Australian bids to discover more about relatives who emigrated

30 April 2014

THE great grandson of a Ballynahinch man who emigrated to Australia under mysterious circumstances almost 100 years ago returned to his roots this week to explore the Guiness townland of family folklore.

Dave Neill and his wife Debbie crossed the world from Sydney to Ballynahinch yesterday, laden with documents that shed some light on livestock farmer David Neill senior who boarded a ship to Australia with his family as he neared the end of his life.

Dave’s family are mystified about why his great grandfather sold the family farm when he was 72 years-old in 1922 to begin a new life abroad and wonder how such an elderly man was granted entry to Australia.

They are also intrigued by the age difference between David and his wife Jane (née Young) who was just in her 40s at the time and also from Guiness. The couple landed in Australia with their four teenage children David, Fanny, Sarah and Hugh.

David Neill senior had just six years in his adopted land before his death at 77, while native Irish speaker Jane lived until the late 1970s when she was 103.

Dave’s paternal grandfather Hugh, who was 18 when he left Guiness, kept alive the family’s links to Down through tales of horse-drawn cart rides into Ballynahinch and the celebrated home-coming of his dad upon his return from the Boer War.

Dave said he proudly talked about his father being the only man from his area to serve in South Africa and said when he returned he was presented with a gold pocket watch engraved with a picture of the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church in Ballynahinch.

As a child, Dave says his grandfather gave him a sword from Boer War to play with in his garden and says it was only when he was given the sword as an adult that he realised it was authentic.

Dave says the Guiness expatriate was a puritan man with a fierce attachment to his Protestant heritage and although he often regaled his only grandson with stories about home, he never opened up about the unusual decision to emigrate so late in life.

Instead his grandfather spoke about the rolling hills of home, often showing him a tea towel with a picture of countryside at home.

“He described the hilly green countryside but never explained that it was quite as beautiful as we have found it on this trip,” he said.

“I can’t imagine why they would have wanted to leave here, although I suppose in the winter it could be bleak.”

Documents passed to Dave after his grandfather’s death have shed some light on the life his ancestors left behind and show that David Neill senior was one of thousands of Ulstermen who signed the solemn covenant in 1912 opposing home rule. Photographs illustrate him and his son Hugh’s activity in the Dunmore Lodge of the Orange Order before their emigration and Hugh’s escalation up the Order’s ranks in Australia where he became Grand Master of the Black Chapter of the British Commonwealth.

Dave says he believes his grandfather, who was a keen boxer and later became the heavyweight champion of New South Wales, wished he had never left Down, hence the telling and retelling of stories about Ballynahinch.

“He was a bit of a poet and wrote about Ireland,” he said.

“He told me about bringing his dad to a pub in Ballynahinch by horse and cart and waiting afterwards for the brawls to finish before they went home.

“He was a man’s man and was only interested in spending time with my dad and me.

“When I was 10 he said it was time I learnt to drive and he put me behind the wheel of the car and I drove 50 miles.

“None of us smoked or drank in front of him because he would not have approved. He was very staunch in his Protestant views.”

Dave said his grandfather was unimpressed when he began to play football for a Catholic club and vowed to never watch his matches.

However, he said his own father later told him Hugh hid in trees at his matches, following his budding football career under cover despite his protestations.

“He was an old-fashioned disciplinarian and was quite suspicious about many things,” he said.

“He never trusted banks and kept his money in the fork of a tree in his garden. He told me and my dad where we could find it if anything ever happened to him.

“But I learnt a lot from him, particularly about his romantic view of Ireland and Ballynahinch, which he said was cold but beautiful all the time.

“I wanted to see where my family came from and understand the culture and people.

“I have heard so many romantic tales about this place and this is a journey I always wanted to make. For some reason I could not have done it when my father and grandfather were still alive.

“It feels like now is the right time to look back.”

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