it took them all over the world. The boys would generally  leave school at around twelve years of age and they would have progressed to fourth class and so it was with Patrick Mc Kay as he was hired out to the farmers in the Lagan and beyond for stints of six months at a time and not earning  great money at all.

Pat was first hired out in 1922 and at his age today does not recall all that much about those turbulent times in the pages of our Irish history. He worked for a farmer in Termon for nine pounds for his first six months and afterwards went to Edenmore above Strabane and to farmers in Maghera in County Derry and then took a notion that he would like to go to America. He says that many people  went out to the States and the rumour going about suggested that they were making lots of money and the life was much easier than in  Ireland.The  depression in America was at it’s height in thirties but nevertheless thousands  of Irish men and women took the huge  step of going out there and as Pat recalls many of these never returned home and indeed large numbers were never heard tell of again.Pat went to a cousin in Boston in 1930.George Mc Kay sent the passage home and Pat booked on the liner  ‘The Transalvania’ and the fare was twenty pounds. He joined dozens of Donegal folk  at Moville as they took the tender out to the ship lying in Lough Foyle and a nine day trip to the new world and the hope of a better life.Life in the States was not all it was cracked up to be and work was hard  to find  and money was scarce.Pat got a job with his cousin and spent five years  in the Boston and New York areas doing gardening and landscape jobs and decided to come back to his native Churchill, ‘when he went away he said he had a fiver in  his pocket and the day he came back he still had only a fiver says Pat who will not be drawn on whether it was the same fiver.

His recollections of America are quite vivid but he never wanted to return and instead  got a job at Lough Veagh where a certain Miss Johnston who is fondly remembered around  these parts and she gave much employment in the locality.The property was later to become the home of Derek Hill and is now the base of the Gartan Outdoor Pursuit Centre and has  a   very historic background.Pat worked here before going away and on his return he got a job for twelve years with Dr. maloney at Keelogs. the doctor is long since dead and Pat says that the happiest days of his life were spent in keelogs working on the farm. However Pat decided  once more to emigrate and this time he went to Scotland and to the ‘tattie hoking’ in Stranrar.

Much has been writen about this eposide of life for the Irish workers in Scotland and the impression was that people were badly treated and the conditions were deplorable and while Pat would agree with some of that he says that the six months stints were a welcome bonus for many and he has never regretted the days spent gathereing spuds on the big farms in Scotland. The Glasgow  area would become his home away from home for the greater part of his life and it was here that he met his wife and they got married in 1971. she was Grace Trearty from Creeslough and she is now dead and Pat confesses that he misses her terribly. He talks about her fondness for Glasgow Celtic and the good times which they had in their twenty years of marriage and today at eightyfour years of age his time is spent reminiscing and looking after his cat  at his picturesque little house. his neighbours  come in for a chat and he is among the most popular men in Churchill.

As a man who has spent so much time away from home he admits that one never forgets the old sod and home is the finest place on earth and good neghbours make life so much better. Seamus  Toner was one of the many friends Pat made in Scotland and he gave him a start on the building sites in Glasgow and elsewhere as he sought work.Those days are gone he says and the name of George Wimpey and others for whom he worked are still clear in his mind and the year of the big snow in Glasgow is the worst winter that he ever remembers. His days in East Kilbride were very pleasant times in his life as were the earlier days  growing up in the earlier part of this century.  Going to the  country house dances  was a very popular pastime and the music of Connell Carberry out in Churchill is fondly remembered by that era of dances. ”Lots of Poiteen was been made as well but i never tasted the stuff and i am told that Termon was a good place to get it  and i am not to sure if they are still making it over there”says he as he talks about the drinking times and the pubs in the village of Churchill.Mc  Claffertys had Charlie, Jeannie and Joe while over in Wilkins Bobby’s father Willie George ran the place. ”The pubs were busy then and you never saw  a woman drinking  at all. People used to drink a lot and the pubs were  very pleasant to visit and they had more time for a chat than today” Then we had the old raking houses as well and the craic  here was homemade and everyone enjoyed those times. One of the most noted raking houses was Fries of Mount Pleasure and Pat recalls the names of men like Dan O’ Donnell and Loughlin Diver along with the Toners,  the Mc Brides, Kellys and Callaghans. The turf was cut with the broad spade and today Pat still cuts a years turf supply with a broad spade  and is proud of that fact. Watching the television is his main hobby and Coronation Street is his favourite show. He confesses that Curly Watts would need to get married and Kimberly may be his last chance and like most he feels sorry for the poor girl getting stuck with Bettabuys assistant manager who seems none to clever with women and is not likely to improve as he gets older. But it is Alex and Bet Gilroy who are his favourite people in the street and is sorry to see Alex leaving and as he speculates on his replacememt he is horrified to hear that Reg Holdsworth may be the one to start pulling the pints at the Rovers Return.

Pat also has an intrest in soccer and in snooker with Stephen Hendry as his hero.Life at the grand old age of eighty four is full of intrest and Pat is never lonley as he gazes out across the valley to the quarry being blasted at Leafrin mountain which he sees disappearing by the year and this is one of the really big changes in his lifetime in the valley.Almost  all of his contemporaries are now dead and the old ways are gone for ever and he does regret the passing of a more gentle time which he recalls from his childhood.However the wheel, is now begining to turn back to the emigration ships and life beyond our native shores for many of our youths and like his earlier days they are being forced to go overseas and while they may be more educated the prospects are not at all good and Pat agrees that in some respects some things never change and the dole which was not a feature of life in his young days is not a good idea and the people of rural Ireland would prefer to work. In his day they were glad to get two shillings a day and at the present time we are beginning to hark back to that period.  Patrick Mc Kay is one of  the grand old men of his generation and unfortunately there are few of his kind left.