Church

For the majority of those interviewed church was a major part of their childhood. There are places of worship of a number of different denominations in and around each of the three villages. These were generally within easy, or relatively easy, reach of the attendees and most people walked or cycled to church, while a few would have been able to go there by car.

Interestingly, several of the Toome interviewees indicated that they remembered going to church by pony and trap or at least witnessing others do so. For example, George McCann went with his family to church at Cargin by pony and trap. Roisin McLernon travelled to church on a Sunday by pony and trap, but walked on other days, taking a short cut across the fields. When asked why this was so, she explained that the pony and trap was only used on a Sunday because that was when there were men to drive it.

George Laverty attended the chapel at Ballyscullion and remembers that there were facilities at it for tying up horses. As a boy of six or seven in the early 1930s, Cahal Boyd remembered that there were quite a few horse and jaunting cars that could have carried four or five worshippers. One particular man would have brought a load from Crosskeys to Moneyglass. Later buses were put on to bring people to the Catholic churches around Toome.



Church was attended nearly every Sunday and there were often other church-related activities during the week. Brian McKenna noted that the Catholic church in Whitehead was packed during the holiday season and reasonably full during the rest of year. Derek Lorimer recalled the road to Doagh ‘black with people’ returning from Kilbride Presbyterian Church.

Those from Protestant backgrounds usually attended Sunday school before church. Involved in church life from a very early age, Wallace Fenton taught in the Sunday school in Kilbride parish church. For many people there was a very strict routine to Sunday. For others the day might not have been so regimented, but it was a day to be treated differently from the rest of the week and in particular it was a day of rest from regular work.

Isabell Cooper describes the Sundays of her childhood:

Sunday was a very strict day. … You got up on Sunday morning and got ready for Sunday school. You were there for 10 o’clock. You had to know your lessons for Sunday school – the teachers in the Sunday school were strict with you. … You came out of that and went down into the church – you had to be in the church for starting at 12 and you were in there until after 1, usually nearly the quarter past. And then you came home and changed your clothes … and you got your dinner – it was Sunday broth. And then after that you went to the mission hall for 3 o’clock for the afternoon Sunday school, and that was in for another hour. And then you came home. If my father had cattle grazing … away on the Rashee Road you had to walk away over there to bring maybe a couple of cows home to get milked and take them back again before you went to the evening church at 7. That was your Sunday. And if you weren’t going to your own church you went to the mission hall for half seven.

One of the highlights of the year was the Sunday school outing. Annie Hill recalls outings to Larne and on occasion a picnic near Ballynure. There were around 20 children on these outings and they played games such as rounders. She remembers enjoying what she called a ‘donkey’s lug’ – a long roll or scone with cream and icing. Trevor Monteith remembers Sunday school outings to Brown’s Bay on Islandmagee and Portrush. Growing up in Belfast, Wilma Shaw remembers that her Sunday school excursion from Newington Presbyterian Church in Belfast was to Whitehead: ‘When you arrived in Whitehead in those days and got off the train the flowers were everywhere, absolutely beautiful. We thought it was great because we didn’t have a garden at home.’

Though there was no Sunday school for Catholics, Cahal Boyd and the Gribbin brothers remembered that as children they went to confession once a month. Brian McCann recalls going to church every morning during Lent and then going on to school afterwards. Brian related that there was a Mass rock on his family’s farm where services were held before Cargin church was built. He remembers that older people walking past it would have lifted their hat or blessed themselves. Cahal Boyd recalled that on 29 June each year they walked from Moneyglass to Creggan – ‘that was some walk!’ as he later reflected.

One of the most important building projects in the Toome area in the early twentieth century was the construction of a new Catholic church at Moneyglass in the 1920s. The foundation stone for the new church was laid on New Years’ Day 1920 and five years later, on 16 August 1925, the church was dedicated and opened by Dr McRory, the bishop of Down and Connor. As a young boy John Cushinan remembers observing the steeple rising higher and higher as it neared completion.

A number of those interviewed from Toome had family members who worked on the church’s construction, including Cahal Boyd’s father. Another was Maureen McMeel’s father-in-law. James McMeel was a stonemason from County Monaghan who had moved to Belfast to practice his trade, working on such projects as the construction of Clonard monastery. Maureen’s husband Owen had been born during the family’s time in Belfast. Maureen’s father-in-law then found work on the building of Moneyglass chapel which brought him to this area (as it brought others as well). He made Toomebridge his home and around 1932 bought Rock Cottage where his descendants continue to live.

The clergy

The relationship between the clergy and their flocks was generally good. The Catholic clergy around Toome were remembered for being regular in their visiting and enjoying a good relationship with the local farming community. Brian McCann recalls the time that he was asked by Father Sloan to go round the sick of Cargin parish and let them know that he would not be visiting them that day because his father had died.

The relationship between the clergy and their flocks was generally good. The Catholic clergy around Toome were remembered for being regular in their visiting and enjoying a good relationship with the local farming community. Brian McCann recalls the time that he was asked by Father Sloan to go round the sick of Cargin parish and let them know that he would not be visiting them that day because his father had died.

Mickey Gribbin remembers that after a pig was killed he would be sent to the priest with its liver as a gift. Other interviewees had their own memories of the ministers of their childhood. Frankie Dale describes the Rev. Robert Elliott of Duneane Presbyterian Church as a ‘great man’. At that time the minister of Duneane had his own manse farm where he kept pigs and chickens. The local farmers helped him with ploughing and the harvest. Mary Moore calls the Rev. John Armstrong of Kilbride Presbyterian Church ‘a nice big man’. In Whitehead Presbyterian Church, Sheila Herdman remembers that the Rev. William Stewart would interrupt his sermons to warn the boys in the gallery to be quiet.

Though his ministry in Kilbride Church of Ireland ended over sixty years ago, the Rev. John Redmond is still fondly remembered by many older people in and around Doagh and not just by the members of his own congregation. According to Wallace Fenton, on whom he was a strong influence, he was ‘a great old warrior’. He had been a chaplain in the army in the First World War and afterwards rector of Ballymacarrett in east Belfast. While in Ballymacarrett he had organised a mission which left a deep impression on people. Among those who attended were men who had stolen items from the shipyard; he arranged for these to be returned. However, his health had broken down and so he was moved to Kilbride, a smaller rural parish, beginning his ministry there on 5 January 1930. At this time he was a Curate in Charge, but five years later on 30 April 1935 he was instituted rector of Kilbride.

Kilbride was a poor parish when Redmond arrived, in need of much work and finance. The previous rector, the Rev. Parker Erskine Major, was a wealthy man who gave much to the church out of his own funds. Redmond, on the other hand, had to regularly appeal for money. In making an appeal, he would say, ‘I don’t want pennies, I want silver’, as a result of which he was known affectionately as ‘Silver John’. Wallace remembers that Redmond was active in having new houses built in Doagh in the 1930s. ‘Out-looking in his ministry’, Redmond also provided facilities in Cogry where people were in need of practical help and was highly thought of there as well. He also promoted social and sporting activities which were additionally a means of raising money. There was an annual cycle competition in May/June, though it was nearly always a wet day giving rise to a local saying: ‘It’s Redmond’s sports [day], it’s bound to be raining’.

Wallace Fenton recalls the way Rev. John Redmond provided housing in Doagh

When he came to the parish the housing situation in the area was apparently pretty grim and very few people would have had sufficient room in their homes to facilitate the needs of their large families. And he thought it was necessary for the church and himself to get involved in building houses. So he acquired a portion of land on the Burn Road in Doagh now known as Edenmore Terrace and he built six or eight houses there and he put bathrooms in the houses and that was almost unknown in this district. Most people had a bath out in the shed … Edenmore was one of the first places in Doagh to have bathrooms and Mr Redmond was responsible for that and it was then called the Church Houses.

Mr Redmond never owned a car, but walked throughout his parish, often accompanied by his Great Dane. Every Tuesday morning he walked to Kilbride School for Religious Instruction with the Church of Ireland pupils. He left his dog with Isabell Cooper’s mother while he went into the school. She was terrified of the dog, but she did not like to refuse him as he was a well-liked man – ‘everybody’s friend’. He was only in the school for half an hour or so, and during this time Isabell’s mother would feed the dog her bread to keep him settled. Mrs Redmond was English and much younger than her husband. Wilma McVittie describes her as ‘lady-like … a lovely woman’. Isabell Cooper recalls that ‘she was a very good woman with young ones’ and took an active part in the running of the Brownies and Guides in Kilbride. Mr Redmond’s farewell service in Kilbride was held on 30 September 1951.