Biography
I am Raymond McNamee and I was born on the 23rd of January 1946, the eldest of four children, two boys and two girls. My father’s name was Joe and my mother’s name was Mary Annie (Lagan). I grew up on the family farm outside Maghera. The farm has been in the McNamee name for five generations, I inherited it after my father’s death in 1980. My son who is in the homestead would be the sixth generation of the family living on the farm.
After finishing primary school I went to Magherafelt Technical College, (The Tech). Then after my education, the opportunity arose to join the Ministry of Agriculture. When I first joined the Ministry on 17th August 1964 I was sent to Riversdale a small village about six miles from Enniskillen but I continued to help out on the farm at weekends and during the holidays. I always loved working with my hands and even to the present day I get a lot of pleasure from restoring old machines that would have been used on the farm in the ‘50’s and ‘60s. My pride and joy is the first tractor that came to the farm, the T20. I married my wife, Bernadette in 1972 and we have three children and eight grandchildren
Description of Farm
Our farm is situated in Tamneymullan just outside Maghera, the back wall of the house is the boundary between Tamneymullan and Moneymore. It was a mixed farm as most farms were in those days. Originally, the farm was approximately 20 acres but there would have been a lot taken in con-acre. In the ‘50s and ‘60s there was about 30 acres taken in con-acre.
In the past there were two lint dams in one of the fields, and a mill. Where exactly the mill was I don’t know, but I was told that there had been a mill in what we called the Mill Field and it got burned. The only remaining thing we have left is a heavy rectangular stone that was used in the mill. There is a small stream running through the farm between two of the fields and that stream was always referred to as the mill race.
We were fortunate to have a very good type of land, mostly a light clay suitable for all types of crops. The only field there was a bit of moss in was actually the field that belongs to St Pat’s College and is now used as a playing field.
Our land was all arable. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, our main crops were potatoes, corn, grasseed and lint (flax). My father also kept livestock – cattle and pigs – we never kept sheep. The cattle were all bred and reared on the farm. My father always kept pure bred dairy shorthorn. We took a bull to Balmoral show one time it was called ‘Tamneymullan Monarch’ and it got a second place in the Dairy Shorthorn Class.
My father picked the best heifers from the herd and kept them for milking cows, the rest went for beef. Most of our cattle were sold as ‘stores’ in Maghera by Roy Crawford who was an Auctioneer and had a place in beside where Gormley’s pub is now. The dairy shorthorns were good milkers, we sent the milk to the creamery in Moneymore.
There was always a cow tail pump in the yard and it’s still there today. In 1931 my uncle sent money home from America for the erection of the pump which was bought from Henry Hugh McErlean, Magherafelt.
On Saturday 29th October, Dr Anna Bryson, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast (and the 2016 winner of the Vice-chancellor’s Research Impact Prize), held a day-long oral history workshop in the Heritage & Cultural Centre.
As well as practical considerations she introduced some of the more challenging issues concerning privacy, respect, boundaries, tact and discretion – and explored potential strategies to mitigate against disaster striking!
The workshop was well attended with ten people taking part. All were agreed that, in a relatively short space of time, the guidelines for working in the field of oral history were very clearly, simply and succinctly explained. Perhaps most importantly Anna really inspired the participants with her own enthusiasm. Drawing on her own research experience she illustrated the powerful way in which the voice of ordinary people can bring history to life and produce a more rounded and inclusive account of the past.
My family moved to Maghera in August 1958, when we were allocated a bungalow in Crawfordsburn Drive. My grandparents were already resident in Crawfordsburn at the time and my association with the town of Maghera and Crawfordsburn began perhaps before I was a year old. By the time we moved ourselves, I was six years old, the youngest in the family.
Conditions varied greatly from farm to farm. I can recall gathering at a farm on the verge of the town on the station road with my good friend Mervyn Cochrane and other children. This was one of the hardest day’s work we ever did. I can remember gathering to meet Mervyn and the large amount of potatoes lying between us. We had to go to the house to be paid, with the two of us receiving ten shillings but with some of the younger children receiving considerably less than this, perhaps as little as five shillings. This caused a bit of a stir when some of the youngsters arrived home, with one or two of the mothers considering going to the house to protest but then, I think, they decided to grudgingly accept it.
he waited until we had gathered it all before digging the next one. This allowed us to have a short break before resuming work. Alternatively, if the farmer was in a more determined mood, he would have been digging the next drill while we were still gathering the previous one, what we would have referred to as ‘digging two ways’. This, of course, meant no break for us between one drill and the next.
Swatragh And Back! That was the Sponsored- Walk-Challenge to raise funds for the Maghera Historical Society. The event was a great success with just under £1,000 raised on the day. Special thanks to Jean Dunne for organising it all so well and we are very grateful to all our sponsors and everybody who supported us. This was an amazing result and far surpassed all our expectations – so congratulations all round!
The Maghera Historical Society Perpetual Trophy Quiz took place last Thursday 27th April, in Walsh’s Hotel. Joint winners on the night were tables 6 and 7. Sinead Kelly, Eugene Kelly, Brian Kielt, Peter Convery on table 6 and Emma Stewart, George Stewart, Noel Stewart and Matthew Stewart on table 7. Congratulations to the winners!!! James Armour stood in on the night for regular Quizmaster Peter Etherson and presented the trophy to Sinead Kelly and Emma Stewart representing their team.
Another enjoyable and challenging Quiz in our monthly series was held in Walsh’s Hotel on the 30th March by the Maghera Historical Society. Once again Peter Etherson set the questions to tax our knowledge. Next month’s Quiz will be the competition for the MHS annual trophy so we look forward to welcoming a large and competitive audience.
A wonderful evening of memories and information was enjoyed by a large audience in the Heritage & Cultural Centre with the showing, by Brendan Convery, of the film ‘Farming Down the Years’. this film was made by John Thompson and followed the cycle of the corn crop from sowing to harvesting as it was done in the era before combines. Local farmer Raymond McNamee allowed the work to be carried on over a year. His brother, Michael McNamee, together with Tommie Doherty worked on the film. Both men have sadly passed away since and the evening was held in their memory.