Returning to Wesley after Summer Vacation, September 1951 saw new faces entering the school. It was a new era as form 1 was to be a new venture.
During the Christmas term one lad stood out special to me, I learned he lived in Ashbourne some 14 miles from Dublin. He boarded his bus from Astons Quay at 5:30pm spending time in the reading room of the YMCA in Middle Abbey St. This was fine on four days of the week, school bell was sounded at 3pm, but Wednesday – 1pm and Saturday 12:15pm, no dinner being available. When this was related to my mother the seeds of a friendship were sown. I was requested to ask Robert to have lunch on Saturday, but later also Wednesday, so the friendship began to mature.
Every day we met at the gate of the school and walked down Grafton St, West Moreland St, O’Connell Bridge/Street, turning right into Middle Abbey St, thence to the reading room. In Robert’s case study took place on four days, the other two a number 10 bus was used to get Robert and I to Phibsboro to my home for lunch. On these days the Carrickmacross bus collected Robert from Doyles Corner.
I was invited to the Hunter home many times but 14 miles on a bicycle was something for considerable thought. As the summer term was concluding Robert’s mother – Mrs Hunter, a lady of small stature, came to my home and implored me to visit Ashbourne. I agreed to do this.
Early one morning I went on the 14 mile journey to Ashbourne. When I arrived at the gate the lane to the house was ¼ of a mile long – very rough, gravel tracks and high hedges. On my way I asked myself was there a house here at all? Eventually I saw a small white wall. I was there. I was in Co. Meath in the Hunter home. Robert’s father was an elderly gentleman. Walking with two sticks after an accident driving cattle from Lucan to Dublin Cattle Market where he was struck by a motor car. What a welcome I received in this country home.
The farm consisted of the home building. Kitchen with open fire. Pump in the yard to supply water which after use was disposed off in the farm yard. Lighting by oil lamp. After some difficulty, electricity eventually came to the home. The condition was very archaic. No luxuries whatsoever.
Outside was a farmyard with out housing for various purposes, farm implements of all kinds, meal house, cart house, hen house, etc. Off the main yard was an apple orchard and rick yard for storage of large hay and straw cocks for winter feeding and bedding for horse and cattle.
The farm was some 114 acres, used for cattle fattening ready for market. Movement over the farm was by horse and hay shifter. This was a low type of cart. A type used for hay collection, low to the ground so that Mr Hunter could sit easily to go round and inspect the cattle every day. There was a horse drawn trap which was used to travel to Ratoath on Sunday to attend Church.
A day in Ashbourne started by a call usually from the parent of Robert about 6:30 am as the lane had to be walked in all weather conditions to catch the bus from Ashbourne at 8:00 am to get to Dublin and thence to Wesley at St Stephen’s Green.
There were various interests taken up on the way from school. Just to make mention of one, Robert called at every travel agent on route to the YMCA and amassed a huge collection of travel leaflets. The only ‘entertainment’ at the home was a battery operated radio which was used at 6:45 pm each day to listen to the Archers, after which Robert commenced intense study.
The horse and whatever it pulled was the only means of transport. Occasionally a taxi was hired. Not even a bicycle. I thought Robert should have a bicycle so obtained one requiring some work for £4. In the garage at the rear of my home this Raleigh Bicycle was prepared for Robert. Robert was studying in Trinity and occasionally used to travel to Dublin on the bicycle, one morning having an accident and obtaining an injury which he had all his life.
In 1956 I obtained a driving licence for a motor cycle and purchased same for £55. Robert and I travelled on this occasionally to Ashbourne. When television came to Co. Meath, he and I went to Slane to view for the first time TV in a shop. When we got to the shop – it was closed.
I used to spend some weekends and even months staying in Ashbourne, of which much could be said. Sunday was a little different as we attended worship in Rotoath Church travelling by horse and trap. The morning worship was carried out with about 4 or 5 people in attendance. At Easter on the Sunday Robert and I went by motor cycle on the Hill of Tara to attend an open air service.
At no time in Robert’s life did study not have a major role. When I left Wesley in June 1956 Robert took part in many school functions, Dramatic Society being one and playing Rugby at Bloomfield.
From his leaving certificate results, he was awarded a scholarship from the Church of Ireland with two conditions. When he graduated he must teach in the CoI school for three years and in Ireland for five. In his first year in Trinity he was again awarded a scholarship which enabled him to have everything – education and rooms free to gain his degree.
I was in attendance with Robert for various functions in Trinity such as debates, etc which he really enjoyed, getting quite excited when taking part.
It was my custom to spend holiday in Lurgan and having obtained a new motorcycle, Robert was invited to come to Lurgan and we travelled many miles over the countryside. The following year I had an Austin A35 car and again Robert came to Lurgan for 6 days. On one particular day we drove to Cookstown to visit Loughry Agricultural College. The principal came from Sligo, the son of a farmer who knew Robert’s father. In the afternoon, from Loughry, a phone call was made to Sligo and we were invited to go to the home of the principal of the college, where we stayed for the night. The next morning a short debate was taken up [with] whether to go home or travel to Bandon where Mrs Hunter was brought up. The decision was taken to go to Brandon. Again we received a most cordial welcome. The following day we returned to Lurgan, covering 315 miles in total.
After this Robert became more involved with life in Trinity and our times together grew less frequent. My folks and I visited Mr and Mrs Hunter from time to time and were acquainted with Robert’s situation regarding his time at Trinity. When he graduated he immediately commenced as a junior lecturer in History in universities in England. He didn’t teach one day in any school and accordingly was required by C of I authorities to return his scholarship award of approx £500, which caused much anxiety to Mrs Hunter. Later I learned that a Thesis on the Ulster Plantation had been completed by Robert by which he was awarded his Ph.D. He obtained a position as junior lecturer in Colraine University.
Unfortunately the chapter ended at this time except for one never to be forgotten experience. I do not remember the actual date, possibly in the early 60’s but on arrival to the yard adjacent to my home in Lurgan there was a green Morris Minor car with a canvas roof, Robert driving. Mr and Mrs Hunter his passengers. It was real joy to welcome them to Lurgan. Sadly that was the last occasion I had the joy of meeting them.
I remember Robert so well from my early days in TCD (1960–1964). As a post graduate he was at work on a vast amount of material about the plantation ofUlster. He was looking for help with understanding and transcribing information from the plantation maps in the Long Room of the TCD Library, a fascinating place to work.
I was a new undergrad studying physics. He asked me to help him with the maps as he said it was a two person job, and he needed someone of a scientific bent. The books were huge, leather bound, heavy, smelling rather musty, hand coloured drawings. I helped him when I had time and found him wonderful company. Often the townlands were out of place, oddly named, and we worried over the appropriate interpretation together. We also went to the Law Courts on the Liffey where there were more land records, lists, and maps. It was very cold, but there was an open turf fire which pickled us all, including the books and records, with the familiar smell of peat smoke! It can’t have done the records much good! The turf was not brickets but the genuine unprocessed sod from the bog. Maybe that was the winter of 1962/3 as it was desperately cold.
He was always very kind, sociable, and available for chats on topics great and small. He told me about cycling to lessons with his books propped up on the handlebars in front of him so he could study as he hurtled down hill against a stiff wind on his way. From George’s account it seems he didn’t have a bike at school so I wonder if it was to TCD in the early days, or was it for an exam? He gave a very vivid picture of the whole exacting, terrifying business, which he explained came about because his family was poor. He was very aware of the huge difference between his circumstances and those of most TCD undergrads, but he was totally unfazed by it.
He also told how his mother worked for Lily and Lolly Yeats as a young woman, as a skivvy he said! He was obviously very intrigued [as to] what on earth his mother made of the experience. He looked to see if she was mentioned in any of the biographies but sadly she wasn’t.
I lost touch with Robert after college, but re-established contact in 2004 through a fellow TCD scholar of his, Jenny Greenleaves. My husband Mike consulted him on my North of Ireland family history, and in return helped him with his many projects. Particularly he helped trace obscure details about the first 200 Ulstersettler families. Robert was researching whether the received myths, about who the settlers were, were true and found that the truth was far more complex than he had been taught. He sent Mike pieces of paper with second or new thoughts scrawled over them at various angles in tiny neat writing to be followed up. Mike being a mathematician was very frustrated that Robert didn’t have a computer, and that his train of thought was not linear! Robert drove down to meet us when we were staying with Jennifer Flegg (née Condell) in Dublinin May 2006 so that they could chat over the history issues discovered face to face. He said he relied on his daughter Laura in Australiato do all the computery he needed! As ever he had us in stitches relating details of the minutiae of his life, students, and research. He told us of his collection of 300 Churchof IrelandSunday school texts circa 1900 which will be historic he felt, and praised Jennifer for giving footnotes in her book The French School, Bray 1864–1966. He was delighted to receive that book shortly before he died.
Robert had such a way with words, a great sense of humour and a beautiful spell binding voice. He is much missed.
Bob was born in County Meath in 1938. He began his academic life in 1957 studying history at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD).
After graduation in 1961, Bob began research on the Ulster plantation in the Counties of Armagh and Cavan, 1608–41. This active interest in the plantation, and early modern Irish history generally, was to dominate his life and he was subsequently awarded the degree of MLitt by TCD for his research in 1969. He also contributed well received essays to all the published volumes of the History and Society series.
Bob’s contact with Derry began in 1963 when he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in history at Magee College. His teaching expanded with the takeovers and changes in Magee’s fortunes after the mid-1960s with Coleraine and Derry courses in Irish history in the early modern period attracting large numbers of students and thus making himself a victim of his own popularity. When his economic fortunes were transformed with the sale of his land in Ashbourne inherited from his parents, early benefactors included the Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library and he actively served on the board for the project.
Bob died in Derry in September 2007. His funeral service in St Columb’s Cathedral was attended by an exceptionally large crowd of colleagues, former students and friends.
Keith Lindley, Professor of Early Modern British History, Faculty of Arts
I have the privilege of being one of Bob Hunter’s closest and best friends and, as such, it is my duty to recall his life and celebrate his achievements. This is not the time to dwell upon his suffering but to invite the rest of his friends to join with his daughter, Laura, and Anne to take pleasure in his wit, his humour and even his impatience. And what more fitting place for his funeral than this fine plantation cathedral of St Columb’s,Londonderry.
Bob was born in County Meath on 22 October 1938 into a relatively austere Church of Ireland family. He once confided in me that he could not abide eggs as part of his diet because the family had lived on them in bad times. No silver spoon then. Yet he was given an excellent education starting with one of Ireland’s premier Protestant schools,Wesley College, in its original position on St. Stephen’s Green. He could have emerged as ‘ Farmer Bob’, rather than the academic we are so familiar with, because his father wanted him to work on the family’s 100 or so acres in Ashbourne raising beef cattle, especially after the father’s injury from stampeding cattle or what passes for a stampede in Ashbourne. However, Bob’s determination was not for the first time nor the last to show through and, after Wesley, he began his academic life in 1957 studying history at TCD. Yet he continued to ride his bicycle between Ashbourne and Dublin, sustaining major damage to his face on one occasion when he hit an uneven section of road. However, his life changed much for the better in 1959 when he was awarded a Foundation Scholarship and the Dunbar Ingram Prize which gave him residence rights in TCD. He at last could enjoy a social life among the English public school and others who played such a large role in the university. In 1960 he was awarded the Alison Philips Medal. After graduation in 1961 Bob began research under Theo Moody on the Ulster plantation in the counties of Armagh and Cavan, 1608–41. This interest in the plantation, and early modern Irish history generally, was to dominate his life. He was eventually to be awarded the degree of M.Litt. for his research in 1959.
Bob’s contact with Derry began in 1963 when he was appointed Assistant Lecturer in history at Magee College at a time when his colleagues included Aidan Clarke, Leslie McCracken and John Brown. My first acquaintance with Bob came in 1966 when I was appointed an Assistant Lecturer in history at Magee. Yet our later friendship had an inauspicious start. I was called over for interview wearing my standard suit for the occasion and as I viewed the campus Bob was viewing me from a window in Woodburn where he was resident lecturer. As he was later to recall, one of his earliest friends was also a candidate for the post but ‘the Englishman in a suit’ beat him to it.
Bob’s teaching expanded with the takeovers and changes in Magee’s fortunes after the mid-1960’s and there were times when he felt overwhelmed as teaching left little time for his research, or so he viewed it. His Coleraine and Derry courses in Irish history in the early modern period attracted large numbers of students and to some extent he was the victim of his own popularity. But he was to be recalled with a mixture of pleasure and amusement as well as expanded knowledge by successive waves of students. His research was primarily concerned with the plantation in Ulster and the transition from the previous Gaelic society and the ploughing through sources, and the research, not only took him to Dublin but to London and elsewhere, broadening his experience of academic life. More than 30 articles, essays, reviews and the like were the result of painstaking study conducted with a meticulous eye for detail and relevance. Publications included the plantation in Ulster in Strabane barony Co. Tyrone, 1600–41, towns in the Ulster plantation, Sir Ralph Bingley, 1570–1627, Ulster planter, etc, as well as Ulster port books, 1612–15. Bob took great pride in his publications which were drawn upon subsequently by fellow historians working in the field.
As an active researcher in early modern Irish history Bob was anxious to preserve the primary material that was its bedrock. The Magee library under its earlier management became one of his crusades. Those in the know found themselves warning others ‘don’t mention the library’ or they would have to endure a long diatribe. There was also a criticism of the way in which the memory of the great Presbyterian founding fathers of Magee College was violated by the removal of the name plaques. Bob felt these things with increasing sensitivity in his later years. But to give him his full due Bob was prepared to put his money where his mouth was and when his economic fortunes were transformed with the sale of his land early benefactors were TCD library and the Derry and Raphoe Dioceses Library. For example, he undertook to contribute £30,000 over 3 years to the latter project and actively served upon the project board.
Bob also had strong political opinions in the mid-1960’s as a supporter of civil rights. Like many of us he became radicalised by the sighting of the new university, after Lockwood, in Coleraine. Yet he was soon to become highly critical of developments in some republican circles in Derry and elsewhere in the province and it reinforced his growing conviction that the history of Irish protestants and their contribution to Ireland needed to be rescued from the ‘faith and fatherland’ approach.
More importantly for Bob in his latter years he found increasing spiritual solace in the Anglican faith in which he was reared. But this is something for others to recount. Bob’s life was a rich and varied one and I can only shed some light upon it from my perspective of a dear friend who will never be forgotten.