We’re Going on a McCloy Hunt (or I Can’t Believe We’re Doing This!)

So, as promised, in this post I’m going to detail our crazy scavenger hunt which took place the afternoon of July 20th.

My grandma, Barbara Whyte, has long been our family’s historian. She has prepared detailed family trees for all sides of our family and has done further research to create really amazing booklets to share all that she has learned about the individuals therein.

On the McCloy side (my great-grandpa Mac), we come from Northern Ireland. His father was born there and raised in a township called Aghadowey. My great-grandfather’s cousins, Sadie and Edna, were the last family members to live in the area as neither of them married or had children.

My Mom and I were armed with the name of the town and an old black and white photo of the homestead from well over 100 years ago. Brad was skeptical, the kids were excited because they love a good adventure, and Mom and I were both hopeful yet realistic about out chances of finding the old homestead.

Our first step was to plug Aghadowey into our GPS. We drove according to the directions and ended up in the middle of nowhere. There was no town sign, no pub, only a few scattered farms, and one church called Aghadowey Presbyterian to let us know that this place actually existed. Not willing to give up so easily, we drove on and doubled back, scouring the area roads for some sort of clue as to where we could find out more.

We finally located a sign that said Aghadowey! That was something… We decided to continue on…

As we drove along one of the roads, we saw a small laneway that had a number and the word Bellevue on it. We turned down the lane and were upset to see that it appeared to be someone’s driveway. But then we saw a sign calling the home a “country house” and an arrow pointing towards “reception.” Mom and I followed the arrow through a beautiful garden and knocked on the front door. After some time, an elderly woman answered the door and Mom told her about our mission and quickly showed her our picture and asked her if she knew where the house was. The woman called to her husband and he joined us to look at the picture. The photo had a caption underneath, which called it Claggon house. She stated that we were not in Claggon, but the husband said it was closeby. The two of them proceeded to give us directions to the area they thought it was in and told us to visit “O’Neill’s Pub.” We chatted awhile longer (this used to be a bed and breakfast but the couple retired many years earlier and just never took down the sign).

We returned to the car, and relayed the vague directions to him. He just shook his head and sportingly followed them. (The directions were: turn right out of the lane, drive a mile or so to the church at the top of the hill, turn right and drive a few miles until you come to a little bridge – but you won’t see the bridge until you get to it – cross it, turn right and go until you see the pub.)

Surprisingly, we found a pub called Three Oaks by following these directions. We weren’t sure if we were at the right place until Sam spotted “owned by the O’Neill family” in tiny print on one of the signs. Charlotte, Mom, and I went inside to see what we could find out and to use the washroom.

The barmaid wanted to be helpful but told us she wasn’t a local. She did believe she could point us in the direction of a local named Seamus McCloy who may be able to help.

Well, it turned out that Seamus McCloy was actually Seamus McCoy, so that seemed like a dead end.

On our way back from the area we had driven to find Seamus, we saw a man working in his garden. Mom wanted to stop and ask him if the photo of the homestead looked familiar. He told us that he was new to the area but that the lady who lived next door to him and drove the blue car in the driveway had been in the area all her life and would likely know.

Not wanting to offend him since he was now watching us, we felt we had to walk to the neighbour’s house and inquire.

A lovely lady named Rosemary (yes, the blue car was hers) opened the door and chatted with us for awhile. She didn’t think the home in the photo looked familiar, but she thought she may have heard of Sadie and Edna before from a lady named Monica.

Now, Monica, she told us, has Alzheimer’s but would possibly still be able to help us because “you know how people like that still remember stuff from a long time ago.” She told us that Monica now had her daughter Colette living with her, so if Monica didn’t remember than Colette may. However, Colette was quite Young then and may not have listened to her mother “because you know how kids are.”

Rosemary gave us the following directions to find Rosemary: You see that there’s a farm across the road from us now. Then there’s two or maybe three bungalows, then the house on the corner. That’s not Monica’s house. Keep going and there’s a few more bungalows and then her house faces the road like mine, but on the opposite side, and there’s a house whose back garden is right beside it.

Miracle of miracles, we crept slowly along the road with Brad driving in a state of disbelief at our antics, and found it! An elderly woman was hanging laundry in the yard. We approached her and asked if she was Monica. She said yes and walked towards the door of her house. Mom introduced herself and asked if she knew where the McCloy homestead was. Monica looked up with a smile and said, “Sadie and Edna!”

This was very exciting! She remembered them! Monica said that explaining where they lived was too hard and it would be easier to take us there. She insisted on getting into our car (I took Sam and Charlotte out to stay with me, as there wasn’t enough room for us all.) Mom and Brad did not want to take this lovely but insistent lady away from her home for fear someone would think she had wandered off. But Monica got in the car and waited.

The kids and I stayed in the driveway and played with her cat and dog. We crossed the one-lane country road to chat with the cows in the field there. And then I saw children at the window of Monica’s house!

I ran over, knocked on the door, and introduced myself to the two granddaughters of Monica. I explained what was going on and assured them their grandmother would be right back. It turned out Colette had just run out to take care of some errands. The poor girls must have been so confused as to why their grandmother had gotten into a car with strangers!

Quite soon Colette returned and was far more hospitable than she should have been for all the disruption we had caused! She and her girls were absolutely wonderful, insisting the kids and I come inside to wait and offering me tea. We chatted about Sadie, Edna, and her mother until the others returned.

Meanwhile, Monica had found the home that once belonged to Sadie and Edna and was now home to a sweet couple named the Kellys. This couple insisted on taking Mom and Brad on a tour of the home and showing them Edna’s sitting room, which they had never changed.

Colette had some stories about the two McCloy spinsters and told of how she loved visiting them with her mother because they would always give her treats.

We connected on Facebook with the promise that is any photos were found, Colette would forward them to me.

We reluctantly said goodbye and left the helpful and lovely family to their evening and settled ourselves back into the car. The only thing left to figure out was which building was the original homestead, because the Kellys’ home was not.

We drove past it to show me and the kids and stopped at a house diagonally across the street from it, one that the Kellys thought may have McCloys living in it. Once again, Mom and I boldly knocked on the door. A lady named Sheila answered and called for her husband (he’s lived here all his life) when she heard our question. Although there have been tremendous renovations throughout the years, it turns out this house was the old homestead! There was even a crabapple tree in the front garden that was planned by Edna’s father on the day she was born!

Sheila and her husband told us they attended both women’s funerals and directed us to where they were buried. Thus, our final stop was at Moneydig Presbyterian Church. We traipsed around the cemetery in the cold drizzle and finally found the McCloy headstone thanks to Charlotte’s keen eye.

It was a crazy, magical, exciting adventure… ending with success!

We popped back into the pub for Charlotte to use the washroom again, and everyone in there was talking about Sadie and Edna McCloy and the Canadian family that was looking for their house. I guess we brought their memory back alive for a little while for the whole community. 😊

I still can’t believe we found the house and that everyone we met/barged in on was so helpful, kind, and interested! It was the most “rural Ireland” kind of experience I could imagine – like something out of a story, really. In a world where we hear too much about bad people, it’s so refreshing to see how wonderful most people really can be.