Calling former staff, customers, guests and friends of the Londonderry Arms Hotel in Carnlough Co. Antrim. Sadly this landmark hotel is on the market after 75 years in the kind and gentle hands of the O’Neill family and on behalf of the family, Marnie and Denise O’Neill are planning a night of memories, songs and tales which promise to come from all round the world. Marnie explained: “I believe that we should celebrate those years from the time my parents arrived in the blizzard of February 1947. My mother told of how they had to dig their way through snow drifts to the front door, she said it marked a sense of adventure in their new home and new life together.”
And what a life.
Moira and her husband Frank continued to develop a history in the 19th century coaching inn built by the Marchioness of Londonderry which at one time was owned by Sir Winston Churchill; paintings, antiques and momentos have been gathered from those early years to the present day and displayed in a unique atmosphere of open fires and gracious living.
But sadly times have changed for this family run hotel. Mrs O’Neill was widowed in 1993 but continued with the business and was believed to be the oldest hotelier in Northern Ireland when she passed away in 2017 at the age of 94.
One of her eight children, her son Frankie took over the running of the hotel and on his death his wife Denise continued the demanding business through civil unrest, the Covid epidemic and more laterally Brexit and the cost of living crises. Now it will pass into other hands, hopefully to treat the Londonderry Arms with the same dignity it is used too.
The Gathering of Memories will be held on Friday 23 February from 7.30 until 9.30 p.m. and the respected storyteller Liz Weir MBE will guide the audience through the evening, “I’m the facilitator,” she tells me although I think of this fascinating woman as the weaver of dreams. Any ghosts expected on the night? “There may well be, a building such as this has many secrets! We’ll be sitting at the fire in the Churchill Room and although people don’t think they have a story worth telling, I’ll encourage them to look back and share unique recollections. Steven O’Hara is a superb scribe and he will be recording all that goes on.” Liz knows the Londonderry Arms well and has a special interest as in her youth she was a 16 year old chamber maid. “I think there’s a book at the end of this. Also Anne, even if people can’t get along on Friday night I’d like them to send in their stories either by email or in a letter to Marnie at the hotel address.”
It’s difficult enough to give up a home you love but for the O’Neill family giving up the place they have nurtured from Moira and Frank’s time, through their children to their grandchildren is a wrench. They will never be forgotten, not only as the heart of the village but to so many local people travelling the north coast and visitors from around the world who have stopped and spent time with the O’Neills, the Irish Sea at the front door and the majestic Glens of Antrim at the back door.
As Moira’s daughter Marnie says: “We need to record our history which is rich and rare so, please, get in touch and help build the memories.”
More details at 028 2888 5255 or preferably by email lda@glensofantrim .com.
It amazes me how television companies allow the same people to appear over and over again in multiple programmes. Michael McIntyre’s Big Show and Michael McIntyre’s Big Wheel I can accept as he is funny, Lee Mack 1% Club, Would I Lie To You, Coming Out. Then the ubiquitous Graham Norton chat show and now Wheel of Fortune (he really struggles to know what to say, dripping with false sincerity), Jonathan Ross, Masked Singer and chat show. Fiona Bruce with Fake paintings, Antique Roadshow, Question Time and the news. And what about Bradley Walsh and his son? I rest my case.
Not too many people can claim a particular teacher inspired them to follow an amazing future. I can’t but Anne Madden can. She was a pupil at Belfast Royal Academy where her history teacher made a lasting impression as he brought history to life and Mr Eddie McCamley is proud of his pupil. Through him she became fascinated with American history and at university her specialist subjects included the American Civil War and now she has written a book which I couldn’t put down, I just wanted to keep reading as the story unfolded, for me every time the phone rang or I was offered a cup of tea I wanted to shout ‘leave me alone’.
A BOOK I’D RECOMMEND
The Wilderness Way caught my attention and kept me glued to the page. I was right in the story, from those happy days of living in a village of white painted stone cottages, digging turf and making poteen; I despised murderous landlord John Adair whose ambition was realised when he built his castle on Glenveagh estate; I knew young Declan Conaghan, I’d given him a voice, I’ve stood on the pier his father helped to build and I’d often visited the town’s workhouse. I know Portnablagh, one of my memories is early morning, standing on the pier and hearing someone hammering nails into wood on the far side of the bay, I love that sound, something in my childhood that was important. And this book is important, it introduced me to events I scarcely knew, specifically the eviction of families by landlords in 1860s Donegal and the American Civil War of 1861.
Devastating History
Anne Madden has written a book based on past events and embroidered with imagination to created a family going through torture as they were brutally treated, their little cottages razed to the ground by Adair’s men and divided by emigration.
Adair was indeed the landlord at Glenveagh in1858 and that castle is now a major tourist attraction in Glenveagh National Park. He was responsible for the evictions of 244 tenants including 159 children, he married Cornelia Wadsworth Richie whose father was a general in the Civil War and she spent much of her time working with the local people in and around Glenveagh. There was indeed a family called Conaghan and Anne brought them to life in a work of fascinating fact and fiction.
The American Civil War years were obviously researched throughly. Descriptions of trauma experienced by Declan and his brother Michael were at times difficult to read, when they were hurt I was hurt. Michael died of his injuries cradled in his brother’s arms, Declan was taken prisoner. On his way into Salisbury prison he passed a wagon with arms and legs of corpses jutting out. He was told: “We had to dig a new burial pit, the last five have filled up that fast.”
After the war, back home in Derry he makes for a pub, a drink and a turf fire. Joe the barman makes him welcome ‘Seems that war ended the fairytale of the New World’. Declan began to relax this was how he remembered home, falling into conversation with complete strangers.
But there was a lot more to come, back to reap revenge on Adair, find a wife, find work. come to terms with what had gone before.
Retribution
Heading back to Dunfanaghy the golden yellow gorse along the hedgerows seemed to light up his path home after the hell of the Battle of the Wilderness, dark hours lying face down in muddy ditches with bullets flying overhead thinking he’s never get out alive. Anne Madden paints a picture you walk into and live with the man she has created.
Anne is a journalist who worked in both The Irish News and the Belfast Telegraph and is now with Sustrans, a charity that works to improve walking and cycling routes across the UK and Ireland. She also spent time as press officer with the Lyric Theatre where she met writers and actors who inspired her, especially Rosemary Jenkins who advised her to consider a full time career in writing. She consider it but instead continued with her day to day work so took ten years to research, write and complete The Wilderness Way.
What’s next? She has a wide interest in history in general, one day meeting Auschwitz surviver Helen Lewis on the bus, she made sure they got talking and Helen invited the young woman to tea and cake, An example of her thirst for knowledge.
Anne Madden is determined to bring history to life just as she was taught. “I want to awaken the past as I’ve done with the evictions in Donegal also the Irish Famine, the biggest thing in Irish history, a seismic event which should be taught in every school.”
PUBLISHER: One More Chapter Harper Collins £9.99
