Glack ~ the Hamilton home

Although my grandfather moved his family to Belfast when my mom was very young, it was on the family farm, Glack, that she was born. It was at Glack that my great-grandmother raised her 13 children (my papa being the youngest). And it was to Glack that many of the extended family returned at different times through their lives. My mom, aunt and grandmother regularly returned to Glack every summer vacation until they moved to Canada when my mother was twelve.

Some years after they moved to Canada, Glack was sold. It remains a working farm but the old two story stone house was abandoned, and years of using the house as the back wall of some modern farm sheds caused it to fall apart. Here is a mini-history of the house in photos...

Glack, around 1940. That's my great-grandmother in the centre.



13 years ago when Kim and I last visited.
The house was still standing but the roof had collapsed. You can still recognize the door frame and lintel from the old photo above.



Current day.
The house is gone, however we all found pieces of the slate roof and stone walls - we brought some of the pieces home with us.

 

This is the view seen from where the house stood on one of the highest hills in the area.
In the distance is the village of Aughnacloy.



Bryanna standing in the lane that ran along from the house - staring out at that view of Aughnacloy.

Just a few steps along that lane from Glack, was "Jim's House."  My mom isn't sure why it was called that since there was no Jim living there. (Does any of the family know?) However, it was part of the property and some of the family stayed or lived in this bungalow style building. It still stands today and Kim was fascinated to see shelves by the fireplace, paint remaining in places and what appeared to be some tiles on a fallen section of wall. 

Nanny and her littlest girls in front of Jim's place.

 

With her big girls.



Chatting about the upper fields and what things would have been like when mom was young.



One of Glack's remaining farm buildings near the site of the old house - the current farmer is storing equipment in it.



With cousin Alan in front of Glack. Alan remembers running across the fields as a child, in fear of some of the big bulls.



Looking for the path down to the well below the house. It was a natural spring, and the children would be sent there to bring back water.



I remember...



Another generation returns to Glack.



Checking out the cows in the fields.



Nanny's homeland.

We feel so grateful to have returned to Glack with Nanny and our girls. It is somewhat difficult to put into words the many feelings that arise - sadness at what is no more, a wistful longing for such a beautiful place...some "place" memories, maybe, for those of us who never lived here, and a happiness that we have been able to share this important piece of our mother's life with our children.

Bryanna is still missing Ireland, she loved it so much. I am so glad that she, too, feels the call of her nanny's homeland.