O’Ciardha land bordered Loch Derg and the River Shannon’s southern shore. The neighbours to the west the O’Carroll’s and to the east O’Kennedy were all boxed in by the O’Meara. The Gaelic-Irish suzerainty employed a form of guarantee based on pledges made during times of strife and war. Southern king O’Neill surrendered along with many followers after the battle of Kinsale, including what was left of the larger part of the clan O’Ciardha. Thomas Kearey anglicized his name and struck out from Keary’s Lane, Dublin, to travel across the Irish Sea in 1812. It was also a momentous time for Napoleon Bonaparte, also escaping… Thomas on the other hand was looking ahead – to make ‘a new start’. London was Thomas’s’ goal where there was an Irish quarter. The Kearey’s’ became Londoners for more than a hundred years living north of the river in and around Bayswater close to Kensington Gardens.

Links: Irish Clan History, Victorian London, Rifle Corps, and National Government. 

North Harrow, built in the thirties, occupied land beside the Metropolitan railway line. It represented all the hallmarks of a Home Counties life-style; the suburban housing estate espoused as a ‘Garden Town’. The government, to give work to the unemployed after the 1926 General Strike, and lighten the depressed period, promoted new housing developments - it was a design movement to cover up the harsh urban environment. It was not the first time that the homeless were given a step up the social ladder by being enticed out into the country. Street life pre-war was of quiet calm - there being little traffic: the men at work, children at school, and the women mostly at home - engaged in domestic pursuits. Tradesmen delivered their goods by horse and cart being the only disturbers of the peace until war interrupted that calm. The post war period gave way to the militant left.

Links: Rolling Up, In the First Fifteen, Impressions, Blessings Disguised, and Final Edition. 

Close to the town lays a grassy mound and the remains of a trench – traces of an Iron Age settlement. They form part of a ditch and earthworks that onetime encircled a hutted encampment… today give cover to the rabbit and partridge. Everything of consequence is at the foot of the hill. The world beyond give backdrop to my tale - of rural life, generations ago. From the top of the earthworks, a beautiful vista unfolds over hill and dale. It is the type of picture which warms long winter evenings: the remembered summer skies, and the call of birds; of wind blown sward – waving fronds of fern and nettle. The grass-decked mound, its past associations with ancient folk recognised and considered, prompt us to seek out their source of fresh water… issuing from numerous springs filling watercourses that winds down towards Chard. It was this power source that drove the mill.

Links: The Collins of Chard and Tatworth Village. 

Nineteen-thirty-five, held within its grasp two events - my birth and The Silver Jubilee. The following fifteen years punctuated by war initiated me into the world of work… Ever since leaving home I had been consumed by doubts and fears, every part of me charged with foreboding. My walk, dodging in and out of the streams of workers, took me down Station Road… away from the railway station… past the bombed out sidings and goods-yard all corralled behind the soot blackened factory walls protected by endless spearheaded railings. Rows of terraced Victorian villas bravely advanced upon the pavement; their geranium filled window boxes trying to lend colourful distraction from the all too obvious bomb damage. A poster-hung hoarding exclaimed virtues of Persil’s whitening power and Tetley’s superior leaf. On reaching the factory gate a portly gatekeeper acknowledged my knock… “What ja want?” escaped between his tobacco stained teeth.

Links: In the First Fifteen, National Government and Rolling Up. 

During WWI Albert experienced battle… this has been given space in History, Heroism, and Home. His battalion manoeuvres were thoroughly researched, and gave, for what I was aiming at, sufficient information and colour to present his military service. However, I resolved to write a fuller version of his battalion’s efforts at Gommecourt. This work is still not a definitive version for which I apologise. My researches have exposed many false trails, dashed hopes, and hidden truths… I have now come to the conclusion that it is impossible to give a complete account, for even official documents do not carry the facts nor do the individual Battalion Records account for every event. Battles rarely go as planned, individuals are not automatons and the elements are contrary. These varying factors often defy the best laid plans. So I have to be content with getting a little nearer to what actually happened.

Links: Victorian London and Rifle Corps. 

This tale traces a child’s family history from the first millennium to the present day. The subject’s birth and upbringing perfectly normal but changed when the outside world was let in - to become fractured and disturbed. To accommodate an industrial revolution he retreated to take stock. Trade Union militancy shaped his world throughout his printing and teaching career. Relying on his artistry he survived the unrest - until that too faltered, caught on - to take off again. Hand skills were lost to the photographic world which in-turn fell to information technology. The women in his life: provided a seat belt for life’s uneven ride, exposed human frailty, and offered a stony path that eventually lead to a period of calm. Thankfully, the first provided enough strength and energy to bear the latter; which makes this book a chronicle of good over bad. How it all ends though is another story…!

Links: Irish Clan History, The Collins of Chard, Tatworth Village, Victorian London, Rifle Corps, In the First Fifteen, National Government, Rolling Up, Impressions, Blessings Disguised and Final Edition.