MacAneelys beheading and William Wilberforce.....and my Birthday!

Our Warwick came from London for the joint celebration of my ninety second birthday and the sixty fifth anniversary of my marriage to Jane.   In the house belonging to Walter & Nuala and their ambitious girls Siobhan, Lucy & Hannah we had a delicious meal.   Unfortunately Warwick’s dear wife Fiona and their lovely girls Eleanor and Rebecca could not get time off to be with us.  Simon and Lyn came from Sheriff Hutton with Judith and Neil our only grandson.    We missed seeing Ruth; she is in Germany.   We were however delighted that Warwick had a passenger / friend called Denis who had flown across from Donegal.    He is a son of Josie one of the major sponsors of the Donegal football team.  Josie is of course one of the noble Doohan family.   There were fifteen of them --eleven brothers and four sisters.  Their mother Birdie was ten years older than me and wheeled my pram to the sea shore.    My Mamma told me that without Birdie's help, she could not have reared me.   She was one of the three daughters of my aunt Maggie who was a sister to my Dad.   Our saddest visit back there was in '66.  We found this really good kind lady terminally ill from consumption. 

I attended the reunion that this family held over three days where they grew up in north Donegal during the summer of '05.  Unfortunately only Warwick was free to join me.  It was the greatest party I had the pleasure of attending with a hundred and thirty one Doohans.  There was a golf tournament in the picturesque grounds of the Ballyconnell estate which belonged to the Olphert family in the late 17th century.  There was an interesting lecture at the scene of the Cloughaneely stone.  History tells us that there was a war between MacAneely the Chief on the mainland and the Fomorian Chief called Balor on the Island of Tory.  One day Balor and his soldiers landed at Ballyness pier.  The soldiers seized MacAneely and laid him on the marble stone for Balor to behead him with his axe.  The red streak on the stone to this day is a remnant of MacAneely's blood.  The stone was raised on to the present plinth by the wife of the Landlord Mr Olphert in 1774.   This is it.  

Afterwards we visited what had been the churchyard at Tullaghbegely where there is a stone with my Grandfather's name carved on it over his grave.  The next stop was to the remains of an old monastery at Ray just across the river from where I was born. 

Our lecturer told us that one day in 1652 while the Bishop was administering confirmation Cromwellian soldiers came and massacred two hundred people and burned the building. 

Jane, Charley and Buster at the remains of the Ray monastery.

Those of us interested in horse riding assembled on the strand at Drumnatinney and rode through the waves to Ballyness pier.  On one evening the younger Doohans entertained us with a production of  "High Noon ".  Denis who came here for my birthday acted the part of Gary Cooper who played the Sheriff.   On the final evening of the memorable event we had a wonderful meal with musical entertainment until early morning at the Loch Altan hotel in Gortahork.

When Warwick arrived for my birthday he invited me to Hull where he wanted to photograph me at the William Wilberforce monument.  Wilberforce (1759-1833) had been MP for Hull and used his position to draw attention to the cruelty of the slave trade and also of the abuse of animals.  He was a devout Christian and a force for good.  Despite poor health he worked passionately to encourage all parliamentarians to join him in abolishing slavery.  Sadly he died three days after hearing that the bill to end it had been passed through the Houses of Parliament.  The population of Hull felt sympathetic and grateful to him and were generous in contributing to the cost of the erection of his statue on top of the imposing 100 ft column in the grounds of Hull college.  A memorial school for the blind was established in 1833.  The University of Ohio was named after him and recently the film 'Amazing Grace' commemorated him on the 200th anniversary of the anti-slave legislation.  I was glad to see that my favourite politician William Hague wrote a biography of him.

I must mention our special friend who telephoned early in the morning to congratulate me on reaching 92.  He is the amazing Alan Staveley.    He himself is 96 -- not out -- and his mind is as active as it was when   teaching our Walter at Lawrence Sheriff school in Rugby fifty years ago.   He was shattered by the loss of his wonderful wife Joan  until he found the grit to adapt to a new life in a comfortable home in Rutland.