Introduction

I've wanted for a long time to do this but part of what held me back was wondering how best to share the info I had and if I did what to call it. When I tried to think of a name that encapsulates us and our lives together there could be only one choice. Over the years mum and dad fondly gave us the group handle of 'All the buddies'. I guess it as a lot easier than doing a roll call "Paul, Jim, Andrea, Nicola, Lydia, Neil and Gemma" every time they needed us or were talking about us. So I thought what better way to sum up what this blog will be about than to call it just that, 'All the buddies' .

So, for all the big buddies we are now , the little buddies we were then and all the new buddies in the making, come take a trip with me down memory lane and hopefully we'll share some stories and relive the childhood and influences that made us the crazy bunch we are today x

Home: Welcome

No place like home

Andrea Donnelly
Dec 18, 2018
1 min read

Updated: Dec 24, 2018

Home for some of us has been Cloughreagh, The Gardens and of course Keggal or The Bumbles as we know it. The Bumbles was named after the previous landowner one of many John Murphys locally who was christened John the Bumble to distinguish him from the other Murphys.

The geography of this place plays big part of how we all came to be. Camlough Lake formed in the valley between Slieve Gullion and Camlough Mountains meanders its way to Bessbrook where a Mill was built using the power of the mighty little Camlough River to manufacture beautiful linen that was sold the world over. This industry in the early 1900s attracted people from far and wide to relocate to Bessbrook in search of employment and a better life. Two such families were the Quinns from Fintona and The McCauleys from Antrim. We'll explore more about them in time, but you see without our rain and the mountains there'd be no lake and no lake would mean no mill and no mill would mean no wee buddies.

So lets raise a toast to the intrepid explorers that were our great-grandparents who thankfully made Bessbrook their home all those years ago!