Balla family comes together to recall times past

Kearns family comes together again for reunion to reminisce on ‘jewels’ of the past


People and places
Michael Commins

THE Kearns family members were back in Balla in recent days for their now four-yearly reunion. They came from New York, Arizona, and various other parts of the United States, Scotland and England to share in the celebrations. The reunion is a special time for all the family relations and friends, an evocative homecoming to where it all began, and a happy occasion too for their many friends around the Balla area.
Bridie (Doherty) Kearns emigrated to America in the 1930s where she retained many memories of life growing up near Balla. These memories were cherished by her family in America and her daughter Josephine (McTague) had the good sense to record many of them. In this article, which we are delighted to feature in The Mayo News this week, Josephine brings us back to another time and another place as she tells us the story of her mother Bridie and the way her upbringing in rural Mayo shaped and moulded her outlook on life and gave the family circle such an appreciation for the land where it all began.
“My mother, Bridie Kearns Doherty, was a storyteller. She emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1937 at the age of 18 in hope of better employment. My family grew up in Brooklyn, New York in a very different environment, away from the green rolling hills of County Mayo.
“Although Bridie was miles away from her birthplace, she kept her family close to her heart and, naturally, shared stories about them with me and my siblings. She shared tales of her younger years in Ireland in our everyday conversations. These accounts were about her mother, her father, her four brothers and eight sisters.
“They were simple stories of everyday events that happened in her family. She told these anecdotes effortlessly. She was proud of her family and wanted us to know about them. My mother told me so many little things that happened to her in Ireland that I could perfectly envisage what life was like in Ireland for her and her family.
“I remember Mom talking about her lovely warm thatched cottage. A clamp or pile of turf was neatly arranged outside the whitewashed stone house. It had a roof of straw, a half door and an open fire. According to Mom, ‘the room above’ was for the girls and their grandmother and ‘the room below’ was for the boys and their father. The room in the middle was the kitchen, dining room, and living room.
“As a child I thought that she had a three-storey house. The middle room had a warm turf fire that was always burning. A large black pot hung from the crane in the fireplace. On the side of the hearth was the oven where the many loaves of bread were baked. The kitchen bed was to the right of the fireplace and was recessed in an alcove and hidden away with curtains. Her mother and the youngest family members slept there.
“Later on I learned that the house was a typical Irish stone cottage that was situated on the side of a mountain just north of Balla in Bohogue near Manulla. The little village was called Fargureens. They could look down into the valley and see the villages of Rushhill and Prizon, to name just two. They viewed Ballinagran lake and up the other side of the valley to Ballyclogher and beyond.
“Behind their house, they could look up to the top of the rounded hill called the Crocknasbuligan. On the very top of this hill stood the Fear Bréaga or False Man which was a very tall mass of stones. This high point could be seen for miles around.
“Fargureens was a picture perfect place. I remember hearing that my grandmother, Ellen Killgallon, was determined to keep her family and the farm intact. She married Thomas Kearns in 1916. Their marriage was extremely fruitful. Ellen and Thomas were the proud parents of 13 children over the course of 20 years, namely James, Bridie, Lena, Kathleen, Annie and Margaret, Teresa, Josephine and John, Walter, Veronica and Virginia and Tommie.
“Ellen encouraged everyone in the household to work harder in order for the family to survive. The family pulled together with the extra chores and they continued to prosper. I remember hearing that Ellen was a very thoughtful woman. She always gave the tinkers a cup of tea when they came around. She gave her few extra pennies to the Foreign Missions at church because she knew that they needed it.
“She always made it to Mass on time each Sunday. It was a three-mile walk each way. She led the family each evening in saying the Rosary on bended knees. She invited the priest to say the Station Mass at their house when it was their turn. Ellen made sure that the cottage was whitewashed and that everything was neat and trim. She made it a point to thoroughly clean the spring well twice a year. She scrubbed the stones clean and whitewashed it with limestone.
“Their house was small but she had a place for everything and kept the cottage neat and clean. She washed the clothes by hand and put them out on the bushes to dry. She made oatmeal or ‘stirabout’ in the morning. She made butter from the cream and on holidays she would mould fancy butter patties with wooden imprints. Each child got their own special butter patty. She would hang holly around the house at Christmas time.
“In the summer she sheared the sheep and used a spinning wheel to weave the wool into yarn. The yarn was dyed with green and purple heather which she pulled from the mountainside. She cut the empty flour bags open and sewed them together to make blankets and other needed garments. She used these bags to also make bras for her eight daughters.
“The sacks held 50 pounds of flour and were made of white cotton. They had the company logo stamped across each bag in large bold letters. The name of the flour company was The Pride of the West. Often this logo landed across the chest of many of the Kearns girls.
“She knitted socks and pants and taught her daughters this craft as well. She taught all of her children to dance the Highland Fling, the Versa-vi-anna, the céilí sets and the waltz.
“Ellen could tell the time of day by the way the sun shone through their front door. She was an excellent neighbour. She helped the Earley children who lived next door since their mother was not well. She cut the potatoes into slits for Knock (John) Riley and Eddie Farrell as well as for her own farm. She was a very caring mother. She created a cocoon of warmth in the home.
“When each of her children had to emigrate to America or England, she was devastated for weeks after each one left. She prayed the Rosary on her way to the well and on the way back home again. She was a woman of faith. Ellen passed away on April 13, 1955 of a heart attack. Josephine and Tommie were home with her. In her last hour she spoke warmly of each of her children.
“In her lifetime, Ellen created strong loving bonds within the family that held it together throughout the years and across the oceans. This practice of bond making has been handed down through the generations and is evident in our many conversations, in our letters, in our short and long distance phone calls, in our e-mails, in our photos and family movies and videos, in a special family calendar, in our trips back to the old homestead, and in our notorious family reunions!
“I am hopeful that our family history will continue to be passed down through the coming generations as time goes by. When my mother, Bridie (Kearns) Doherty, told me these little episodes of her family life, she never imagined their importance or value. They are more precious than jewels. They are the history of the Kearns family of Fargureens that knits our family together now and for future generations.”