Tag: north ayrshire

ِDennyholm Street, Kilbirnie (again)

I have attached some photos. On one you can see Dennyholm street houses (left bottom – they look like chalets) and on the other a map showing that “the Dennyholm” (street) ran parallel to Newton Street but was on a level at the back and beneath the street. (next to number 836 on the map). The street itself ran all the way into the mill complex.

The other two photos show: the entrance to the mill complex and the demolished site before they built the new housing estate.

The North Ayrshire Directories of that time describes them as “a long row of houses prone to flooding.” The census of 1921 shows them as having only 2 rooms each. You can see them in this photo, to the left, bottom.

I have colourized this for a better effect.

The area has been completely replaced with the Dennyholm Wynd Housing Estate.

In the 1900s the street had shops and a school. Dennyholm Street no longer exists.

The Bing, Fudstone, Kilbirnie (a poem)

I couldn’t resist publishing this again, it’s my poem about the “Bing” which was a huge amount of debris that sat as a mound at the corner or Place View and Newhouse Drive, Kilbirnie before it was converted into a small playpark for kids around 1983 or 1984.

In Scottish terminology, a “Bing” refers to a large pile or heap of waste material, especially the waste rock and debris piled up in the process of mining, such as coal mining. These Bings are remnants of the industrial era, particularly in Scotland’s coal mining regions, where they were created from the spoil that was brought to the surface during the mining process. Over time, some of these Bings have become landmarks or have been reclaimed for various uses, while others still dominate parts of the Scottish landscape.

Continue reading “The Bing, Fudstone, Kilbirnie (a poem)”

Catherine Greenan Loughran, John Loughran, Margaret Kane or Cain.

This picture is of my Great Great Grandmother Margaret Loughran (maiden name Kane or Cain) from Dunnamore, nr. Cookstown Northern Ireland. Her son John Loughran and his wife Catherine Greenan (my Great Grandparents) and  three of their daughters, Maggie, Katie and Rose.

Margaret ended up in Kilwinning living  with the family –  old people used to say “something happened”  which is code for marital problems which would account for her leaving Ireland and going to Kilwinning. She died in Kilwinning in 1908.  The family had a tradition of returning people to Ireland when they died so I don’t know if she is buried in Kilwinning or Ireland.


Here is another picture of Catherine Greenan Loughran as a young woman.

Here is a another picture of my Great Grandmother, Catherine Greenan Loughran (also pictured above). She lived in Kilwinning and had a really huge family with my Great Grandfather John Loughran.  They were intertwined with the Gartland family, another local family around North Ayrshire. Her daughter Mary married my Grandfather Andrew McTaggart.

She was well known locally as a ballroom dancer, the Barrfield Pavilion, Largs, was one of her places. They used to chalk the heels of her shoes.

She died in Ireland in the late 1920s/1930s, where she spent a lot of her time with John’s family and is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard, Dunnamore, nr Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, in an unmarked grave along with older members of John’s family. John was also taken back from Dalry and interred there when he died.

In this picture she is wearing the infamous sealskin coat which everyone fought over when she died. I believe it went to Anna Mariah Campbell, from Kilmarnock.

Catherine again in this one: Here she is feeding the chickens in Dunnamore, Tyrone Ireland

In this next picture she is wearing the infamous sealskin coat which everyone fought over when she died. I believe it went to Anna Mariah Campbell, from Kilmarnock.

That house was latterly owned by two old aunts and  is now a barn. In the 1990s I went there it was owned by Seamus Loughran (not a relative – at least not a close one anyway). My Loughran family were always referred to as Jo Hanna’s Loughrans because Hanna was another family name.  This is important because in order to identify the tribe, you need to know the nickname. There are no Jo Hanna’s Loughrans left in the area. 

 

(John Loughran in Kilwinning)

Here are other family photos taken in Dunnamore. 

John Loughran

St Mary’s Dunnamore

John and family

 

If Kilbirnie Were a Harp…

If Kilbirnie were a harp with strings
I'd surely sweep a strain,
An everlasting melody
Which no man could restrain


I'd write a song of thanksgiving
Of peace and love and cheer
To bless the town with all its woes
Bring pleasure to their ears


I'd play the song on Knoxville road
And at the Walker Hall
I'd play it at the Labour club
While drunkards take their fall


I'd play the harp so silently
For those who hate the sound
To aid them out of hopelessness
To turn their lives around


I'd sweep a strain of sad refrain
At steel works passing by
I'd touch upon a melody
And older folks would cry


I'd play it softly at the match
While folks would cheer their team
And move along the park so long
To watch the Garnock stream


I'd play the harp across the tracks
As cyclists speed me by
I'd play and wait at graveyard's gates
For mourners with their sighs


I'd play it at the Garnock's heart
Right up at Jacob's Well,
where no one goes to see it flow
Or care to even tell


I'd play a tune right at the school
The Children would be pleased
I'd pass the harp to little ones
To hold upon their knees


So to the town with all my sounds
And everlasting strains
I leave the harp right at the cross
For others who remain


To strain their sounds of happiness
And hope for all the town
To watch it grow with sadness no!
As an everlasting crown.

St Brigids Church History 1862-1962 #kilbirnie #northayrshire #catholic

please click here for the document (PDF) 

Final page uploaded with names seperately here

This 27 page document produced in 1962 looks at Catholicism on the west coast of Scotland and details how the  Church in Kilbirnie came to be  opened in 1862. It contains a photo of the first priest  ( I already posted his death certificate on this blog) as well as the  surnames of all of the first Catholic families to worship in the Church which is very good for genealogy researchers.  It gives a rare glimpse of Catholic life on the west coast of Scotland and also talks about the opening of the school as well as other Churches in the area.

Mary (Maria) McTaggart 1887 – 1907

Maria McTaggart  was a sister of my Great Grandfather Neil McTaggart. She  died of a lung condition. 

It seems the family were living out at “the Den” which was a little village called Barkip. It no longer exists but you can still see traces of it on the Beith to Dalry Road. It was disbanded in the early 20th Century and the people were moved to other locations such as the Longbar, Rows, Beith and Dalry. It had a Church, Bank, Post Office and school.

Janet Hay and John Andrews are  also mentioned on the certificate

Mary – Death Certificate

 

The River Garnock at Grahamston Avenue #poem

Flowing to a land of peace 
We watch her gentle stream
Old Churches, schools ravished by time
Reflect her gentle beams.

Starry nights and sun-filled days
Upon her granite poised
Where children played upon the bridge
O´er shadowed now with noise.

Yet peace she brings with every stone
Where faltering birds do nest
And otters with their children come
To take their peace and rest.

In her divine appointed flow 
Fear leaves no saddened thoughts 
For change is named upon her brow 
With no heightened sense of loss.

And by her banks sweet angels flow
Attending to their wards
while we stand upon the bridge alone
With only darker thoughts.

Yet sweet repose and Love are here
For all who hear her song
Far away from bills to pay
And every sense of wrong.

Her gentle flowing higher streams
Do guide us in our thoughts
to a peaceful place of mind
flowing o´er the darker rocks. 

´Tis good for us to stop and hear
Her gentle peaceful flow
While Angels pass with quieter thoughts
Allowing us to grow.