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The Goderich Signal-Star, 1985-07-10, Page 88and Adam „ ;;;,,11004(1e4 .th6- 90107000% Pratt,. #000.0004,4 Another visit40.1tjne toSt fib:W.:W*10*e, re 1700, by c�al mine .financiers. uarerooifls inthe home are rand 014Oire.11*CaRt• rs and With* and art ofthe.house WOliantia iti In the',,Slieiteradagir Hine,dairying and, bgerargthe MaitiSta3/Cirthe farmers. Sugar beets are cash eropped. No farmer has a • large herd of Celiiannd most farmers can be •brifigiag..,three cans ,af milk ,to the col - lee depot. The is taken to Avonmore Cream es in the town of Freshford, Co. • Mike Evel 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 tome. In the same office where she worked, Odlum Flour Mills, Portarlington, co. Offaly, was Leo Dempsey. Leo did considerable Demp- sey research for me in his home area. Here I was to see the ruins of the only two castles left, Geashill and 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 home 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 cousins together again in the last few years. But as my Roman Catholic cousin Jimmy Webster said, "We have only one God, and only one Bible." Haea • • great • 35' •;el .1* : ..... . . w4 -'r Draglinit • Farm pondi • Gravel Bailing • Trucking • Gravel, Sand4 Stone • Bulldozing - • Excavating • Top Soil • Septic Systems "No job is too big or too small" ',or!