All I've Ever Known: Margaret Gallagher's Story - My Thatched Cottage without modern amenities.

final mix you I've been rude to go down to the whale for a bucket of war fur bring it up fill the black pot hang it on the crook heat it use it put it in the galvanized bath to wash myself my baking is done on the hearth fire I bake my own bread in my pot ovens you perhaps it is long drawn-out but it's all I've ever known I'm almost 50 years old and I've always lived here and my father before me it the house was bought by my grandfather over a hundred years ago and it has always been owned by our family it's a three apartment cottage a kitchen and two bedrooms historians describe it as a representation of vernacular architecture but I just described it as home when visitors come a the see it as a museum I don't like that I don't think it's a museum I wouldn't like it seen as a museum everything in it is used everything you see in this cottage today the people will class as museum pieces I use because I need them or all I've got so I do not see it as a museum I see it as my home with my things that I use every day and that my father and grandfather have used before me you I have no desire to have television but I do love reading books I especially like the Russian authors because they're very graphic in their details it's a great interest to visitors how I manage how I cope but to me it's was no difficulty at all because the fire is so important it hits the water I use the fire for heating the little heater that forums as an iron at KU clean I do my baking in the pot ovens over the hearth fire so everything really is dependent on the fire and also the strength of the cottage the length it lasts is dictated by the fire the timbers are so old that a good fire is necessary to keep a house like this living there were four people in the family all together my parents my sister and myself my mother was a much younger woman but unfortunately she died from meningitis when she was 49 this was a very sad time for us she died in 1952 my sister's two years older than me her name is Frida and she lives in England now she's married there was a 14 year old boy my sister left because someone had to earn money she was very bright she got a good job in the civil service every penny that year and she sent home and I spent the money that she sent home we was times we couldn't have carried on had it not been for my sister I felt that I had to go away from here once my education was complete a lot of money and time had been spent on me and I thought nice a time to start earning some money and paying it back and you know I'd had my chance and and now it's time to go and do some work that's how I felt when I left here I left primary school at 14 primary school was just a walk across the fields and I spent my school days looking out through the window looking over at my own house and wondering what my father was doing and what he'd have from a tea when I would come home me or something ready for me and when I left school and came here I just looked after the cows and the piece of land which didn't take up a lot of time but unfortunately he was getting a stiffer he had a severe form of rheumatism and I always remember him walking on lawn stick but then he progressed to two sticks but he never complained he had a lot of pain but we never heard him complaining he wasn't a complainer my father was confined to bed for the last 17 years of his life he was in his 94th year obviously I knew that so at some stage he would die but I didn't I didn't think he would die that young I thought he would go on and on for quite a few years but he just didn't it was it was a great loss but he had left us so much that we had something to cling to the time I was looking after my father I couldn't have a job because it was a full-time job first of all but the small piece of land and then when he was confined to bed I had to spend my time looking after him and I didn't really think at that time that I would get a job because I wasn't exactly a spring chicken and work wasn't that plentiful in the area but a development group had started up in Belko and they had approached es action for Community Employment and got so many s placements and I applied for a job Bellco development group and I was very lucky to get my first job at the age of 46 while I was delighted to get the job it was quite worrying before I went to work wondering how I would adapt to a work site a I wondered about the electrical things there the photocopier and the kettle things that I had never seen and certainly knew that I wouldn't know how to use them and wouldn't have any burning and ambition to learn how to use them but I had a lovely boss called Caroline and she was quite sympathetic knew my background and eased me gently into the situation my first job was a research officer with the development group and that meant I had a research history in the area and I mean this was just a continuation of what I had done with my father here the knowledge I have at the moment of the area all developed from listening to my father talking to people what was here what a giant grave was and ghost stories and folklore and tradition all the things that matters everything that mattered he talked about and I inherited his love of that and I'm thankful that I did when I come to study of some particular topic see a garden hill house I didn't have to go to public records office to research it I had to go to my own failed things that my father had told me that I had all here having left school at an early age and no secondary education it was my own lack of knowledge that worried me but the only thing I came on with was my love of the area and my knowledge of the area I knew that nobody could put me down and that I knew they weren't going to get any better for the heritage of the area and having been born and bred the third generation in that area and that it gives me great courage and I'll tell you I needed courage at that point in time because entering the work world 46 isn't an easy task it certainly isn't easy when you're not educated my first allocation of work was researched in the area and seeing where heritage nature trails could be devised and the development group have 40 square mile in their study area so I went out walking over that entire area to see where the potential was for having little walks and so far we have devised five of these and they're very interesting all completely different all within the groups area and each seeped in its own particular tradition folklore and areas of history if you're walking you see the area you come to guess more familiar with the area people talk about history they see it as building so forget about the natural history the actor will spring whales the rare types of boards we've got the hen harrier nesting in this area we still got the corn creek we've got varied species that one wouldn't have for instance in the flora we have a rare white Heather found in corn Akali the only other places you would find this rare white Heather is in the Basque region of Spain and in Cornwall so we're pleased having something like that we also have quite a lot of limestone land and this tends to create magnesium deposits this is quite rare also the limestone land tend to have a lot of spring wales with curing properties so we're in just lucky and what we have in the area we have 40 square mile in our study area and the five trails cover this entire area and I think the unusual aspect about the trails is each one of them is so different on the Garden Hill trail which is on the road where I live we have an old house called Garden Hill House it belonged to the hazard family Jason hazard was high sheriff of County Fermanagh in 1676 heading more Northwest we have the Latin Trail and that takes in a lot of mountain region heading away out to not more to visit a cave so all the different trails have some different aspect the Belko trail is a cross border trail encompassing black line and county cavan and it features a very important site called the chrome Creek chrome crew across the nation King Adel of Ireland a pagan site that a sacrificial rites were carried out here the chrome crew egg was offered the firstborn of family and stock and if you examine this standing stone closely you will see groves in it which allowed the blood to run freely down the stone it originally was located in Southern Ireland but as Christianity came across the border much earlier than it came here it was moved to this place for safekeeping prior to the birth of Bell cou which came along with the railway the most famous town and county fermanagh was called holy well it derived its name from the holy way located there this is very famous pool of water again with curative properties it is reputed to have the cure of paralytic disorders and is was founded by since Annelle but in the annals of long ago was recorded as it was founded by San Patrick no children I went on down to the whale and I talked to you from here and then I bring him in to see the whale and Holywell as well as featuring the actual holy whale also had a fair a very important part of Irish history it had a market cross it had a medieval church and it had a bull on stone the water flows both ways that's very good indeed as you can see it's a pool of clear spring water supposedly issuing 23,000 gallons of water per hour which is a vast amount of water the purity of this water has been revealed by thousands of people who came here seeking cures it contains curative properties and it's reputed to cure nervous or paralytic disorders with a fair D it meant a lot of to in and froing people came from very far away at to this fair to bring with them their ass loads of potting and other spirits and the solder wears at this particular place and then went to the she beans and got drunk and then went into the holy whale for a little dip the church clamped down on the religious pilgrimages carried out here due to all the drunkenness and debauchery that occurred as a result of the holy whale being so closely located to the she beans while this is called Molly covered mill in earlier days it was called leg and melons because the Tyne land in which this is located borders on town land of Clegg n' again like a lot of other sites in our area there is no exact dating for this it's assumed was built in the late 1700s by the Aaron of Aaron I had a particular interest in it because I had had heard my father talk of coming here to have cornmeal and so I set about finding out who the actual owner was and when I told them of our plans he was very pleased and agreed to give us a mill on a 99 year lease the actual mill and dry in-house will be restored the next plan is the building of an interpretative Center the museum which will house dairy and artifacts the outhouses and the old Molly covered shop which was a very important part of history many years ago all the neighboring houses sheltered by Balmoral mountains came here to do their shopping so the shop will be restored phase three is the heat development and the caravan park so when Belle ku in this will develop have Molly covered mill in place it certainly will put Belka on the tourist map just pick something nice there extend I feel children should be made aware of history at a very early age and I think the best way to do that is through the primary schools and occasionally we are asked by our local primary school and other primary schools to take children out on archaeological tours and this shows especially local children what's in their own area now children if you'd like to look to your right and you'll see the leper window this is a very rare type of window and it was devised so that people suffering from leprosy could come & pratik of the church service was I've been observed by the present congregation the stonework is reasonably secure at the moment but plans are at the investigator study Steve the wealth of historic sites that we have here and we're always very proud to do this and we accommodate any school that wants us to take them out on a trip we accommodate them I especially like giving tours to children school children because I find that they are unaware that their parents would have all developed from a place like this not only their parents but their ancestors and they don't understand it they think this is a museum piece where it isn't their family came from places like this and I think children should be made aware of how the Irish long ago lived and how some of us still live today this is metal pot oven and like the black pot for boiling the water it's a very necessary commodity in a house like this it's used for cooking the dinner and for baking baking in this pot oven is a very simple exercise just means when the bread is ready hang on the pot oven there or on the roof over the coals and there's some coals on the lid this means that the heat is evenly distributed and the bread is full of flavor with a salt crust like the bread you would be very tasty and very fresh I like an open door we've always had an open door and I will always show the cottage to whoever wants to see it be that schoolchildren Boy Scouts doesn't matter what group or what individual comes I would have an open door and be very proud of that irrespective of who they are or what they are I will show them the cottage I believe that's what life is all about these are the two types of iron I use the simple smoothing iron which is very easy to operate and the box iron the smoothing iron is just placed directly in front of the fire and it gets enough heat from the fire to do ironing but this one is a bit more awkward the heater has to be taken from this and placed in the center of the fire and some coals put around it and after about 30 minutes or so it's ready for ironing and it's this box iron that I would use most of the test Cillian was always a very important part of our lace day it was traditional and in my father's times was always tied on here we had loads of kiddies coming younger people tend to come in more now than older people and I'm especially pleased to see children carrying on traditions like that because it's so important the children should be muted aware of our culture and our traditions something that my father was so proud of a named pleased that it still carried on here the village of Belle ku had his origins in the middle of the last century it came about by way of the construction of the Slagel Leitrim and northern counties railways which was set up as part of a famine relief scheme it give people jobs during the famine period when stone houses were built in bail crew for workers the people who were living in the then town of holy whale came down to live in Baku Bellco is a population of around 400 people we've always had a major unemployment problem a lot of young people had to leave the area to find work we actually lost complete generation between the mid 70s into the 80s because of unemployment we knew something had to be done to reverse this trend so in 1987 some members of Bell ku Community Association formed Bell ku and District Development Group in an attempt to bring jobs to the area one of the founder members of Bell qu development group was Jim Sheridan he spearheaded plans for the building of an enterprise center this project cost 400,000 pounds and has now become a reality most of the work on this enterprise Center was carried out by workers under an action for Community Employment scheme by using es it meant we were able to apply our own local paper and if we had to bring in an outside contractor he woulda brought in a someone workforce and and it'd be very day full of money local people would have got an opportunity it meant extra pair pockets cooling into the the households in the area so it gives more encouragement to the local people to really get behind the project vehicles back to the people of the area and they were very supportive of us where the major draw some years ago and that was supported by people of Bell ku and in that row alone 30,000 pound was raised so Bell ku people in fact but in 30,000 pound themselves to the initiation of the development program for the enterprise center the Enterprise Center has nine craft units and people wishing to start their own businesses can rent a unit here and there's also a coffee shop and a home bakery we're quite close to the Marble Arch caves at the moment paper would have to wait up to two hours when the comb on a coach load and we are hoping to take that Coach load about who and could spend them couple of hours with us and go back up to the caves it isn't gentlemen you're very welcome to the autumn launch of the Belko and district Historical Society early in October in 1988 I sent out letters to people I assumed evinced an interest in local history I sent out twelve letters and twenty-five people turned up to her first meeting tonight we were especially pleased to have as our guest speaker asked McCreary so would asked you to give him a round of applause it just went from strength to strength and today we proposed order cross community membership of 110 people Thank You Margaret very much indeed and I was here some years ago as you know writing my book austere journey and somewhere around from Anna I heard about this young lady who lived lives in a beautiful cottage on a hillside and who loves literature and knows what literature so I found Margaret Gallaher not on a hillside but under cottage and I remember we had a marvelous interview last for about two or three hours it rains from check off to kabra in 1991 I was promoted to project manager with Belko and district development group and one of the requirements of that post was that I should have a car to be able to visit out lyon projects and attend meetings a car does not interest me I would know one end of a car from another and my brother-in-law came home to buy me the car I had learned to drive back in the 70s my father funny enough was insisting that I learned to drive he kept saying you have to look out for yourself when I am gone and if you get a job you need a car and again it was his wisdom there is nothing in the modern world I would want my dearest wish would be that my family who live in England would come and live in Northern Ireland and I can see signs of that already that would be my dearest wish because I think there is nothing in the world as powerful as the love of a family I'd love to come back to Ireland to live in fact my husband and I do plan to come to Ireland when we retire and I don't mean to come back and live as Margaret lives I don't mean that I've been living with modern things too long now to give them up so I'd like to come back and live in Ireland in a modern house somewhere near Margaret maybe and she has her lifestyle and I have mine and they are completely different my sister has one child Kieran and he will inherit this place I would like to think I would end my days here with nothing changed it is going to be progressively difficult as I get older to keep the roof repaired and all that but I hope I'll be able to hold it until Kieran is old enough to come and I wouldn't expect him to live here apparently but I would like to think he would settle in Northern Ireland and have this as his house where he would look after it and I know the way he's reared that he will do that but for the remainder of my lifetime I hopefully will live here please god I would like to end my day here exactly as the house is now complete with my hanging table my flag floor may pieces that I have gathered over the years that has been here that's how I'd like to see myself I would like to be carried out in a coffin from this house because this is home

Channel: John Callister

Views: 3,181,158

Rating: 4.8800955 out of 5

Keywords: Ireland, Northern Ireland, Margaret Gallagher, homestead, rural lifestyle, museum, historic, simple lifestyle, thatched cottage, no modern amenities, home cooking, organic

Id: lRL9iIN3R8s

Length: 29min 26sec (1766 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/adriennemonster]

here’s a great updated article about her

[u/stalkermuch]

Beautiful. Thanks for posting.