Flynn The Little Book of Antrim

1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7509-6972-7
Verlag: The History Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 144 Seiten

Reihe: Little Book of

Did You Know? - Overlooking Ballymena, Slemish Mountain was believed to be the first home of St Patrick in Ireland. His footprint is said to be indented in a stone close to Skerry churchyard. - The 'sport' of rat racing thrived on the shores of Lough Neagh in the 1960s, with the annual championships taking place in Norman Wilson's bar in the main street of Crumlin. - In January 1998, a 16-year-old Glengormley schoolgirl became one of the youngest National Lottery millionaires when she picked up £1,055,101 for choosing the six winning numbers. The Little Book of Antrim is a compendium of fascinating, obscure, strange and entertaining facts about County Antrim. Here you will find out about Antrim's people and places, its business and industry, its spectacular coasts and glens and its proud sporting heritage. Across quaint villages and bustling towns, this book takes the reader on a journey through County Antrim and its vibrant past. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage and the secrets of this ancient county.

Born in Belfast in 1970, BARRY FLYNN has written eleven books of Irish interest, his most recent being The Little Book of Irish Boxing and The Little Book of Armagh. He has worked as a freelance broadcaster for BBC Northern Ireland, RTE, Newstalk and BBC Radio Ulster. He is a tour guide and conducts tours of Belfast's footballing heritage - and is a host at the George Best house - which is a historic B&B. He gives talks to clubs and societies on the history of Irish football and has established close working links with every club on the island.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Flynn, Barry

Leseproben

1

PEOPLE AND PLACES OF NOTE

LOUGH NEAGH AND RAM’S ISLAND

Lough Neagh washes the shores of Antrim’s inner coastline and covers an expanse of 100,000 acres, making it the largest lake in the British Isles. It remains in the ownership of the Earl of Shaftesbury, who, in 2012, indicated that he was hoping to meet with a Stormont working group to assess the possibility of bringing the lough into public ownership. The origin of the lough is surrounded by fable. The most popular of the legends centres around giant Finn McCool, who is said to have lifted a chunk of Ulster and sent it flying into the Irish Sea. The clod became the Isle of Man, while the huge hole left behind became Lough Neagh.

Ram’s Island, which lies a mile off the shore near Glenavy, was originally a monastic settlement and its ruined tower is testament to that period. The tower itself is just over 40ft high and is similar to those found throughout Ireland. In the winter of 1879, Charles Kingsley, the distinguished naturalist and author of , visited the island. His visit coincided with one of the coldest winters on record and he was able to skate across the lough to Ram’s Island. He recalled, ‘Ram’s Island reached and the round tower explored, we returned again to the Antrim shore, where games of various kinds and skating were indulged.’ It is believed that 1879 was the third time during that century that the lough had frozen over.

During Victorian times, a summer house was constructed by Lord O’Neill and was set in an exotic garden. During the Second World War, the island was a favourite haunt for soldiers of the US Army at Langford Lodge. However, vandalism was rife and one night during the war arsonists visited the island and burned down the summer house.

HILDEN’S WORLD-FAMOUS THREAD MILL

The world-renowned Barbour linen thread works were established in Lisburn in 1784 by John Barbour, who was originally from Scotland. In 1817, his son, William, bought a bleaching green at nearby Hilden and the workforce expanded rapidly. The family built a model village for the workers, which consisted of 350 houses, two schools, a community hall and a village sports ground. However, despite its tranquil setting on the banks of the River Lagan, all was not as peaceful as it seemed.

The arrival of a strolling fiddler in Hilden on Monday 10 August 1858 was to have devastating consequences for local millworkers Owen Hughes and James Kelly. Being in a cheerful mood, the two men asked the fiddler to perform at a local house and the musical entertainment lasted until eleven that evening when two neighbours, father and son, John and Alexander Martin, arrived to complain about the noise. On threatening to fetch Mr Barbour, the mill owner, a fight ensued in the street during which Hughes and Kelly were stabbed and died. At court, Alexander Martin was found guilty of manslaughter, while his father John was acquitted.

THE ‘FORT OF THE GAMBLERS’

The town of Lisburn, together with Newry, was afforded city status in 2002 by Queen Elizabeth II as part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations. Lisburn’s name derives from the Irish , meaning ‘ring fort of the gamblers’. It became known as Lisnagarvey, and eventually Lisburn. The original ring fort of the gamblers was thought to have been located on the northern side of the city’s Wallace Park. The name Lisnagarvey is preserved in the name of the local hockey club and high school.

ARMOY ROUND TOWER

A classic example of an Irish round tower is situated in Armoy, 6 miles south of Ballycastle, and dates back to the eleventh century when Viking raids were frequent in the area. Its door, at 5ft 9in high and merely 19in wide, is claimed to be the narrowest round-tower door in Ireland. It stands 5ft off the ground, but would have been higher when constructed since the surrounding land has ‘risen’ due to the thousands of burials that have taken place in the adjoining graveyard. The tower was excavated in the 1840s by Edmund Getty, who discovered a skull still attached to its spinal column, which is thought to have belonged to an ancient chieftain killed in battle. The tower today is a ruined stump, standing currently at 36ft in height; the original tower was estimated to have been over 60ft high. In 1997, excavations under the existing church uncovered the feet of a medieval leper – he must have been a powerful figure since he was permitted a burial on consecrated land. The neighbouring St Patrick’s Church of Ireland parish church was built in 1820 and is on the site of the original church founded in AD 460 by St Olcan, a disciple of Patrick.

DR GRAHAM’S LUNATIC ASYLUM

In December 1825, an advertisement appeared in the seeking a site for the Antrim and Down Lunatic Asylum. The advert stressed that the grounds ‘should be within a mile of Belfast, not containing less than six acres, and having the command of a plentiful supply of spring water’. Within a year, the Commissioners of Lunatic Asylums in Ireland had secured a site which was formerly the home of Joseph Stevenson at Springfield, on the Falls Road in Belfast. The site, which was at the junction of the modern-day Falls and Grosvenor roads, was opened in May 1829. A notice appeared in local papers informing that, ‘The Directors will consider applications for admission on the first Monday of every month by form of application which may be had from the Manager, Mr Cummings, either personally any day, between the hours of ten and four o’clock, or by letter, post-paid’. The entry criteria was quite strict, confining admissions to those cases which come strictly under the denomination of ‘lunatics or the class of idiots’, with persons suffering from epilepsy ‘under no circumstances being received’.

By the late 1890s, the asylum had become known as ‘Graham’s Home’, named after Dr William Graham, who was superintendent at the facility during that period. Graham had studied mental health in London and in 1896 he succeeded Dr Merrick as resident medical superintendent. He developed a humanitarian reputation as a man who had deep sympathy for his patients. Graham was obliged to present a yearly report on the asylum which was published in most of the Irish daily papers. In local folklore in Belfast, the name of ‘Graham’s Home’ is immortalised in the phrase uttered by many a distressed mother to her troublesome children: ‘You’ll have me ready for Graham’s home.’

The home was succeeded by a newer development on the outskirts of south Belfast at Purdysburn, while the site of ‘Graham’s Home’ is now incorporated within the Royal Victoria Hospital. In 1949, the estate known as The Abbey, Muckamore, near Antrim town, was purchased by the Northern Ireland Hospitals’ Authority for use as a ‘colony for treatment of mentally-retarded persons’. Over the next twenty years, over £1 million was spent developing the settlement, which had room for 1,000 persons. Planned on the ‘villa’ system, Muckamore contained a farm, workshops and a cinema.

KILLEAD’S APACHE HUNTER

Born in Killead in 1793, James Kirker emigrated from Ireland to New York in 1810 and soon found work as a fur trader in New Mexico. Despite working closely with members of the local Apache tribe, he took up a position as a bounty hunter with the Mexican government, who employed him to track down members of the Apache tribe who were involved in cattle raids. Kirker led a paramilitary force with gusto against the ‘troublesome’ Apaches during the mid-1840s and claimed the scalps of 500 warriors at a dividend of $200 a head – the bounty for a woman’s scalp was $50 and for a child’s scalp it was $25.

BILLY THE KID – ALIAS ‘KID ANTRIM’

Apart from the infamous nickname ‘Billy the Kid’, William H. Bonney was known as Henry McCarty and by the nickname ‘Kid Antrim’. His mother, Catherine McCarty, was born in County Antrim in 1829 and emigrated to New York during the Great Famine in 1846. In the United States, she married William Harrison Bonney and ‘The Kid’ was born in New York in 1859. Billy’s natural father died in 1862 and his mother then moved to New Mexico where, ironically, she married a William Antrim.

TEMPLEPATRICK’S CYCLING STAR

The name Edward ‘Teddy’ Hale may not be widely remembered in the cycling world, but in 1896 he was simply untouchable in the sport. That year he won the world-famous ‘Garden Six’ endurance race in New York, which was considered at that time to be the toughest endurance race in the world. Said to have been born in Templepatrick in 1864, Hale, who competed for the Lainsborough Bicycle Club, had become the unofficial European champion earlier that year when he won the Continental Endurance Race in Berlin. He was then invited to enter the world-famous American Madison Square Garden six-day cycle race in December 1896.

The race, which took place between 7 and 13 December, saw the cream of world cycling battle it out for the ultimate prize in the sport, with the winner being the rider who covered the longest distance over the oval course. At 10 p.m. on 13 December, as the band struck up ‘The Wearin’ of the Green’, 10,000 spectators cheered wildly as Hale was declared the winner, having completed 1,911 miles over the course. He had beaten the runner-up, Albert Schock of the United States, by over 300 miles and claimed the $1,300 prize with ease. The race itself was characterised by riders pushing themselves to the limit, often suffering from hallucinations and delusions. Hale, who had smoked countless cigarettes throughout the event to relieve the boredom, was feted for his achievements by many Irish-American societies. He...