I trust that you are keeping well. Thank you for the emails and the continued support. I am always behind in communications, so do not fret (two weeks behind currently). There are lots of articles in progress. Many just need to be finished. I started this week, to more fully research, and start writing, about the vicious murder of Patrick O’Kane, the publican and grocer, at his Waterwall...
Maghera was some seven miles from our farm. Fallagloon townland is on the western side of Maghera. It starts about a mile from the village, and is known as being the longest townland in Ireland. It straddles the Glenshane Pass. The Irish name for Fallagloon is Fáladh Luán. In very old newspaper articles, the name was often spelled with an ‘H’ i.e. Fallaghloon. It was in the midst of...
CHRISTMAS DAY SHOOTING TRAGEDY IN EDEN ROBERT LAMONT DEAD, WILLIAM MULHOLLAND CHARGED On Christmas Day 1912, in Eden, near Portglenone, a struggle took place as to which member of a party would carry a gun. The weapon, which was loaded, went off, blowing away the side of the head of one of the party — a youth of eighteen years of age, named Robert Lamont. He died instantly. An inquest was held by...
I was searching through old newspapers recently, trying to discover the earliest local murder (i.e. local meaning in the Portglenone, Kilrea, Maghera area) that was referenced in the media. On the first of July 1773, a Gauger by the name of Edward O’Hagan, from Portglenone, was shot by John Hinds, a bar owner from Killymuck. Killymuck is a townland which is roughly four miles from where...