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The early days at Thornton

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When my mother and father married, Dad worked the family farm at Thornton, up the Laidley Creek Valley, so the big old family home was divided into two dwellings with Grandma and Aunty Dolly (Dad's oldest spinster sister) on one side and our growing family on the other. I like to tell people my parents were so impressed with me, the oldest, that they decided they’d like a dozen of me. But the truth is my dad comes from good Irish Catholic stock and the change that swept through the world with the introduction of birth control was not felt in our household. Mum wasn't Catholic and she never took any part in Catholicism but she played her part as the wife of a good Catholic and made sure we were raised Catholic. She attended our baptisms but that was it. She didn't darken the door of the church again until her children started marrying. She never forgot that when they had married, the ceremony couldn't take place in the main body of the church (because she was no
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Back in the mists of time in Ireland

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If you want to know more about the castle in Ireland where our ancestors lived, there is heaps of information on the internet.  After reading for hours, I think perhaps I should deny any connection.   Photo courtesy of Wikipedia   The castle was built by the O’Bannon family somewhere between the late 12th century and the 15th century, although likely around 1250.  It is well accepted that the fortified tower house was built upon a much earlier settlement site which dates back to the Iron Age. Though the O’Bannons were powerful in their own right, they were pledged to the O’Carroll family, who took control of the castle away. The O’Carrolls used the castle as a site for battles, and numerous massacres occurred inside the walls.  Yes, that's our lot. Thanks to my DNA and Ancestry.com I've been in contact with a third cousin on this side of the family, a retired high court judge who is an amazing researcher.  I so wish I'd known her when I visited Ireland in 2015.
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