History Episode Episodes

This episode tells the story of the early years of my parent’s life together and how the family got into the rose growing business, the motivations, difficulties, successes and failures of that choice

The Ireland of the 1930s-50s was both socially conservative and economically isolated. This is the story of those decades as seen through my fragmentary understanding of my Dad's life during those years Ireland and Dad’s Lost Decades Sometimes the best laid plans go awry. I had started on what I thought was going to be my first memoir piece about my Dad and his interest in tropical fish. An odd sounding topic I’ll admit, but that was a time, in the early 1970s when I was closest to him, as...

View of Carlow Town from the Killeshin Hills. Photo: Geraldine Doyle Carlow Town is an ancient Irish settlement, situated in the rich farming lands fed by the watershed of the Barrow River. At end of the second decade of the 20th century, the small town was comprised of close to 7,000 people. If you look to the West of the town across the Barrow River, the land rises up to form the Killeshin Hills Hills and it was there, in April of 1919, that members of the Behan family gathered at the church o...

The Delvin, Photo: Kieran Campbell / Railway bridge at Gormanston / CC BY-SA 2.0 On June 20, 1979, I learned Emily Nutty, nee Behan, my paternal grandmother and last surviving grandparent had died. I was swimming at Gormanston beach when I got the news. It was a warm Summer day towards the end of the Intermediate Certificate exam and the Franciscan brothers, who ran the school at Gormanston, had given permission to go for a swim at the local beach. On a sparkling day, I set off with my school ma...

RASC Horse Drawn Supply Company courtesy of the British National Army Museum On Jan 6, 1913, the Feast Day Of The Epiphany, a day that celebrates the visit of the Three Wise Men to the new born Christ Child in Bethlehem, William Robert Nutty joined up for service in the British Army. In retrospect, there was precious little wise in that decision as Europe and much of the world was soon to be plunged into the body and soul wrecking slaughter house that has come to be known as World War I. Bill...

Lily Nutty (1898–1984) Picture dated 1918 I only ever met Lily once. It was shortly before I went to the States in the early 80s. She was to die within a few years in 1984 at the age of 86, so there was not another chance to get a fuller picture of her story. Around that time, I’d started to investigate the family history and my sister, Ann, had gotten on board with the family tree effort and so, one day, I arrived home and was confronted with the unwavering pale eyes of my great Aunt Lily. Earl...

Reading the first installment of Recovering My Irish Family again, I realized that the title was a poor description for the content. Let me clarify the shortcomings. I grew up in a home where there was little discussion of my Dad’s family. I can guess at the underlying reasons, but what I know, is my father rarely displayed any interest in talking about my grandparents: Da and Nana and by extension almost all other relatives. It begs the question why? Could it simply have been disinterest in fam...

Da: Frederick Nutty: 1897 — 1973 in his WWI Royal Flying Corps uniform My 9 year old mind sensed something amiss when a bright blue boat turned and took a direct line to us. Maybe it was because the three men in the boat had no fishing rods on a lake where that was the only meaningful thing to do and normally such men would be trolling for the big lumpers of trout which inhabited the deeper sections of the lake. On that bright beautiful day in August 1973, a colleague of my Dad, who had introduc...