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...but first a word from our sponsors...
These folks are on my mother's mother's side....well, my grandmother on my mother's side...(hmmm....was that ANY better?) Then I've got some from my mother's father's side...
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This is my great-grandfather Brian(y) Bonar (after whom I was named) lying in state at his wake in 1956.
He was described a "quiet and simple" man who always wore his flat cap and an Irish "Gansey" sweater. He lived on Crickamore in Dungloe Town in County Donegal in a small thatch cottage that was tumbled down in the late '70s. Briany and his wife had seven children: my grandmother Bridget, and her sisters Annie, Fannie, Mary Egan, Sarah and Kitty and one brother, Patrick. Briany was a de Valera man and had a framed picture of the Irish President next to his bed until the day he gave up the ghost. One of his final requests was to be buried with that picture. Before they closed and sealed the casket lid, the picture, frame and all, was placed on his chest. |
My Great-Auntie Annie with her husband, Charlie, on their wedding day.
Charlie Greene was a great fiddle player, I've been told, and he used to take the fiddle out whenever the whole family gathered and play all night. |
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Auntie Annie with two of her children
I never did meet my Auntie Annie as, eventually, after her husband Charlie died, she ended up in an old folks home in Scotland. She is shown here with her son, Jackie Greene (who presently resides in Donegal Town with his wife, Mary) and her daughter Bridget Mary. |
Auntie Annie with her son, Jackie
Auntie Annie with her son Jackie all grown up and playing in a band -- the town's band.
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My Great Auntie Fannie
When I was a wee boy, I was sent to Ireland with my Grandma (Bridget) to stay with my Auntie Fannie out in the West Coast of Ireland in County Donegal in little Dongloe town. I slept in a wee thatch cottage that has since been tumbled down. And poor Auntie Fannie, but wasn't I a wee rascal to the dear woman (God bless her departed soul)!
My very good friend Kate Ferry found her body after she had wandered up the path behind her house one evening and into the moors carrying her flashlight and wearing a scarf. After they took Fannie's body away, Kate placed a St. Bridget's cross where her head had rest after she fell. When I went to visit the place years later, that very spot was the only one in the entire moor where a plot of grass grew thick, lush and green. (taken in 1949) |
My grandmother with my mother, Elizabeth, NJ, the '50s...
This shot was taken in the backyard of their home. My mom says that she looks like an immigrant. Fact is, her mother was; maybe some of it rubbed off.
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