Winds of change from Australia

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During the fifties's a major change in my family's fortunes was about to emerge from the other side of the world in the shape of my uncle Patrick. He had been living in Australia for about thirty years and had decided to return to his homeland to retire. I remember the first time he called to see us in aughagaskin after his return home. I was in my early teens. He arrived on a bicycle wearing a long leather winter overcoat. This was in August, we were in bare feet and no shirts it was summer. He was used to high temperatures in Australia and it took a few years for him to adjust. However he did not retire as he planned, far from it. 

Rumour had it that he was up every morning in Anahorish at 7am, basin of cold water outside on a log washing his face preparing for his daily work. He managed to acquire a few fields in around the Broagh road outside Castledawson and set about cultivating. He grew potatoes and hay mostly. I was helping out some weekends with the hay but when I left the Rainey school I was on my way to England. My younger brothers carried on this assistance.


Sometime in the late fifties Patrick gave my parents a field to enable them to build a house. 'A field of dreams' you might say. My brother Sean around this time was serving an apprenticeship with a builder so was able to do a lot of the building work. Eventually my parents and the rest of the family moved in. This was a vast improvement on the place in Aughagaskin. Every time I returned home from England during the holiday periods there was something new added. Since that time my family members have added another 6 11  houses to the original one in the Broagh. Uncle Patrick left a fine legacy.