This morning I went for a walk in the Glens with Nez and Fly. Nez knows the name of all of the hills and has tramped over the most of them. Fly likes to run the drains and culverts but then he is a water dog. While we were out I found myself remembering all the times I'd spent in the Glens as a child.
Our parents would pile us into the car, Matty would have made sandwiches or maybe a ween of wee currant buns. We'd go to the beach, usually Waterfoot or Cushendall, and sometimes Daddy would park up on the way down and we'd run down to one of the streams that ran through the Glens and play in the water and jump from stone to stone and eat our picnic there. Sometimes I thought I liked the river better than the beach.
During my childhood there was a landslide in one of the Glens that made headline news on local television. Those were the days when events in Northern Ireland didn't regularly make the national or international news and this event was very notable. If I remember it correctly some livestock was lost, a cottage was swept away and a farmer had a narrow escape. Some time afterwards Daddy drove us down to look at the aftermath. I remember seeing the brown earth and boulders where the grass, plants and trees had been.
But I cannot remember where it was and an hour or more of research on Google has not made me any wiser. It would have been sometime in the 1960s. Anybody out there who might have an idea when and where it happened?
But anyways - my research turned up the BBC archive site and I found this clip of a 1964 Fleadh Cheoil in Clones. There are quite a few well known musicians playing including Luke Kelly and Andy Irvine. They'd only have been in their early twenties then. Luke's long away but Bert went to see Andy Irvine in Ballymoney last week. It's worth a look if you like that sort of thing.
8 comments:
Ask Fresh Blade to ask her mum - she's bound to know when it happened.
Mammy says it was the McCormick family of Glendun. The had built a new house but she thinks they were still living in the old house. It was the old house that was swept away. One of the daughters had just gone out and had a lucky escape. Mammy doesn't remember the exact year, but it would have been late 1970s she thinks.
It has to have been earlier than that Blade. By the late seventies I was well into my twenties. I don't remember hearing that story but, then again, there was an awful lot going on then. News of a landslide in the glens probably wouldn't have got very far in the news. I'd guess your Mammy was only a child herself when the event I'm thinking of occurred. But thanks for the input - it is always good to hear from you.
Further to enquiries (!), the Mammy is having second thoughts. Current estimate is early 1960s, and we will get back to you if we get a more accurate answer!
Excellent! My cousin says it was definitely sixties, maybe 1963 and the area is the part you'd see standing on the Glendun viaduct with the sea at your back.
hi sis i remember dad talking about this to barney mcauley.That is Wise Barney there was something about there house getting swept away
From what I have found out since the event occurred on the 10th November 1963. There was no inhabited house swept away apart from a pig house. Our cousin Joe says he remembers a dead pig stuck in a hedge. According to Fresh Blade the family affected were called McCormick. When you know where to look there is quite a bit of scientific literature on it.
I remember this happening – we were regular travellers down the glen in the late 50s/60s. I’d say the approximation of 1963 was about right, going by my estimated age at the time! We drove down the glen, and came across a vast slide of brown muck stretching away up the left (north) side, with big rocks carried down to the river.
I remember at the time (a) that a new house had been built, (b) that it had been swept down to the river – but if better memories say it was the older house, I’d go with them :-)
The road had been cleared through the landslide, with big piles of muck on either side.
Pity (as the post title says) Google isn't more help…
Roger
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