FOREWORD
The study of history, so often vilified in the past as serving no productive purpose, or as impossibly compromised by the inevitable cultural conditioning or even prejudice.s of the writer, and furthermore as incapable of being rendered in coherent narrative form, yet continues to fascinate, entertain and inspire more and more people.
There can be few clergy who have not been asked many times to respond to requests to help in the search for ancestors and family roots. As society becomes increasingly mobile, communities increasingly atomised and society blended and homogenized, identity and belonging become increasingly important.
Furthermore, every society, (but especially a society such as ours in Northern Ireland, that has gone through decades of turmoil and change, and in which - quite rightly - received myths and prejudices and understandings of the past are being scrutinized and challenged,) requires to know what has made it what it is, and its history is a primary component of that self understanding.
In her engaging and thorough compilation of sources - documentary and anecdotal - for the history of the Church of Ireland Parish of Killead and its Parish Church of St Catherine, Mrs Mildred Irvine has assembled a series of fascinating vignettes of the life of an ordinary parish in what was once a quiet part of south Co Antrim. That it is no longer a quiet, or in any way a typical country parish is due in no small measure to the major civil and military aviation facilities which dominate the parochial area and indeed enfold the Parish Church. Yet from its consecration in 1712 to the re-hallowing, after extensive renovation, in 2004, St Catherine's Church has been the spiritual home of a living, working, faithful, worshipping community in Killead and Gartree that has been sustained, by the help of Almighty God, through turbulent times.
The story of those people is to be found in Mildred Irvine's book, a book that serves both as a reminder that life and faith go on no matter what the backdrop of great events, and also as a comprehensive resource for those who want to know 'Where are my roots?', 'What is my people's story?', How did I become the person I am?', 'Where do I really belong?' - Important human questions in a disjointed world. We owe Mrs Irvine a considerable debt and l am grateful to have been afforded the privilege of writing the foreword to her meticulous and illuminating account.
+Alan Connor Bishop
Introduction to About Killead and Gartree
I came to Killead and Gartree in 1998, when my recently retired husband became the vicar of the parishes of Killead and Gartree. As I met and spoke to many friendly people living in the Parish, I soon realised there were lots of interesting stories about the people and events of the past in this area.
No account of the Church and its people had been compiled despite the long history of the Parish and I thought that it would be a shame for the information and stories to be lost through the passage of time. The timing of this book also coincides with a major renovation of Killead church, one of the oldest in the Diocese of Connor (built in 1712).
Since there are several sources of information about the history of the Parish (1), I decided mostly to document material that is not so readily available; particularly about St Catherine's, its sister church, Gartree and people associated with them. I include, for example, extracts from the minutes of Killead Parish dating from 1828 in a legible form!
Initially I set about drawing together some anecdotes that I thought would make an interesting booklet recording some of the social history of the people living in the parishes. The booklet soon grew into a book as so many people kindly supplied information and wrote articles. While I have included much more material than I had initially intended, I realise that I have only scratched the surface of the rich historical past of the Churches and the Parish. I would like to thank everyone who assisted in the production of this book.
Special thanks to Miss Gwynn Rainey who spent many hours typing manuscripts, the RIGC(NI) and in particular the Print Section, Geo Troop (Aldergrove) for completing the artwork, the Rev. JC Irvine for assisting with editing and Mrs C Caves for helping to format the text.
Thanks are also due to those who wrote articles: Lord Molyneaux of Killead, Mr Victor Sefton, Miss Jean and Mr Wilford McFarlane, Mrs Dorothy Molyneaux, Mrs Mary McComb, Mrs Betty Golden, Mrs Edna Wright, Canon lR. Musgrave, Miss Arabella Palmer, Mr Jim and Mrs Anna Wilson, Mr Michael Aldworth, Mr Jim Maginnis, Dr. D. Burrell, Mrs Helen Sheldon and Mr Eddie McIlwaine.
I am also grateful to those who supplied information: The Rev. Canon Edgar Turner, Dr R Rafausse, Mrs Elizabeth McGuinness, Mrs Eileen Jones, Mrs Cora Guthrie, Mr William Williamson, Mr Bertie Wilson, Mrs Lena Martin, Mrs Olive and Mr John Rankin, Mrs Elsie Davis, Mrs M Harkness, Mrs Elizabeth Brown, Mrs Graham, Mrs Heather Thompson, Mrs Hyde, Mr Ernie Cromie, Mr and Mrs Carson Beattie, Mrs Kay and Mr Max Hanlon, Mrs Patricia Nevins, Mrs Elizabeth Hall, Mr Raymond Mairs, Mr Rodney Mairs, Mrs Glover, Mrs Thursby, Mrs J.Duncan, the Local Studies (Ballymena Library) and Miss Beth McCabe.
Thanks for permitting the reproduction of material go to: Mrs Vivienne Rowntree, Grace Magrath, Dr Roger Strong (Deputy Keeper of the Records PRONI), Dr Dominic Bryan (Director Irish Studies, QUB) and Ordnance Survey NI.
M E. lrvine
1 The 1838 memoirs that accompanied the Ordnance Survey of the Parish; Reeves 'Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore 1847; 0 'Laverty:S Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor; The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland 1845; Ecclesiastical Commission 1836; and Topographical Dictionary of Ireland S Lewis and Co 1837.
