Clinton News-Record, 1985-07-10, Page 120m
gives lived in the. Townlafd.£..
ill The amelisers and Cantillons
on 10Ra eagbanxore Kea. This wed-
g record is proof - l' e - 34, MTh Jacob.
gntdl1on full age bachelor farmer,
' 1tem. .pre, Jacob Cant lon, father farmer.
Mar) Smeitserfull age spinster, Renamore,
Philip S3neltaer, father farmer. The bride
made her mark with an "X" and the groom
signed bis name. Witnesses were Peter
Steep and Adam Cantillon. This wedding
book:, which begins in 1845, included the
names McCartney, Jenkins, Perdue, Pratt,
Proctor, Colelough and Sheppard:
Another visit took me to see cousins Tom
and Evelyn Cantwell. They live in a home,
built before 1700, by coal mine financiers.
The 20 .foot square rooms in the home are
finished with grand old furniture. The Cant-
wells are farmers and son William and
family live in part of the house. William is in
charge of the dairy herd.
I'n the Slieveradagh Hills, dairying and
beef are the mainstay of the farmers. Sugar
beets are cash cropped. No farmer has a
large herd off cows and most farmers can be
seen bringing three cans of milk to the col -
lectin depot. The milk is taken to Avonmore
Creameries in the town of Freshford, co.
Kilkenny.
Evelyn Cantwell took me to see the Slate
Houses where the first Websters lived in
Ireland and also to Major Ponsonby's to en-
quire about the area history.
Visits also took me to see cousin Sophie in
Co. Laois. Sophie was a special bonus to me.
In the same office where she worked, Odium
isoFlour Mills, Portarlington, Co. Offaly, was
Leo Dempsey. Leo did considerable Demp-
sey research for me in his home area. Here I
was to see th ums of the only two castles
left, Geashill d Lea.
The last time I 'visited at Sophie's, we
went hunting for the O'Dempsey Ring. Leo
directed us to the thatched, cob home of
Joseph Dempsey. Joseph sent us to the right
farm 'and the farmer took us across the
fields to a circle of thorn trees. Outside these
trees was a hard beaten path where the
O'Dempseys of years ago had broken their
horses. The O'Dempsey Ring was near
Ballyshean Castle, now completely gone,
and not far from Geashill.
Reportedly the last of the O'Dempseys
. were hung at Port Laoise in 1735. If they
were the last, there are many of that name
in the telephone book today.
How I.loved the flowers in Ireland. In May
and June,the world seemed to be a colorful
array of. blooms. Now, I understood grand-
mother's nostalgia for the flowers back
home.
Grandfather was one of the few to return
to Ireland. As he courted grandmother he
assured her that in Canada, flowers would
grow right to, her door -_ bush flowers. And he
promised that she would have the best house
around, after all he was a trained cabinet
maker.
What she saw when she came to her new
hgme was a log cabin built in the woods. In
Ireland her home in Kyle Commons was a
large two storey house. Her Canadian home
far from reached her expectations.
A few years later they moved to Lot 91.
Maitland Con., Goderich Township and here
my father was born. I can remember Dad
leading us across what had been ,a large or-
chard, to the foundation of the little home
and finding rosemary growing among the
stones. The only' flower left of what my .
grandmother had planted.
My grandparents. moved back to the farm
at Lucknow and grandfather built a new
home, likely to grandmother's specifica-
tions.
My research has given me a new insight of
the difficulties those first settlers faced and
my trips overseas have given me a profound
understanding of the people of Ireland.
It took funerals to bring my Roman
Catholic and Protestant cousinstogether
again in the last few years. But as my
Roman. Catholic cousin • Jimmy Webster
said, "We have only one God, and only one
Bible."
• e a part of
Goderich Township
Haue'a great time at the Sesquicentennial
from all of us at
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