Portglenone, River Bann, Maghera and Kilrea

Ireland ancestry – discovering one’s Irish roots, and constructing the Ulster family tree, can be highly addictive.

One Irish Rover – oneirishrover – is a community focussed website, where we try to discover, collate and make sense of local Irish history.

If you have any old photographs, stories, or memories, from Northern Ireland – especially from rural Ulster – it would be wonderful to hear/see them.

My own family is originally from the Tamlaght and Innisrush area. South Derry and County Antrim was home.

I’m especially interested in old Portglenone photos, as well as Maghera photos, and Kilrea photos – not forgetting the surrounding areas – and any related stories.

Most Recent Posts

Moneystaghan Hibernian Band
Moneystaghan Hibernian Band, 1961 My parents were very friendly with Colm Lynn (who lived near the Waterwall bar, and not far [...]

Pound School, Grange, Randalstown
Pound School, Grange, Randalstown, 1930/31 Here’s a great early 1930s photograph, supplied by Barry Mulholland, of the students at Pound School, the [...]

Harvest Time in Eden during the 1940s

St. Mary's Primary School, Greenlough, Clady

Auld Whiskey Bar at the Bridge
My chums and I often go out on the spree, When we hae an odd shilling we let it go free. Each [...]

Poem - To a Lady in Kilrea
Morning brings us many a flower, All delightful to the eye, Trees and shrubs of dewy grandeur In the rays sunshine lie. Lovely though [...]

Somme Flanders Verdun Poem: The Wounded Soldiers
It’s of the wounded soldiers, I pen you this lament; Their King and Country called them, And proudly off they [...]

Poem Kilrea Railway Station Bridge
Kilrea Railway Station Bridge Poem The demolition, in the late 1950s, of the bridge at Kilrea Railway Station caused much regret [...]

Kilrea Fire Station Crew
Kilrea Fire Station Crew in 1950s

Rectors at Tamlaght O'Crilly Lower Church
Rectors at Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower Church The Tamlaght O’Crilly parish was largely settled in the plantation era by English settlers. But [...]

Poem - The Clady River by Harry Armstrong
The Clady River By Harry Armstrong I have been to Derry City, that proudly strides the Foyle I have walked over Dublin’s Liffey, [...]

Photo of Sammy Simmons, Chesney, Aicken
Portglenone Stores – Aicken, Chesney, Simmons Here is a lovely old photograph of Main Street in Portglenone, most likely taken in [...]

Henry Lynn Poem - Banks of the Clady
Henry Lynn poem from 1937 The Banks of the Clady Around the banks of Clady, a lovely place to dwell, With banks [...]

Earliest Photo of Tamlaght O'Crilly Lower Church
Earliest Photo of Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower Church I recently came across this very old photo of Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower church (the [...]

Drumoolish Bridegroom Accidentally Shot Dead
Drumoolish Bridegroom Killed after Wedding An inquest was held in the National School House of Innisrush, on Monday the 8th December [...]

Innisrush Flax Mill
Innisrush Flax Mill The mill wheel at Innisrush was powered by the waters of the Clady River. This subsidiary ran into [...]

Innisrush signs the Ulster Covenant
Innisrush Signs the Ulster Covenant In September 1912, some 299 locals from in, and around the Innisrush area, signed the Ulster [...]

Player's Cigarettes & John Mulholland of Eden Portglenone
Player’s Cigarettes & John Mulholland I recently encountered an old newspaper advertisement for Player’s Cigarettes. It was from 1916. Long since [...]

Kitty of Coleraine
Kitty of ColeraineColeraine is a town some 30 miles East of Londonderry and 55 miles Northwest of Belfast. The name [...]

Downhill & Magilligan Poem, 1794
Downhill, Benone & Magilligan Rare Poem Downhill Strand, more commonly referred to as Benone Strand, is a stunning seven mile long [...]

Augustine Henry, Botanist
Augustine Henry, BotanistAugustine Henry was born to an Irish family, on the 2nd July 1857 in Dundee, Scotland. His mother [...]

Crimean War Poem - When Will the Battle End
Crimean War, Rediscovered 1856 Poem by Belfast Soldier In 1855, there had been much talk across Europe of the escalation of [...]

Poem - Old Aughnahoy Graveyard
Poem – Old Aughnahoy Graveyard Old Aughnahoy graveyard, which is just outside Portglenone, dates back to 1792, was the subject of [...]

Portglenone Primary School Memories
Portglenone Primary School Memories Headmaster Mills Love of PoetryHeadmaster Mills was the principal of Portglenone Primary School, on the Townhill Road, [...]

Derry Central Railway
Derry Central Railway Derry Central Railway, after being instigated by the Derry Central Railway Act of 1877, was constructed from Macfin [...]

Churchtown - Tamlaght O'Crilly, Reverend Mulholland
Churchtown Presbyterian Church – Reverend Mulholland The Reverend Henry Cunningham Mulholland, B.A., preached in Churchtown Presbyterian Church – in Tamlaght O’Crilly [...]

Kilrea Church of Ireland - St Patricks - Gravestones
Kilrea Church of Ireland – St Patricks – Gravestones St Patricks Church in Kilrea The Church of Ireland in Kilrea – [...]

Deer Hunt from Shane's Castle to Ballymacpeake
Deer hunt from Shane’s Castle across Coolbawn & Ballymacpeake townlands, near Portglenone Ireland – Deer Hunt Extraordinary One of the most amusing [...]

St Patrick's Night Concert Portglenone Hall
1943, All-Star Variety Concert on St Patrick’s Night in Portglenone The above advert appeared in the Friday 5th March 1943 edition [...]

Aughnahoy Catholic Graveyard
Aughnahoy Catholic GraveyardFather John Cassidy, who was the parish priest of Ahoghill and Portglenone, bought in 1779 from Charles Hamilton [...]

1884 - Largy Accident - boy killed by mill wheel
September 1884, Fatal Accident at Portglenone On Sunday evening, 14th September 1884, a number of boys were playing at a mill at [...]

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village [...]

Drimbolg Reformed Presbyterian Church
Drimbolg Reformed Presbyterian ChurchDrimbolg church, or meeting house as it is commonly referred to, was built in 1837. It is [...]

1896 Advert for White House in Portrush
The White House in Portrush Here is a wonderful 1896 newspaper advertisement for the young White House department store in Portrush. [...]

Sailing Down the Bann
Portglenone Poem – Sailing Down the Bann The poem below, about sailing down the River Bann in a rowing boat, is [...]

Thompson Mulholland Confirmation in Kilrea
Thompson Mulholland Confirmation My grandfather, Thompson Mulholland, of Ballymacpeake, Eden, Portglenone, got confirmed in Kilrea Parish Church – aka St. Patrick’s [...]

Emigration - One Family leaves County Derry for America
Emigration – Leaving Ireland for America The 1720s witnessed the first significant wave of emigration from Ireland to the New World. [...]

High Sheriffs of County Londonderry Ireland 1670 to 1883
Here is an exceptionally rare list of County Londonderry’s High Sheriffs, across over two hundred years, from the late 1600s [...]

High Sheriffs of County Antrim in Ireland from 1603 to 1854
The High Sheriffs of County Antrim 1603 to 1854Between 1603 and 1854, three Portglenone men held the office of High [...]

Grave Robbers unearth Mary Thompson in Kilrea
Graverobbers in Kilrea CemetaryIn the 1700 and 1800s, there were insufficient corpses to meet the needs of teaching centres and [...]

Oliver Paul R.B.P. New Banner, Tamlaght O'Crilly Service
New Banner Dedicated at service Tamlaght O’Crilly Upper Church Sir Knights from Coleraine and Ballymena and from the R.B.P. Districts in [...]

Tamlaght Lower Church of Ireland Vestry Meetings
Tamlaght Lower Church Vestry Meetings – 1885 to 1940 This page recalls the vestry meetings at Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower Church [...]

Reverend Frackelton of Tamlaght Lower Church
Reverend Samuel Scott Frackelton, Rector of Tamlaght Lower, 1881 to 1911 The Reverend Samuel Scott Frackelton was rector at Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower [...]

Reverend Mark Bloxham of Tamlaght O'Crilly Lower Church
Reverend Mark Bloxham of Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower Church of Ireland – near Innisrush Mark Bloxham was curate in Tamlaght Lower (back then [...]

Tamlaght O'Crilly Lower Graveyard
Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower Church Graveyard, near Innisrush Tamlaght O’Crilly Lower Church of Ireland, aka Saint Nossonus’, sits a few hundred yards east [...]

Ulster Covenant, September 1912, Eden, Tamlaght
The Ulster Covenant (sometimes referred to as Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant) was signed by 471,414 people (237,368 men and [...]

Mulholland Birth Registrations, Tamlaght, County Londonderry, Ireland
James Richardson Mulholland & Charlotte Mulholland of Eden, Portglenone, County Derry, IrelandAt Hill House, Eden, James Richardson Mulholland and his wife [...]

Mulholland Family Tree, Eden, Tamlaght O'Crilly, Ireland
The Mulholland Family Tree – Eden, PortglenoneThis page is about the family tree of the Mulhollands at Hill House in [...]

Eden Primary School, Portglenone, County Derry, Northern Ireland
Eden Primary School, Ballymacpeake, Portglenone County Derry, Northern Ireland Eden Primary School was a small rural educational establishment on the Ballymacpeake Road. [...]

1960s, Tea Break for Farmers in a Cornfield in Ireland
1960s, Tea Break for Farmers in a Cornfield in Ireland The word ‘corn’ has different meanings depending on which part of [...]