Port Farm was the home of Anne Ellen’s childhood. Beside Lough MacNean, she grew up within a farming family and a close network of relatives whose homes lay across the surrounding townland.
What remained with her were not grand events, but the details of everyday life: her father at work, helping with the animals, the sound of his mouth harp, the arrival of a baby brother, and the journey from the farm to school.
Her Father, Thomas Cassidy
Thomas Cassidy down by Lough Macnean, on Port Farm.
Thomas Cassidy was a vivid presence in Anne Ellen’s memories of Port Farm. She remembered him working on the farm and recalled helping to tend the animals herself. Farm work formed part of the ordinary rhythm of family life, and her father was an important figure within that world.
The surviving photographs show Thomas within the landscape in which Anne Ellen grew up: beside the lough and occupied with the practical work of the farm.
Thomas Cassidy at work on Port Farm.
Mam also remembered another side of her father. Thomas played the mouth harp. It was a small detail, but one that stayed with her across the years, preserving one of the sounds of her childhood on Port Farm.
Thomas Cassidy may have played.
Her Mother, Bridget O’Hara Cassidy
Mam’s mother, Bridget O’Hara Cassidy, does not appear in the surviving family photographs. Bridget was very camera-shy, and no known photograph of her survives.
Her absence from the photographic record should not be mistaken for an absence from the life of Port Farm. Like many women on family farms, Bridget played a central part in its daily running, working both in the home and in the work of the farm. She also became heavily involved in the daily actives of the O’Hara household after the death of her brother’s wife in 1932.
Family Nearby — The Dolans
Family was close at hand around Port. Among those particularly close to Mam were her aunt and uncle, Ellen and Charlie Dolan, and their children, Mary Anne — known within the family as Cissie — and Mick.
The Dolans lived nearby, within the same close family circle in which Mam grew up. Cissie later went to England and became a nurse, while Mick worked as a postman.
The Dolan family — Ellen and Charlie (top); Mary Anne “Cissie” and Mick (below).
Their place in Mam’s story continued beyond her childhood, and they will appear again later.
The Arrival of Eddie
One event Mam remembered from childhood was the arrival of her baby brother, Edward. To Mam and the family in Port he was Eddie; to us, her children, he was always “Uncle E”.
Brother and sister remained close throughout their lives. Eddie died in 1978 at the age of 47.
Edward “Eddie” Cassidy as a boy and as a teenager.
Brockagh National School
Brockagh National School opened in 1885, just outside Glenfarne in County Leitrim. Originally built as a single-room school, it was later divided into two classrooms. It closed in the 1970s when six local schools were amalgamated into the new St Michael’s National School in Glenfarne. The former school building subsequently fell into ruin.
About the name: Brockagh has been interpreted as referring to a badger warren or a place associated with badgers.
Pupils and teachers outside Brockagh National School, 1923.
Several of the children in this 1923 photograph appear to be barefoot, particularly among the younger pupils. This gives context to Mam’s own memory of going to school in her bare feet, weather permitting.
The Walk to School: The map below traces the route from Port Farm to Brockagh National School and gives a sense of the distance Mam travelled as a child.
The route from Port Farm to Brockagh National School
(approximately 3.4 km each way)
A Story Preserved at Brockagh School
In 1937, schoolchildren across the Irish Free State were encouraged to collect local folklore and history from parents, grandparents and neighbours. Among the stories preserved in the Brockagh School notebooks was an account of a boating tragedy involving the Dolan family of Port on Lough Macnean.
The story was given by John Keany of Brockagh and written down by Kathleen Keany of Annagh. It recalled an accident said to have taken place on 12 August 1886, when Jack Dolan and four of his children were caught in a storm while returning across the lough after working at the turf. According to the account, only the youngest child, Charles, survived.
The name of the surviving child is particularly striking because Mam’s uncle was Charles “Charlie” Dolan. He may have been the child named in the story, but this has not been independently confirmed. I have also found no contemporary newspaper report of the accident in the sources searched. The account is therefore presented here as a piece of local folklore preserved in the Brockagh School notebooks, rather than as a verified historical record.
“Local Happenings” — a story recorded in the Brockagh School folklore notebooks.
