Write a commentTwo Australian sisters with the help of Newry and Mourne Museum and helpful Kilkeel locals were able solve the mystery and finally return after 50 years to the house that they had been born in.
Valerie How and her sister Carol Posselt were born in the 1950s in the townland of Moneydarragh Beg near Annalong.
Their father, Robin How, had worked as a Civil Engineer with Charles Brand and after his project was completed, (when Valerie was just one week old), the family went to England and eventually emigrated to Australia.
The ladies never returned to see their birthplace nor did they know where it was located. This was something which they had always thought about and after their father passed away in 2012 they decided to make the journey home.
In February 2014, Valerie contacted Newry and Mourne Museum looking for information on the house that they were born in and details about their father’s work with Charles Brand. The only lead that they had to go on was the house name which was Darraway.
Shane McGivern, the Museum’s Collections Research Assistant, began looking into this and was able to find, in the Museum’s Reside Collection, a proposed plan of the Kilkeel Harbour by Charles Brand dated April 1953. This gave a clue about what Charles Brand was working on in Kilkeel at that time.
Shane contacted Sean McManus, a Kilkeel local and an expert in local history. Sean, who has many contacts in the Annalong region got in touch with a number of people (Catherine Hudson, Valerie Stevenson, John Newell and his contacts, Pamela Houston and Lauren Newell) and through some excellent detective work he was able find the house that Valerie and Carol were born in.
Sean also talked a to a gentleman, John Newell, who had worked with Charles Brand in the 1950s and confirmed that it was the Harbour reconstruction project that Robin How had been involved in. Sean was kind enough to meet with the ladies and gave them a tour of the harbour and took them to their birthplace.
Museum Collections Research Assistant, Shane McGivern said “The number of people involved in helping Valerie and Carol is a great testament to the sense of community which exists in Kilkeel and Annalong. The Museum takes great pride in helping the generations of people who return to the area to find out about their past”.
As luck would have it, the house had recently changed hands and the new owner allowed them through the house. The new owner was delighted to hear that the house had a name and said that she would restore that original name on the house. Carol and Valerie were extremely touched by this gesture.
The ladies then visited the Museum where they were shown pictures and a proposed plan of the project that their father had overseen as a Civil Engineer back in 1953. Valerie said “it has been an amazing experience for Carol and I to come back and see the house that we were born in, we were taken aback by how beautiful the area is. Carol has decided to use the name Darraway for her house in Australia. It will be such a great story to tell back home”
Museum Curator, Noreen Cunningham said “we are delighted that the Museum Collection contains information which has helped Valerie and Carol uncover details about their father’s role in the 1950s extension of Kilkeel Harbour”.
The Reside Collection is available to the public by appointment, for more information please telephone: 028 3031 3173; email: shane.mcgivern@newryandmourne.gov.uk or visit www.bagenalscastle.com
