On the whole I try to adopt the rule that the detail of the immediate family is treated in the decade modules, while I leave the peripheral family linkages to this Appendix, at overview level. I am not primarily engaged in writing a family history. I have updated this with data from JJ's notebook on family history, from my own recollections of my sister, and her own recollections.

The Johnston family in Tyrone goes back to the 1620s. My father JJ attempted to trace them in detail, and came up with a probable source in Scotland: Annandale in Dumfries. JJ claimed to have identified one ancestor who was involved inside the Derry walls in 1690.

In JJ's family research notebook(1) there is a family tree going back to Samuel Johnston, of Reskecorr (alternatively Reaskcorr, Drumnafern), Co Tyrone, born 1748, who married one Jean MacKeown on 9/05/1779. They had two sons, John and Samuel; the latter was my great-grandfather; he was born in 1789, and married one Nancy McLean who died in 1850 aged about 50. They had a family of four, my grandfather John being the youngest, being born on 6/07/1834, according to my father's notes. The eldest, Alec, went to the USA aged 17. Then came Jane, who died unmarried. The third was Samuel, born 1831, died 1912, no issue. I can thus claim to be the fourth youngest son in succession, reaching back to 1748 in four generative steps.

There is a letter among JJ's papers from his Uncle Henry, dated October 2 1913, from an address North Arm PO, Vancouver, BC. It refers to the difficulty of getting agricultural labouring work; he had got 10 weeks work making hay; he had come to Vancouver the previous June to see his daughter, and then he had gone working on the railroads. He wanted a decent job at home or in Dublin. He must have got wind of JJ getting Fellowship in TCD and thought he could fix something. He said he was 'too old for this country'. This must have been a brother of Mary Geddes. I have no record of any outcome.

My grandfather John Johnston retired from being a schoolteacher in 1897; my initial conjecture that he was born in the early 1830s is supported by my father's notebook as above. He spent most of his life in or near Donaghmore, and there is on record one of that name in the Presbyterian parish of Castle Caulfield. He would have moved into the neighborhood from his father's place at Drumnafern when he became a teacher in Tullyarran in 1855, some 5 years after his mother's death.

Among the communicants in April 1855 in Castle Caulfield was one John Johnston, with an associated Mrs Johnston (no first name given)(2). There was also a Joseph Johnston, a Samuel Johnston and an Andrew Johnston on the same date, each associated with a Mrs Johnston. There was also a John Johnston a member of the Committee in 1878. Both these John Johnston entries are consistent with being my grandfather. The earlier reference, associated with a Mrs Johnston, suggests the possibility of a first wife, who died, before he married Mary Geddes. My father in his notes however has no reference to this possibility.

There was a John Johnston a teacher in Tullyarran school from 1855 to 1876, who also gave evening lessons to farm labourers. There is also a record of a John Johnston as the principal of Kilnaslee school from 1881 to his retirement in 1897. These were indeed the same person(3), but there is no record of how the gap was filled, though there is a record of a temporary John Johnston at the estate school at Parkanaur, during the Tullyarran period. Maybe he spent time at Parkanaur? Or went back to farming? The records, according to Rafferty, are somewhat incomplete. The most probable explanation is that he gave up teaching to concentrate on the farm for a time after he got married, and then went back to teaching when the need arose to support the education of his expanding family.

These schools are all in reach, by walking, of the Johnston home at Tomagh, the Kilnaslee school being the nearest. The Tomagh house still exists in part, as an outhouse on a farm owned by John Kelly. It is a typical earth-walled long cottage, with small windows, originally thatched, but later roofed with corrugated steel sheeting. The modern farmhouse is named Johnstonville, in honour of the earlier tenants of the farm, and the family is still remembered locally, though they moved elsewhere during the 1900s. I go into this further below. I am indebted to John Kelly the present owner for the photograph, which shows the house as it was in the 1950s, more or less complete, as an outhouse in the farmyard of the modern house.

The Johnston farmhouse at Tomagh is now an outbuilding of the Kelly farmhouse. It is at the right-centre of the picture, which was taken from the air in the 1950s.(4)

In the Oxford University 1896 matriculation record for James, John's eldest son, the father's occupation is described as farmer, while for the later Oxford records of John (1901) and William (1907) he is described as ex- or retired teacher. He died, according to my father's notes, on 26/12/1909.

My grandfather married my grandmother Mary Geddes, age given as 20, of Skea, daughter of James Geddes, farmer, on November 28 1873. At this time my grandfather was 39.(5). This calls into question the 1855 Mrs Johnston who is in the Castle Caulfield record, though Mary Geddes could have been a second wife. I remember my grandmother in the mid-1930s when she was living in Dublin with my aunt Anne; she died on 13/03/1939. She was born on 24/08/1854 and so was 19 when she married my grandfather, and he was 39. He was thus much older, and could have been married before, though this is not in accordance with my sister's recollection of the family lore, nor is it in my father's notes. My sister was born in 1916, six years after he died, and never knew him.

The eldest son James was born on 24/11/1874 and the address where he was born is given as Donaghmore in the Oxford record, with the father living at Tomagh at the time of matriculation (1896); he was in Oxford as a postgraduate, having taken his primary degree in Queens Galway.

Elizabeth, a sister of my grandmother Mary Geddes, married Joe Loughrin; they lived at Killygarvan near Cookstown; there were 4 children of which two died; the survivors were Sophie, who ran the Killygarvan farm and remained in touch with JJ until she died in the 1960s, and Mina who married an Acheson. There were in the Acheson family five brothers, Douglas, Sandy, Harry, Morris and Walter, and one sister Winnie(5).

A sister of Joe Loughrin, Annie, married one Fred Hobson, and by that channel I believe there may be a family connection with Bulmer Hobson, though I have not traced this.

John Johnston of Tullyarran school, it would seem, had a radical outlook, in that he was prepared to give literacy classes to farm labourers, in addition to his work in the school(3). The school at Tullyarran is still standing, and is still in occasional use as a mission hall. It was closed as a school in 1904, having been open since 1824 or earlier. It was originally built by the landlord on the basis of subscriptions. It became part of the national school system in 1848, with Joseph Acheson the Presbyterian Minister as manager. John Johnston was the third teacher in the sequence.

The old schoolhouse at Tullyarran is now used as an evangelical mission-hall. It is about an hour's walk from Tomagh.

The Kilnaslee school was set up in 1820 and was connected with the Kildare Place Society. The school declined in the 1850s and was closed, but reopened in 1864 under the National Board, and John Johnston succeeded Samuel McCausland as Principal in 1881, retiring in 1897, although Rafferty seems to have some doubt regarding his Principal status. Maybe for a period it was a one-teacher school(3).

A possible explanation of the gap is that when he left Tullyarran in 1876, having married Mary Geddes, he decided to stay in Tomagh and work the farm full-time. This would tally with the Oxford record for James. Then when the boys needed schooling he went back to teaching in Kilnaslee.

The eldest son James was born on November 24 1874, then there was a daughter Mary Ann born on March 13 1877, but who died when small. The second son Samuel Alexander was born on December 25 1880, the third John on April 15 1883. Then came 'Harry' (William Henry) on December 17 1885, then William on May 13 1888. My father Joe was born on August 2 1890, and then Anne on November 10 1897. They were well spaced, due probably to the practice of breast-feeding. This enabled the financial load of their education to be spread out over a long time, with the elder ones subsidising the younger from salaried jobs.(6)

According to my sister Dr Maureen Carmody they all went to Dungannon Royal School (DRS). They travelled in by train from Kilnaslee Halt; it is in walking distance of Tomagh. There was for a time a girls school associated with DRS, and Anne went to this for a time; the records however of this school are lost. She subsequently went to Alexandra College in Dublin, before going on the Trinity College.

Most if not all got scholarships, both to school, and on to college(7). Joe went to TCD, and John went to Oxford, as did William. James went to Galway and then to Oxford. Where did Sam and Harry go? Edinburgh, Dublin and Galway are all possible; JJ mentioned Edinburgh in this context, in one of his Seanad speeches, in support of the right to educate abroad. My sister however thinks one or other of them went to the College of Surgeons in Dublin. Both anyway did medical degrees; Sam went into practice in Newcastle-on-Tyne, where Harry joined him later. Harry moved to London after Sam's death from tuberculosis, in the early 1920s. The others, apart from Joe, ended up in Indian Civil Service.

Let me place on record here in outline some details of the Johnston uncles and cousins, and their locations, with a view to weaving them into the demography.

Indian Civil Service:

James; died 31/03/37, was somewhat alcoholic and hypochondriac; married one Alma Sturton, known as 'Alma senior', who was upper-crust English. After retirement he wrote books critical of British rule in India, comparing it to pre-Reform England. There was litigation between him and the Indian Civil Service relating to this, according to my sister.

James's and Alma's eldest was Alan, who died in 2000, after a decade in a retirement home near Benburb. He had run a transport business in South Africa, served in the war, farmed in Laois, run a motor repair business, and ended his days again farming in Tyrone, helping his cousin Sophie Loughrin with the Killygarvin farm in her declining years(8). There were also Cynthia, Maurice, Alma 'junior' and Anthony (Tim). Alan and Tim served in the 1939-45 war, the latter published a book, Tattered Battlements, on his experiences in the air defence of Malta.

John; married one Gladys Lullarbond (? I am here depending on my father's handwriting in his notebook), from the Isle of Man (according to my sister); he also died in 30s, or perhaps early 40s; they had two daughters, Monica and Pam; after retiring from India they lived in Jersey. Monica was a ballerina with the Ballet Joos.

William; married one Ruby Mitchell, who (according to my sister) was Scottish; he retired in the 40s; Ruby died, also their family Shiela and Peter when small. He lived into his 80s in Blackrock; died I think in late 60s, before Joe. He lived with us in the Glen near Drogheda for a while in the 40s; Joe had the idea he might manage the farm, but he never took to it; he treated old Willy the farm worker as if he was a coolie, and then fell out with JJ; for a long time they were not on speaking terms.

Medical practice in England:

Harry; married one Hilda Johnson who was English; they had two daughters Joyce and Christine.

Sam; died of TB circa 1923; my sister thinks perhaps earlier, when they lived in a house called Santoy in Ranelagh. I have no record of the widow, nor apparently had JJ when he did his 1945 notebook. However according to my sister, his widow Lizzie carried on working as a nurse, presumably in Newcastle, where Sam had practiced. The three sons, Tommy, Alec and Geddes, fostered with our family in the 1920s; JJ fixed them up with jobs as best he could; Alec joined the British Army in the 30s and had a 'good war' as a tank instructor; Tommy went into advertising, married one Dorothy Davis; there is a daughter Anne who went to Stranmillis. Geddes went to the Argentine, to a Mahaffey property, as a gaucho; came back for the war, joined the RAF and was shot down.

Ireland:

My father Joe after Dungannon Royal School (DRS) went to Trinity College Dublin (TCD), where he studied classics and ancient history (1906-1910), winning two large gold medals for outstanding degree performance He became a Scholar in Classics in 1909. After taking his degree in 1910 he went on the Oxford, where he took a further degree in 1912. He then returned to Trinity where he successfully sat the Fellowship examination in 1913, being among the last to sit the difficult and broad-spectrum Fellowship examination. Subsequently Fellows were elected primarily on the basis of published work.

My aunt Anne went on from DRS girls school to board at Alexandra College in Dublin, from which she later went to Trinity College, studying law, entering the Civil Service in or about 1917. She is in record in a group photograph of the Gaelic League conference in 1912 which is on display in the Douglas Hyde centre near Frenchpark, which she attended perhaps as an undergraduate or from school.

My Mother's Family

This photo of my mother Claire Wilson was taken in the Ballivor school grounds in or about 1911 or 1912; there is a photo from the same batch, on a glass plate, showing her outside the school building, but she is unrecognisable

After they were married they went on a world tour, thanks to the Albert Kahn travelling fellowship(9). During this tour, they somewhat adventurously parted company, with JJ researching the scene in India and China, while my mother went from India to Australia, where she spent some time with her aunt Maude and uncle Harry, her mother Jenny's brother and sister(10). She then joined my father again in China. This all took place in 1914-15, when the First World War was raging.

My mother can I believe claim a distant relationship with President Wilson, whose family came from Co Tyrone near Strabane. Robert Wilson had earlier Donegal connections (they were known as 'Wilsons of the Tops', but the background was never talked about; there was an aura of mystery). I believe that she got a visit to the White House during the Wilson presidency out of it, presumably at the tail end of their Albert Kahn world tour, but I have been unable to pin this down.

JJ's family: my sister

In or about 1951 Dermot got the parish of Nenagh town, and they moved to the Nenagh rectory, which was initially an old terraced town house near the church; then later a new rectory was built in the church grounds. There they lived, until Dermot died suddenly in or about 1964, leaving Maureen a 'clergy widow', though with an extensive private medical practice. With great resilience, she built herself a house at Stoneyhigh, on the northern fringe of Nenagh town, from which she developed her practice for the next couple of decades(13). In 1970 she built an extension 'granny flat' in which my father and mother spend their last few years. This coincided with her active support for the 'Common Market Defence Campaign', which she chaired locally. This was the basis for the rebuilding of the Labour Party in Nenagh; there has been a Labour TD for most of the time since.

Some time after my mother died in 1974, my sister moved back to a small town house in Nenagh, where she carried on her medical practice in semi-retirement, as well as a local political life with her Labour Party cronies, until in 2001 she had a fall, and had to go into sheltered accommodation in Dublin. In October of that year she had a stroke, lingering on incapacitated for over a year subsequently.

RJ and Family Complications

I married Mairin Mooney in January 1952, after I had commenced my postgraduate period in Paris. We had shared a common left-wing political outlook, in what then was a very hostile environment. We lived penuriously in Paris for a while, enjoying the relatively politically liberated environment of Paris. We returned in September 1953 to Dublin, where we participated in Cormac O Ceallaigh's cosmic-ray meson research, Mairin having trained as a microscope technician when in Paris. We lived initially in a flat in Vernon Grove Rathgar, and then in a rented house in Sandymount. Una was born in November 1956; she helped pioneer the 'controlled breathing' approach to labour, which we had picked up via a progressive medical contact on the French political network(14).

In 1958, in the depths of the Irish economic depression consequent on the collapse of the de Valera approach to economics, we bought a terraced house in Rathmines, for what now seems the absurd sum of £1200, and this has been the family house ever since. We did some minimal maintenance, re-wiring and re-plumbing, for a further £600, and picked up furniture in auctions. Fergus was born there in May 1959. Home delivery was, as before for Una, considered desirable, in the pioneering Lemaze situation, in order to establish a dedicated friendly environment. Dr Hazel Morris, who attended, was supportive.

In September 1960 we went to London, the DIAS contract having come to an end. I worked for Guinness in Park Royal. We lived first in a Hammersmith flat, and then we rented a company-owned house in Acton. This period put a strain on our marriage, Mairin no longer being 'working' in the conventional sense, though of course she was in fact working as a full-time mother and household manager, a role deserving more positive recognition than it usually gets.

On our return in September 1963 to Dublin Mairin became active in the re-awakening traditional music scene, organising concerts etc, and then she took up with the Labour Party, being at one time a candidate in the local elections, though without success. She became influential, serving on the Administrative Council for a period. During this time I was engaged with Cathal Goulding on the republican political regeneration project. So our paths drifted apart, although Aileen was born in May 1965, at home, again using the Lemaze procedure. From about 1967 onwards I retired to the attic, and then in 1969 to the garden flat, when it became available(15).

Mairin meantime had taken up with Feargal Costello, who moved in upstairs, and Gareth was born, in or about 1971. I had taken up with Janice Williams, a political colleague, and she moved in with me in the garden flat, giving rise to an interesting 'upstairs downstairs' situation. In the inter-regnum I had had a series of interesting liaisons, mostly with other political colleagues, generating tender memories and few if any regrets.

When JJ died in 1972 there was some legacy money, and we spent it on re-roofing the house, and improving the attic, providing interesting space into which successively Una, Fergus, Aileen and Nessa could expand during their college years.

We took out a second mortgage on the house, enabling Feargal and Mairin to set up in Monkstown, from which it was easy for Aileen to get to school in Newpark, where Fergus had been going previously, making the long trip from Rathmines by bus. Janice and I moved up in 1977, liberating the garden flat for successive use by Fergus and Aileen and their respective spouses. Nessa was born in 1978(16).

The highlight of the 1980s was the first divorce referendum, which sadly preceded our Strasbourg case, with the result that the latter was 'lost', though we gained the right for Nessa not to be stigmatised as 'illegitimate'. The Belgian judge wrote a minority report which we suspect was the real thinking of the panel, which had however had to defer to the referendum result(17).

Then in the 1990s when the referendum was re-run, divorce became possible. I got template papers from Mags O'Brien, who had run the Divorce Action Group, changed the names and details, agreed them with Mairin, and submitted, without benefit of legal advice. (The latter tends to make things adversarial). It took place in October 1997, taking about 5 minutes of the judge's time, and £12 to a commissioner for oaths.

Janice and I were married in the Churchtown Meeting House, with all the families present, on February 28 1998. The lads in work took up a collection and lodged it with a travel agent on our behalf; we subsequently used this to enable us to enjoy a leisurely holiday in New England(18).

Conclusion: the Family Statistics

Notes and References

2. Adrian McLernon the Presbyterian Minister has produced a booklet on the history of the parish of Castle Caulfield, in which this is to be found. He has also attempted to look into the question of the marriage and burial records of John Johnston, but without success, the records being incomplete. There are no relevant Johnston gravestones in the Castle Caulfield churchyard. It was often the practice to leave graves unmarked.

3. See 'At School in Donaghmore', produced by PJ Rafferty of the Donaghmore Historical Society. There is also a letter seeking financial support from one James Stern, of Balnagor, written to JJ in 1929, in which he claims JJ's attention by having been schooled by JJ's father in Tullyarran. This I have kept in Folder 66 of JJ's paper.

4. A larger version of this photo, and photos of the remains of the other houses where the family lived after leaving Tomagh, are given in the 1900s module of the hypertext, in this family thread.

5. I am indebted to William O'Kane of 'Heritage World' (then at Dungannon, now moved to Donaghmore) for locating my grandfather's marriage certificate and death certificate. I am indebted to Winnie Acheson for most of this family background information; she got much of it from my aunt Ann in the 1960s; also to Sandy Acheson's widow 'Paddy', who lives in Benburb.

6. I am also indebted to Willie O'Kane and Eoin Kerr of Heritage World for these dates; they agree with those in JJ's notebook. More detail is also given in the hypertext 1900s module, in particular as regards the elder brothers.

7. I am indebted to Norman Cardwell (16 Trewmount Road, Killymahon, Dungannon BT71_6RL, phone 01868-722-510) the Dungannon Royal School archivist, for much of what follows elating to school careers.

8. I published an obituary for Alan in the Dungannon Courier of September 20 2000, in which I gave some of the family background. It was titled The Johnstons of Tomagh.

9. See Appendix 3, and the related supportive background modules in the hypertext, for an outline of this tour.

10. My mother kept a diary of this epic journey. This and JJ's letters to her in Australia from India, Java and Hong Kong are preserved in Folder 68 of JJ's papers. I have abstracted my mother's diary in the 1910s module of this 'family' thread in the hypertext.

11. These Carmody books are mostly now with my nephew Pat Carmody, who is the Church of Ireland rector of Mullingar, at the time of writing (December 2002). The Alice Stopford Green books were influential on JJ when young, and I have some notes on this aspect in the hypertext, beginning with a review of RB McDowell's biography (Allen Figgis, Dublin, 1967).

12. I have touched on this in the 1940s family module of the hypertext.

13. I continue to treat the evolution of my sister's family in the 1950s and 1960s hypertext family modules; this constitutes an opportunity to comment on rural Protestant culture, its problems and opportunities.

14. This I believe is now routine; it was then innovative and known as the 'Lemaze method', having been developed earlier in Leningrad. For more on our French and initial Dublin period see the 1950s family module of the hypertext. There is also in this module some insight into the rural Protestant education problem, as experienced by my sister in Nenagh.

15. See also the 1960s family module.

16. See also the 1970s family module, which also covers JJ's funeral, and briefly that of my mother.

17. The 1980s family module also deals with Nessa's schooling, and related religious issues.

18. The 1990s family module deals mainly with our re-discovery of our Northern cousins. The uncontested divorce from Mairin and my marriage to Janice is also touched on, though mostly from the angle of the politics of the divorce referendum.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 2002