From Belfast’s Shankill Road
To Counties Monaghan Louth and Meath.
By Roy Garland September 2024
I was born and reared in Orkney Street in the Shankill Road area of Belfast where my bedroom overlooked plots growing vegetables and flowers and beyond this the ancient Shankill Graveyard where some of my mother’s Nolan ancestors had been buried. I spent many happy hours playing at the River Farset, that ran between the plots and the graveyard. Beyond these was Divis Mountain and adjoining hills, that greeted usevery morning. As boys we collected wood from local shops or branches of trees from nearby Glencairn or from theovergrown graveyard for a small Twelfth bonfire. In the dying embers of the fire we roasted potatoes, and ate themwith heaps of salt.
My parents had told me of visiting the Garland farm and homestead in Monaghan, in the late 1920s, which left me fascinated to learn that the Hand and Pen Orange Hall where the family played a leading role was at the farm. My familyleft Monaghan in the 19th century and two generation later my great Grandfather James became a leading Tyrone Orangeman. Another James Garland, a “gentleman of the Pale,” had been with Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone whoobtained weapons for O’Neill for which he was later pardonedwith O’Neill. By the mid 1960s I decided to find the old homestead and drove to Monaghan town where I was given directions and found the farm and distant relatives. One gave me a photograph of my parents, grandfather and Paddy Trainor, employed at the farm and enjoyed playing the drums. I slowly felt a new openness and freedom in the south whereas before I had felt very uneasy.
A Catholic Lady said she fondly remembered the Hand and Pen Lodge and Band and loved see them at the Twelfth because they gave the kids sweets. I met members of the Orange Lodge and visited a big house where members wereentertained with meals on the Twelfth Day. My dad knew of his historic links with Monaghan and he, my mother and grandfather William James met the elderly Frank Garland on his death bed. Frank offered the farm to my grandfather andfather but both thought they needed a woman on the farm andmum refused to live in what she called the “back of beyond”with dirt floors and journeymen going in an out. Instead of inheriting the farm dad received £50, a substantial sum in those days.
The Garlands first arrive in Ireland with Strongbow in 1170 and settled in County Louth, before moving to Monaghan in 1591. The Irish State, Saorstát Éireann, was formed in December 1922 a few years before my parents arrived in the late 1920s. By the 1960s I set out to find the farm and inMonaghan town a stranger gave directions to the farm. Until then I felt uncomfortable crossing the border and was relievedto see the shades of green on my return. I now began to feelat ease in the South, but I began to feel as free in the south as in the north. Finding new friends from both traditions played a big part in this, and I saw the need for people to meet each across borders. I believe that whatever shape the future should take we needed to get to know each other and form friendships whatever political institutions.
By the 1990s Loyalist Gusty Spence invited me to join the Shankill Think Tank that brought people in the community together in dialogue. At one meeting someone said the Irish News, needed a Loyalist to write a column and I approach them and became a columnist for many years, but I feltdaunted at the prospect. Occasionally I wrote about distant relatives in Monaghan and a kind letter arrived from Joe Gavin an 81-year-old from Pittsburgh USA. His father, Brother James Gavin, had been a Capuchin-Franciscan Friar but once worked on the Garland’s Monaghan farm. In January 2014, Joe Gavin, contacted me through the Irish News and said his dad had been employed on the farm and mywriting about the Garlands touched him deeply. His fathertook ill at the farm and Joe recalled his dad telling him that:
Frank Garland was like a father to me and on the 12th July, Orangemen’s Day the Garlands carried my dad into the Orange Hall and told the brethren to give him his dinner in the Orange Hall and treat him with love and kindness. Dad of course was scared and afraid being a Roman Catholic. I enjoyed your writings about the Garlands and how they treated my dad with Christian love and kindness when a boy. I could not die in peace until I expressed my honest thanks to you. I am 81 years old, an old man. I wanted to let you know the Garlands are in my prayers. When I was a boy, my dad told me of his life at the Hand and Pen and the Garland home and farm where he worked. Thanks again dear friends of my late dad who died January 12th, 1955.
Joe Gavin’s words were very moving and as I read and re-read his letter, I was determined to do what I could to help develop such wholesale friendships across the island. I met Catholic neighbours who spoke highly of their Protestant and Orange neighbours. However, some tensions remain.
For a time, I travelled around the south with local historian, Alphie Reilly and Kevin Gartland from south Monaghan. We decided to form a dialogue group to bring people from north and south together. The group was named the Guild of Urielafter Historian Harold O’Sullivan from Dundalk explained that English Uriel was the medieval name of an area based on what is now Louth. But Monaghan and adjacent areas were Irish Uriel. Joe Armstrong, journalist, author, columnist, poet and songwriter, described the Guild as a fascinating group that:
…arranged meetings outside the glare of publicity between the different sides of the socio-political-religious divide in Northern Ireland, often getting enemies into the same room at the same time to…dialogue. They invited guest speakers and organizations to meet with them. They didn’t judge anyone. Even when the IRA ceasefire broke down, they kept up their quiet, invaluable work. Some criticized them for talking to the political wing of the IRA – Sinn Fein – but they met them nevertheless, convinced that to resolve conflict you must talk to everyone. Roy Garland was the inspiration behind the Guild.
He is a unionist yet he realized the interconnectedness between everyone in Ireland. He discovered his own family roots through an examination of his family’s Anglo-Norman history. The truth is so often far more complex than the unionist versus nationalist debate that the conflict was so often seen as. Roy and Julitta Clancy are both long-time chairs of the Guild. Julitta is also well known for her work in the Meath Peace Group and was awarded an OBE for her work for peace and reconciliation between the peoples of the two islands that constitute Ireland and Great Britain.
The Guild of Uriel was founded on the 29 October 1995 at Bellingham Castle Hotel. The emphasis was on diversity past and present and the aim was to facilitate mutual understanding and to learn from each other through dialogue. Dr O’Sullivan spoke at the Guild’s foundation on the diversity of people in Louth past and present. Rev Dr John Morrow of Corrymeela spoke on the need for such work while Sam McAughtry, trade unionist and NI Labour Party chaired the meeting. I was elected northern chair and Julitta Clancy of the Meath Peace Group southern chair. Commenting on the work of the Guild Julitta Clancy told me:
The work of the Guild was amazing – you (Roy) led and inspired us! We can never measure what we achieved but it was a tremendous learning experience, building dialogue, true understanding and respect. An opportunity that very few have, to talk frankly and honestly, share our experiences and aspirations, and see how we can go forward in peace.
A core group drawn from both traditions meant everyone would meet others from a different tradition including, nationalists, loyalists, unionists, republicans, Orangemen, dissidents, former security people, victims, including security force victims, politicians and others who met in together in peace. People introduced themselves and spoke from their own traditions. The meetings were dynamic and refreshing but painful memories sometimes surfaced. Julitta Clancy and I chaired meetings and participants were free to say whatever was on their minds and engage respectfully with each other. We visited strife torn parts of Belfast with some who had never crossed the NI border before. We visited Dan Winters’ Cottage where a Drogheda man spoke of former Orange parades in his town and was thrilled to be in Dan Winter’s cottage where he met Hilda Winters, a relative of Dan Winters. The work of the Guild continued for 20 years and was a wonderful experience for us all.
The Broken Elbow 