Donald
Beautiful Bank Holiday morning. I’ve just driven back from local compulsory ‘shopping’ trip, and dived in here to find that you have provided me with further interesting information, this time about a Mr Phurfy, (no idea about the spelling). I think, if it is the chap I remember, that he had a stammer; and was married to Margaret. I did not live in Buggy Row, but I knew a few people from there. The people that are mentioned, may, in many cases, be dead and gone, but TO ME it is equivalent to reading about famous people of long ago.
I’ve switched this to a different thread because, as usual, I blundered into the wrong alleyway., and ended up in Delacherois Avenue.
Ta muchly!

Dabbler
was that not his brother Joe Furfy who was married to Margaret, he worked in Hilden Mill, but lived in Buggy Row, Davy Jones and McCleans but to mention a few also lived there.
Do you remember McCracken the Saw Doctor who lodged with the widow Mrs Close a few doors up Antrim St.? He had his workshop in a shed at the back of the House. Her son Ned was Stationmaster at Hilden Halt and married Francis Davis who ran the shop in Hilden, ( Bell,s shop we called it) after the Corbits gave it up. They moved ( Closes ) later to the Low Rd into one of the Houses which were built after they knocked down the Huts. Here in Munich it,s also a beautiful day, I have just returned from the market in the town center after meeting a few Collegues and watching the Fire Brigade erecting the May Pole which is in Bavaria a traditon and enjoying a few half Liters or good Bavarian ( Free ) Beer which the Munich Breweries donate to celebrate the occasion and to be honest admiring the Ladies who are slowly casting their winter woolies aside and donning their spring attire
Donald

Donald. Some hours later, after inviting a couple of neighbours in for a cuppa, talking about other neighbours, election, politics; fetching a couple of vegetable plants from their house a couple of doors away, and then going to a gardening centre for compost, and planting gift plants, I’m back in to see if anybody else is as mad as me, looking on here.
Joseph Furphy, yes, spot on again. And yes, the saw doctor, who was mentioned previously, I remember, though vaguely.
At a grave risk of offending my beloved should she ever read this, I prefer the sound of that beer and crumpet, you lucky devil.

I have just had one of those memory flashes! I bet LowRoader remembers a family of girls called McNally. I once went to a birthday party for one of them when I was a young teenager.
I remember my sister referring to Cushla Rooney, whom I did not know, as one of the nicest people she had met in her life.
Several people have mentioned the Elmores. I remember, a very, very long time ago, two brothers, one Dennis, and the name of the older I have forgotten.
I’m off to watch Arsenal on the box.
Till we ‘meet’ again: May your Gods go with you.

Dabbler,

Cushla Rooney, now there's a name I hadn't heard of in well over 50years. The Rooneys used to live opposite the grocery store that I rode message bike for(Refausse's at the top of Gregg St.)then they moved to the Low Rd..If Cushla was a nice girl she must have taken it after her Mother, Mrs Rooney (Ginny) was a wonderful lady and had a fabulous sense of humour. I was delivering groceries to the Rooneys the day I saw the accident that the little boy was killed, that was the one that Donald mentioned on an earlier thread.
By the way Cushla had an older sister Nancy, well I think she was older, one thing I am certain of ....they were very nice people.

Re. Dougie Dowling, you are spot on when you said he tried his hand as a jockey, unfortunately he had lots of problems controlling his weight and had to pack it in. Dougie was also quite a good boxer in his day.

Beano

g,day all
was scrolling through and came on your comment on buggy row. i had an aunt and uncle lived there jean and davy doonan. they lived at the bottom and a left turn beside a man forget the name who owned and operated his own taxi. he was very particular and when not driving spent a lot of time cleaning and polishing it,it looked great my aunt jean or jinny worked in stewarts and finished at six at night and often i was sent from mcckeown street now a car park
by my granny to deliver a big jug of stew?
funny what you remember?
good luck
tom

Mornin’ All
Tom:
I cannot at this moment recall the people you mention, but it is good to see your input. You are almost certainly connected to people that I knew in my youth. I remember a mother and two daughters from McKeown Street who worked at the mill, but can’t remember the surname. I liked Madge, but her mother joked, (you could joke in those days), that I would have to be a ‘turncoat’ before she would let her go out with me. Keep the memories flowing in. They are all interesting.
Lords and Ladies:
I know nothing about Hillsborough, but enjoy the input from the ‘aristocracy’, as it reminds me of visits to Ballymacash, where I played on the haystacks with the local yokels – I never saw a girl there.
Beano:
I enjoy all that you write. Dougie knew my family. I think my dad persuaded him to give me his vocal encouragement from ringside during a boxing match, as previously stated. I certainly heard him. It didn’t make me into a Rinty Monaghan, but I won that fight.

Hi Beano,
Nancy is the older sister. There was also younger sister born after they moved to the Low Road called Angela. You are very right - they were nice people.

Here’s another couple for you to mull over. A lad called Tommy Carson also moved into the new houses
in Leamington at that time. I think he had a sister but I also think that his father had died. Did you know him?
A family called Dinsmore (Dunsmore) also moved into the Low Road. They had a son who was a bit sickly. I think the father worked in Hilden Mill. Donald may know of him

With reference to Dougie Dowling. I met him at the funeral of his sister Sally some time ago and he was in very good shape. He was, indeed a useful boxer. Another brother, Sammy I think, was involved with horses, but I have not seen him in years. I think Dougie’s sister Margaret still lives out the Causeway End Road somewhere. She was married to Alfie Clarke.

Greetings Dabbler,
There was a family called McNally that moved into Huguenot Drive. They were quite a large family and I cannot at this time recall any of them by name. There were two or three girls and at least one boy.

Donald,
Do you remember the Maginess family in Hilden? There were four daughters, Bernadette, Eileen and twins called Annie & Sally.

LR

Hi Low Roader,

I should have remembered there was a third member of the Rooney family, though I wouldn't have known her name.Angela sounds right, as Mrs.Rooney's sister was Angela McKeown, who incidentally moved into their old house after they moved to the Low Road. Tommy Carson I did not know. I did know a boy called Martin Dinsmore who suffered from a chest ailment,however I didn't know he came from the Low Rd. Do you remember another family called Allen, they used to live in Gregg St. and they moved to your end of town, there were two boys and a girl(May). The boys were very alike and not very tall,unfortunately I don't remember their names.
You are right about Sammy being Dougie Dowling's brother and he was also involved with horses. I didn't know that Sally had died,I am very sorry to hear that.
I also didn't know that Margaret married Alfie Clarke, it is marvellous the information I am getting out of all this, please keep it coming.

Beano

Hallo Lowroader, Beano, Dabbler etc etc,
Jock Dunsmore was a Scotsman and lived in Leamington in the new houses next door to Taffy Davis, across from the Roberts family. Jock was foreman of the " Daisy Pluckers ", they were the workers who cleaned the Fallers ( Combs in the Drawing Machines ). He had a son Jim who worked in Stewarts and at least another son. Taffy Davis ( a Welshman ) was a motor Mechanic in Hilden Mill until he left to work in the 1960s in the newly opened MOT centre on the corner of Smithfield / Dublin Rd and eventually was transferred to Coleraine. His wife was very friendly with my Aunt Kathleen and the were one of the very few families with a car, they took us sometimes to Ardglass.I remember his wife singing " We,ll keep a welcome in the hillsides, we,ll keep a welcome in the glades",as we drove home from Ardglass one Sunday evening.
Like I wrote yesterday Angela Rooney was I think a little younger than myself and married Kevin( Hooker) Thompson, also from the Lowroad, a very good footballer like his father
The Allens lived in Grand St. , I remember May going with Ian Hamilton who was the first in Lisburn to get his hair cut Yul Brenner style and Miriam who went to Hilden school.
Donald

Hallo again
Of course I remember the Maginess Family,they lived next to Billy Taylor in the back St. in Hilden, just a few doors from the Midwife. Tommy the father fished with my Uncle Tommy, Grandfather and Great Uncle Ned.
One of the eldest girls, died very young, she married a very nice Belfast chap, Tony was his name, I worked with him in the Tilley Lamp. The second, married a fitter she met in the Mill, Billy Dougan was his name,The courtship was frowned upon, because they were different religions ( like my parents ). They moved to Eniskillen after he got a job as a salesman for Bibbys animal foods. Annie married a German who who she met in Grundig, I met her about 20 years ago in Kerr,s butchers( my brother in law,s shop ). She spoke perfect German .They moved to Germany but last I heard she had returned to Norniron
Donald

dabbler
thanks for your reply.. the madge you mentioned was probally madge mcclements and there was a fair family of them i,m actually related to them sort of.
do you remember williams shop on the corner?
good luck
tom

I don’t know whether you guys are ‘for real’, but it’s like sittin’ roun’ hav’n’ a wee talk.
Tom, yes, that is the name of the family. I wouldn’t have liked to be in a row with the ma, God bless her soul. She was one tough old girl. I don’t really remember the shop. I remember very well indeed McKee’s bookies, in the mid fifties, close to your street, and Billy Dunleavey working in there, as well as a chap called O’Neill, who was head clerk, manager, or something.

It appears that half the people from the town centre moved to the County Down after I left. Alfie (Squeaker) Allen is the one that I remember. The Allens used to live up past Bradbury’s Buildings and Church Street, near Dougie Dowling and several of those I have mentioned earlier. Alfie sustained a serious leg injury when a car mounted the pavement not far from Ginesi’s chip shop.

Of the McNallys, May is the only name that I remember.

I feel sad to think of all the terrible conflict and division that must have taken place since my youth. Despite knowing absolutely nothing other than what I have read or seen in the English press, my guess is that some of my experiences could not have been repeated over the past twenty years. E.g. when I went to a social in Lambeg, or maybe it was Dunmurry, Stanley Bustard, from a strong Protestant background, asked me if I had anything ‘Catholic’ in my possession, so that he could prove to the Catholic girl sitting near him, that he was one too.
Ulterior motives, of course, but he was a likeable lad.

Donald,
Here is another tester for you. Twin sisters moved into old houses in Leamington. One was called Imelda, do not remember other name. Do you remember them? I think the family may have been from the border country or even further south. I was not at Hilden school at the time but I suspect they may have gone there.
By the way Edmund Gorman was a great pigeon fancier, as were a lot of people about the Low Road at the time and also I believe in Hilden.
LR

Lowroader. only guessing, but the name McManus springs to mind, Theresa!
Pigeon fanciers? Jackie Close, Bob Dornan , my Granda and his brother Ned. I still have a set of crockery here that they won at least 60 years ago.
ps Jackie Close bought or was given my Granda,s shed after he became to old to keep and race pigeons, And another point of interest before that my mother,s family Mateer lived up Kelly,s hill and when their house went on fire and were homeless, they lived for a while in the same shed until they were rehoused in Hilden
Donald

dabbler
thanks for the reply. i printed the corner shop name wrong it was in fact williamsons owned by billy williamson and opposite the buroo?? in the same era as mcckee,s bookies
just a question i went to brownlee and had a friend to walk to school with his name was billy irwin and his family emigrated to canada. he lived in batchelors walk not far from antrim street did anyone ever run across him in their travels?
good luck tom

Tom
I have but faint recollection of the area. I had forgotten that the ‘buroo’ was there. I THINK I remember a shop on the right side going towards the railway bridge.

Glancing through postings, I am shocked once again by my failure to remember names, even when I see them written down. Norman (Hack) Mc Allister, was at Graceys jam factory in that summer of long ago. I think he had about six brothers, at least one of whom was a boxer. Ex-boxer at the time I remember. Herbie? Bertie? Whoever, I once saw him in a street fight, down the hollow, at the toss. My youthful memories are full of drink and violence.
Norman, who, at sixteen or so, seemed a placid youngster, was slightly younger than I, and the youngest, I believe, of his family.

Dabbler / Beano
you mentioned Graceys, do you remember a forwoman there
Mrs Leathem from Hilden? She was apparently a very hard taskmaster, her husband Davie worked in Mackies. He had a nickname but I have forgotten it. During the war he was an Air Raid inspector in Hilden and had to insure that all the blinds were properly drawn so they would not attract the German Luftwaffe with *****s of light. They had a son I never met. They lived between us and Mickey Sharkey in the Back Street, also a character about Lisburn.
Next to Graceys , across the road from Ferguson,s sweetie shop where Hillhall Primary school is built was a POW camp for German soldiers, I remember the foundations still standing in the early 50s
Donald

Donald,
Just remembered the family name of the two girls. It was Salmon and I am sure the father worked in the mill. You are right about the McManus family but they were long time residents of Leamington (next door to the Watters family).

LowRoader, you’re really confusing me now. Next door to the Watters family? Next door to Donald?

Dabbler,
Sorry if I confused you. I refer to the Watters family of whom Frankie (the footballer) was a son.They lioved in Leamington.
There were lots of Watters about hilden and Low Road.
Hope this clears your head.
LR

Dabbler,

Once again you have hit a nerve with me. The McAllister family, bless them all, lived just up the street from me in Mercer St.,they were so good to us during WW-2,I will always remember their generosity. Norman (Hack) was as you say the youngest, and yes Bertie was a boxer. Norman was also quite an accomplished horseman, and he played fullback for the famous Barnsley Star team in the 50s. Here is the complete family, Frank, Ina, Percy, Gordon, Ethel, Bertie,Walter, Anna (my first girlfriend at 12)and Norman. Frank thier father was a boilerman in Hilden Mill. Ina and Ethel worked in Graceys under Leathem the "Horrible". The family also kept pigeons at a time

Beano

The name Rodney Willis appears on the Exiles page. As his father was a teacher at the tech, I doubt if he is the Rodney Willis that I knew, the brother of yet another boxer, Jackie. Anybody know them? Probably Longstone, though I can’t remember for sure.
Beano, I also remember, though I did not know him well, a very tall Jim Hanna, a couple of years younger than you, perhaps. I think he really was tall, not just because everyone, including you, was tall compared to me.

Hi Dabbler,

Like yourself I remember Jackie Willis who came from the Longstone, the other Willis "exiles" I didn't know, maybe your comments will draw some kind of reaction.
Jim Hanna was about 6'-2" tall he was only two months younger than myself, at one time he was in the same class at Sloan St.school. Jim was nicknamed Rip for what reason I do not know, I do remember he got the cane very often as he was never on time. He became a "Born Again Christian"in his 20s and unfortunately he passed away much too early, he was only in his 40s.

Beano

The Mrs is talking sewing to a neighbour, so I’ve dived in here for a few minutes, before the ManU match on tele. Thanks LR for easing my confusion about the Watters.
Did any of you know a man called Bobby Robinson? Worked in one of the mills. He was quite a bit older than me. I remember him talking very proudly about his dad, who was a spinning master. Bobby really COULD sing.
A voice to melt the heart. His wife’s name was Liz.
Thanks Beano for the info, sad though it is, about Jim Hanna. On the question of him becoming a Born Again Christian, I learned after I left the Emerald Isle that both Catholic Burns brothers from a mixed marriage family in the Longstone, (Ken was a very good boxer), joined their young sister in being ‘saved’. Did you know them?

Dabbler / Lowroader,
Hope I don,t bore you now.
Didn,t know your friend Robinson, but my Aunt Tessie Wallace from Hilden ( Mill St. 159 ) , her Father Tom was Spinning Master in Hilden Mill before the war.
A true story about him is that the spinners and doffers ( the Spence family Grandmother , old Mrs McKitterick included ) knew it was 12.00am and not long until the Meal Hour, 12.45pm, as it was called in Hilden ,because Tom walked up and down the pass in the Wet Spinning room ( Nr 3 ) with bowed head, saying the Angelus. He was a devout Catholic, the only one with a watch and knew the time. Later unfortunatly his wife died and left him with 3 Daughters, Rose , Mary and Tessie. The drink got the upper hand, he lost his job, ****** off to England and the children came in a home
Rose died very young, Mary was adopted brought up by my family at the Lockview, emigrated to America as an old Aunt from her who was employed over there as a Lady,s Maid sent for her, married an American who suffered a wound at the Normandy Landing. Tessie had to stay in the Childrens Home in the Ravenhill Rd in Belfast and there through an accident ( she was kicked accidently by another child while Irish Dancing ) and lost her foot. She worked in the Spooling Room in Hilden for 50 years, never married and lived to a ripe old age , died in the old peoples home on the Moira Rd.

Donald
You cannot be serious! Irish dancing did you say? You’re a right card, you are.
About the time when young Auchy Patterson was flying round Wallace Park, the boy who came second to him in the relay, and might have beaten him, one to one, Gerald Murray, from The Boys School in Chapel Hill, was making a name for himself at the Irish dancing lark. I would imagine the same boy, barring injury or illness, must have made a few headlines as he grew up.
I read your boxing bits on the adjoining thread. I ‘dabbled’ in the sport, a couple of fights, could not have laced the boots of those mentioned, but maintained a lifelong interest, despite acknowledging its cruelty.
I see you speak a bit of latin as well!

Dabbler
no kidding, Aunt Tessie told me she received an accidental kick on the lower part of her leg,that caused some bone or tissue damage, became infected and resulted in the lower part of her leg having to be amputated.
Very sad for a young girl,
Donald

Dabbler,

Nice to see you mention Gerry Murray. When we talked about footballers earlier Gerry was omitted, a big mistake, he was an excellent left winger and was playing for Cliftonville in the Irish League before he emigrated to Australia. Our daughter Karen was an Irish Dancer and represented Canada at the "Worlds" in 1978, I have to say to you Donald, your Aunt Tessie was very unfortunate, I dont recall any dancer being seriously injured during our 12 year involvement with the dancing.

Beano

Beano, well done to your daughter. Sounds like you have a very fit family. Irish dancing is energy sapping.
Donald, I love your stories. I have a bowl of salt beside me as I read them.
LowRoader, you are a fount of information. Thanks.

Gilliland, anybody know that name? Freddy, seemed a nice lad, – tried the boxing, sparring at least, but I think he quickly decided it wasn’t for him. Or perhaps he carried on?.
Thanks for that info about Gerald Murray, Beano.
How about Brendan or Gerald Skelton? A couple of very gymnastic little brothers; either of whom could have succeeded at boxing, but methinks would have veered towards something less savage.