Bawnboy and Templeport
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| Bawnboy village
( Paragraph numbers on the left refer to house locations on the navigation index map) |
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8) Next house on the same side of the street belongs to Seán and Margaret McGovern. They had a shop there for some years but it is now closed. Their children are Róisín, Breffny and Aidan.
In 1850 James Plunkett lived here with his wife Mary. Fanny their daughter looked after the shop while James did some farming. Mary died in 1898 and James in 1902. Fanny sold the house to Johnny McManus, Derryvahan, Derrynacreeve in 1907 and left Bawnboy. Johnny McManus became postmaster in Bawnboy in 1907 a position he held for twenty years. Johnny then sold his house to James Gough and his wife who opened a shop there. Two children were born there, Hugh and Ita who attended Bawnboy School. In 1934 a fire destroyed the house and the Goughs moved to Cavan town. Joe Toner who was then living in the Mill house bought the remains of Gough's burnt-out house and with the help of Frank Dolan, Port, he built a fine two-storey house on the site. It was their first experience of house building and so Patrick McGovern, builder, Bawnboy gave a helping hand to straighten things out and put a roof on the building.
Bawnboy - July 1999
Joe Toner had come from Co. Tyrone to Bawnboy some years previously and having worked as a farm hand he took on shoe repairing in the Porter's Room in the Workhouse. Later on he moved to the Mill House, where he had a bicycle repair shop and sold new and second-hand bicycles. By 1935-36 he had a house of his own where he married, developed the bicycle trade, sales, repairs and accessories, as well as providing a hackney service. When his wife died he married again. Eventually they sold out, retired to a quiet house in Killyneary where they could view the Cuilcagh and Slieve an Iarainn mountains mirrored in the placid waters of Brackley Lake. Two families by the name of Walsh and Knight bought and lived in Toner’s Bawnboy property for short periods in succession and some years afterwards it was bought and occupied by Seán and Margaret McGovern.
9) Let us return to the Corner House. Next door and under the same roof lived Mary Beirne from Co. Leitrim, towards the end of the last century. She was followed in 1910 by Mrs. K.M.T. Connolly a native of Co. Wicklow who had been appointed nurse and midwife to the district by Bawnboy Board of Guardians. As well as being a good midwife, Mrs. Connolly was one of the great characters of Bawnboy. A sudden heavy shower at any time meant that her hallway was under water from the village street in no time at all. She would emerge from the inner stream to the public street to harangue her landlord, who was within earshot. The landlord however, would not make an appearance until the tirade ceased. He would always choose to be sympathetic and return with his brush and shovel. When we realise that it was only in relatively recent times that the flooding problem in Bawnboy, at that particular spot was to a great extent solved, we can appreciate the landlord's recourse to kindness and moderation in language in spite of the tenant's understandable outbursts.
From left:-
Nuala Waldron, Porturlan N.S., a friend in the centre. Sophia
O'Doherty, Home Economics in Vocational School. |
Later on, Sophia O'Doherty, D.E.I., Vocational School and Nuala Waldron N.T. Porturlan and Tomena N.S., rented the house for a few years. The former is now Mrs. O'Hare, Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone while Nuala is Sister Perpetuo in Westport Convent of Mercy. The next tenants were John Galligan and his wife Peggy. John and Peggy worked for the Rofe family in Corboy and after a few years, accommodation was provided by their employers near to their work. Tommy and Dympna Baxter newly married, were the next to occupy this house and during their five-year stay three children, T.J., John and Gerard were born there. When they moved to Munlough, Hugh and Frank completed a family who in their schoolboy days were a great asset to the parish G.A.A. teams in hurling and football.
Laying the new footpath in Bawnboy July 1999 - Seán O'Reilly and Cyril Prior.
The last tenant in this house was Mrs. Elizabeth Magee who had been living in Corboy. She spent fifteen years in Bawnboy until her health failed and her cousin Phoebe Coffey, Corrasmongan, took her into care. A great neighbour with a kind word for everyone was Mrs. Magee. The house is now united with the Post Office and is the property of Cormac McGovern, whose son Dessie lives there while his daughter Anna runs the Post Office. Mrs. McGovern who died early in life was a great worker for the Tidy Towns Competition. Daughter Noreen is married in Belturbet while Joe who married Mary McKiernan of Kilsob, has a fleet of haulage lorries to keep them busy at Silverstream, Corrasmongan, and further afield. The children Peter, Aoife and Kevin are all very young.