Family Journeys
Margaret Donnelly & Family
I have decided to trace some of the families who left the camp, and find out how life has treated them many miles away from the city of their birth. When families left the camp for one reason or another, they would normally leave via the Train from Waterside station on their way to Belfast to catch the Boat to England. Others would leave from Derry Quay on the Laird Loch aka as the 'Scots Boat', which took them to Glasgow.
I will be adding new Family Journeys regularly to this page
One family who decided to leave on the Scots Boat was the family of Margaret Donnelly's. They left their hut in the camp and sailed to Glasgow in 1956. Here is her daughter Margaret's story.
Mrs. Margaret Donnelly [ Mother ] Margaret Donnelly Elderton
Margaret was born in Mullaney, Burt, County Donegal, in the same townland as her mother, also called Margaret, in 1943. Her Dad, Ambrose, was from Nelson Street in Derry, he unfortunately passed away on 9 July 1949, at the young age of 36, just three years after he returned home from the war.
It was just a couple of months after my Dad died, that we moved to Springtown Camp. We were happy enough in the camp, as all the children were. But one day when we came home from school, my mother informed us all that we were leaving the camp and we were going to live in Glasgow. To say it was a shock would be an understatement, we asked when , and she said tomorrow! that was in 1956. We were told to pack whatever clothes we had. We duly did as we were told. The natural questions one would expect to seek answers to, like 'where would we be living.' 'what school would we be attending in Glasgow' we dared not to ask.
The reason being we were too excited, as it seemed a great adventure to us. Another reason was because we were well aware of the consequences, if we didn't obey mothers instructions, without question. The next day we caught the bus from the camp to Derry where we boarded the Scots Boat at the quay.
The 'Scot's Boat' Laird Loch
The crossing on the boat was just ok, not much comfort for sure. On arrival in Glasgow we were housed in an old large tenement build in Abbotsford Place in the Gorbals area. I took an instant dislike to the place, in fact it was a downright horrible place. Lots of families were in the same tenement building and many young children were also living there. As I was very close to school leaving age, it was the end of my schooling days. The following day I went looking for a job and was happy to take up a offer of employment, as a chambermaid in the Queens Hotel. I started work the next day and it wasn't too bad as the other girls there were friendly enough. After work going 'home' to that horrible old tenement building full of families, depressed me.
Tenement Building in Abbotsford Place in the Gorbals Glasgow
Our Uncle Michael who was living in Lancaster and had property there, got in contact with us and offered us a house to rent in Lancaster and we jumped at the chance and accepted his kind offer immediately. Now we were on the move again to Lancaster in England. The house was certainly a massive improvement, to that old tenement building in the Gorbals, as we had our own front door.
I got a job in the Cotton Mill there and I stayed in that job until I got married in 1961, at the ripe old age of 18. My name changed from Donnelly to Elderton, I had six children in quick succession, and we stayed in Lancaster for over ten years.
Cotton Mill in Lancaster England
We then decide to move to Preston where my husband found better employment and worked there for many years. It was no picnic bringing up six children but we were happy there and enjoying life. Then it all turned sour when my husband took ill and he sadly passed away. All my children finished their schooling and found decent jobs and once again we were all happy. But as life has it, one by one they found their partners and married. Now they have families of their own, some did stayed in England and some moved to different countries. Gladly, all have decent jobs and they have a happy family life, which pleases me no end. I am long retired now and with plenty of time on my hands, I joined the social media craze which enables me to make new friends online and keep in touch with some Derry people and folk who like me use to live in Springtown Camp.
The rest of my family live here in England and though we don't live in each other's pocket we do manage to keep in touch now and again.
My Mother passed away in 2008 she was 91 years old, my sister Bernadette died aged 54 and Myra died in her 62nd year.
My brother Ambrose joined the army and while there he met a lovely Maltese girl. When he left the army they decided to marry and settle in her native country Malta. They are now happily married for 46 years and still live in sunny Malta. Ambrose loved the place and its people so much he decided to apply for Maltese citizenship and his request was granted, so now he is a Maltese citizen.We do talk on the internet often and Springtown Camp crops up in conversation frequently. He has a very happy life and enjoys it to the full. There are five of the family left now, Ambrose, Joe, Alan are all well and doing ok, as is my only sister left Kathleen.
Reflecting on my life, I still can't fathom why my mother uprooted the family and move to Scotland, it was a bad move for sure. No offence to Scot's people, but I truly hated the Gorbals area where we lived in.
I just always wonder how life would have turned out, if we had of stayed in Springtown Camp. No matter where you travel to or end up in if you came from the camp, it will always be in your thoughts as it was that kind of place.
The Clingains 284 Springtown Camp
Until we moved to Springtown Camp when I was fifteen. We lived at 89 Bogside in a room rented from Lizzie McDermott. Our family, the Clingains was one of the first squatters to move there. We walked in a solemn procession up the Bog, past Francis Street and out the Northland Road. The family, Mammy, Granny, Ruby, Ben and me walked beside our neighbour Hughie McIntyre, who flitted us in his donkey and cart. I was not at all happy to leave the place I had known and liked.
On the day after we moved to the camp, I came home from work to find granny cooking mince, potatoes and gravy on a brazier outside our hut. I began to cry. I don't think they understood or knew why or, if they did, they didn't say. But we all adjusted quickly. The camp filled from the Northland Road end first then as it filled up they moved to the middle. When the huts were renovated we were moved to the Buncrana Road end. 228 Springtown Camp was my address until I was Twenty. Our neighbour to the right was the McCourt family. Mrs McCourt was a beautiful woman with red hair. They were a very large but quiet family. On the north side and slightly elevated were the Sheehan's hut. To the west lived the Boyle family. We knew Bridget Boyle before we moved to the camp. In 1954 we got housed in Creggan where we lived until we left for a 'new life' in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1964.
Sadie Clingain, Aunt Agness Rabbitts, Mrs Rebecca Clingain, (Mother) Ruby Clingain, Ben Clingain
I have searched for words, elevated, beautiful words adequate to the solemn task of restarting a conversation severed in 1964. Somewhere over the Atlantic, between Derry and the statue of Liberty, I entered the silent realm that emigrants know well: the no-mans land where time and distance merge and the sense of belonging dissolves setting the exile adrift. I understood, for the first time, why, I wept when I was young, at the retelling of the story of Colmcille and his lonely, cold windswept journey to Iona. Now I was weeping myself for myself and all the others who had gone before.
The ghost of old Mrs. Kennedy floated into my consciousness, a tiny figure, with snow white hair covered with a black bonnet. She waited outside her door for mammy coming home from work to ask her to read a letter from her son. I gripped mammy's hand tighter as she read the letter from Boston and buried my head deeper into her brown jacket so I could breathe in the smell of cotton and starch that clung to her after a long day in Tillies laundry. After mammy had finished reading the letter, Mrs Kennedy blessed us all and mammy told her she would go to her house and write her reply after she got us our tea.
Words do not emerge out of thin air. They are excavated, one by one from the depths of the human heart.Words tell us who we are and where we came from. Willie Deery and John McLaughlin who wrote the Springtown Camp play have built a bridge between between the past, the present, and the future and all I have to ask: "How are youse all doing, come on in" We're doing grand ourselves. We live in a nice quiet neighbourhood in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Ben my brother, Ruby my sister live with their families a few doors away and we see each other almost every day. The kettle seldom gets cold. On Easter Sunday we all had dinner in my house. On these occasions, Ben brings his guitar and we sing. Ruby sings It's just three mile from Derry to the Bridge of Drumahoe. My party piece is the Little Beggar Man. Sometimes we are joined by people from Mayo, Pennsylvania and Donegal. We don't make distinctions. When the noise gets too much , the cats take of for the basement.
There used to be a lot of singing down the Bog.When we lived at 89 Bogside in that room rented from Lizzie McDermott. Lizzie wasn't married herself but she loved wains and, at every opportunity, gathered up anyone around for a great bear's hug. These hugs were accompanied by the invocation: "God's blissin' on ye and may ye live ta the skin of a gooseberry makes ye a night cap".
We were very lucky to have lived among such lovely humble, kind, sincere neighbours in the city of our birth. The Bogside and Springtown Camp, are places, entwined in the hearts of Derry emigrants around the globe.
Downtown Cleveland, Ohio Sadie (Clingain) Puri
Bernadette (Lynch) Johannessen. 5 Springtown Camp
Bernadette with her brother Willie and sister Josie
I lived in Springtown Camp until I was thirteen years old, and like all the children of the camp I went to St. Patricks School, Pennyburn. I remember coming home from school one day when my mother met me at the door with a big grin on her face and said “We have got a house in Creggan.” I wasn’t exactly elated at the news and I actually had mixed feelings. It was a bittersweet day when we left the Camp, as Springtown held fond memories for me, as I spent my formative years there. But to Creggan we went, we had no choice, as the camp was coming to an end and most of my friends had already left and were spread all over Derry. We slotted in well in our ‘new house’ in Creggan, as we already knew a lot of people there, who also lived in the Camp.
I met my husband when he was on shore leave in Derry in 1979. He was a Danish sailor and we hit it of straight away. When his shore leave was over he sailed away, however, we kept in touch and I left Derry the following year and went to live in Denmark. We were married in December 1980, and lived there for two years, until we decided to emigrate to Australia.
It was a very big call to relocate to the other side of the world, but, when we settled there we knew we had made the correct decision.
We now live twenty-four miles south east of Melbourne, in a lovely place called Narre Warren, which has a population of 31,000.
I worked in a Care Home for seventeen years, but now I am retired. I remember when I first left Derry I was really home sick, but as time passed it eased. We have two daughters and four grandchildren.
I keep in touch with what is happening in Derry by reading the Derry Journal, Derry Now, on the internet and with Facebook. I listen to the Sean Coyle show every day and it is great to hear his Derry accent and all the Derry banter he comes out with. I recall some of the people’s names from back home who he is playing request for.
I love living here in Australia and if truth be told I will probably spend the rest of my days here.
I would like to conclude by saying a big Derry ‘how’s it going’ to everyone who knows me and especially to all the ex-Springtown Camp people. I wish you all the very best life has to offer, and I will see you all later.
Bernadette at the beach in Narre Warren Aerial view of Narre Warren, Melbourne, Australia
Paddy Parsons 74 Springtown Camp
Paddy Parsons is a keen fifties, sixties and rockabilly music fan all his life and his interested in music was probably heavily influenced by his older brother Alex who was also a keen music fan, singer and musician. Alex was actually one of the first teenagers in Springtown to regularly buy the pop records of the day, way back in the late fifties and early sixties. Well known recording artist Rob Strong aka Robert Armstrong and Alex were close pals in the camp and both bought guitars and practiced their music in Alex's bedroom in his hut. They both preferred music to sport, so it's easy to ascertain where Paddy's love for music came from. Paddy was a popular young lad growing up in the camp and was often seen around Derry in his formative teenage years dressed in his colourful fifties Teddy boy suits. I followed Paddy, a neighbour and friend from the camp, via the internet, to his residents in Ipoh, Malaysia. I asked him how he came to be living on the other side of the world from his hometown of Derry. Paddy was in a talkative mood and he relayed his story to me. " Willie, I was writing to girls from all over the world as pen pals since I was seventeen years old. My first girl was from London, England. She was a nice person and we exchanged several letters but it just pewtered out naturally. I started writing to a girl called Sally Ongratulations from Kuala Lumpur. After some letter writing she invited me over to Malaysia. Great I thought I'd like to see Kuala Lumpur, so I prepared for my trip to Malaysia to meet her just before Christmas of 1978. The night before I was to leave I went down the town for a few pints, and afterwards got a taxi home. I asked the taxi driver would he take me to the airport the next day, and he said no bother and he asked me where I was travelling to. I told him I was going to meet a girl and when I told him she was in Kuala Lumpur he just said Whoo that is sure a long trip to meet a girl. I wasn't too sure if he believed me, so i was relieved the next morning when he arrived at my door in his taxi to take me to the airport. After a very long journey of over 30 hours I finally arrived in Malaysia.
Downtown Kuala Lumpur
It was a beautiful country and Kuala Lumpur was a truly amazing city. I met Sally and we strolled around the city and she took me to St. John's Church as it was Christmas time. I had a nice time in there and Sally visited me in Derry. We wrote several more time to each other. While I was there I bought a film magazine and soon it included a pen pal section. Then I started writing to Helen, and we seemed to hit it off and we exchanged mail quite a lot. I arranged to visit her in Ipoh, Malaysia and the day I arrived at her doorstep she stood at the back of her family who were there to greet me, as she was very shy. Helen's family kindly provided me with a room in their home during my stay, despite my different accent we got on well together. Helen's brother became chaperone to us, and every trip we took around Ipoh he accompanied us, it was their tradition.
Strolling in a beautiful setting in Ipoh
I came home to Derry happy and contented that my trip was so enjoyable and that Helen and her family were lovely friendly people. Another visit to them was a no brainer. So return to Ipoh I did and on this occasion I proposed to Helen and she accepted. Her family contacted the priests in St. Mary's Church in Creggan to check with them that everything was in order, and my suitability to marry their daughter. After everything was confirmed by the Priests in Creggan of my suitability, we got engaged on my next trip to Ipoh
Paddy and Helen on their wedding day
After we became engaged we started planning for our wedding, and we got married on the 15th December 1984. We came to live in Derry and began married life in my Creggan flat My flat wasn't really suitable so I approached my doctor and he gave me a letter to support my request for a house. We were offered a house in Shantallow and it was great as I knew most of the neighbours as some of them lived in Springtown Camp. We were happy there and our son Adrian was born there in 1986. Our daughter Fiona was born later in 1990. We then moved to Elmvale just off the Culmore Road and we lived there happily for fourteen years until my retirement in 2014
Paddy, Helen, Adrian and Fiona at home in Derry
We began chatting for a while after I retired about returning to Ipoh, after long discussions with the family we decided we would return to Helen's hometown in Malaysia. So we began the process of moving away from Derry. We are now here in Ipoh, pronounced [ e-poh ] for the past seven years and if truth be told we are all very happy here
Downtown Ipoh, Malaysia.
Our daughter Fiona is now married and has two lovely children. She works for an American company and our son Adrian works in houses doing electrical works. I do miss going to the football matches in the Brandywell, but I listen to Sean Coyle every day on the radio which gives me an up to date connection with Derry and what is happening there. Now for Springtown Camp and my old neighbours from there, sure how could I forget them....Never! I asked Paddy was he very happy there and he to answer my question he burst into song by singing... "Oh I am happy, I'm H.A.P.P.Y I know I am I'm sure I am I'm P.A.D.D.Y... That's the Paddy I know and grew up with in his beloved Springtown Camp
Old town Ipoh, Malaysia
Paddy back row extreme right with his childhood friends in Springtown Camp. Including Ann McLaughlin Paddy McLaughlin, Frankie Doherty and Lilia Doherty
Paddy the toddler Paddy in his teddy boy gear