When we were children, my brother and I spent our summers in southwest Donegal in the village of Kilcar, with my mother’s people. Our parents sent us there so they could build their business in Buncrana, a tourist town 100 miles north. For me the journey southwest was an opportunity to switch one thriving location for another that was wild and a bit mysterious. Harry Percival … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Kilcar, My Donegal Playground
Photo Album
Photo Album: My First & Only Love
My wife, Bridget Heaney, was born on June 7, 1944. She was one of 10 children raised by a single mother in Cavan, Ireland. Her mother eventually moved to England (Newbury) in search of work, and it was in Newbury that I met Bridget. I was 23 and she was 19. At the time, I was in the U.S. Air Force (U.S.A.F.) and stationed with the Strategic Air Command, at R.A.F. Greenham … [Read more...] about Photo Album: My First & Only Love
Photo Album: Nanna’s First Fourth
“Kate, be careful when you get to America, the streets are full of gangsters!” That is what my grandmother, we called her Nanna, heard before she boarded the ship to America in the 1920s. It was advice from her brother, Jim Connolly, who bonded her and paid for her third class (steerage) passage. As the story goes, Kate Connolly arrived in New York in the … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Nanna’s First Fourth
Photo Album: Dad and J.F.K.
My father Cyril DeFever grew up on a dairy farm near Detroit, Michigan. His parents had immigrated to the U.S. from Belgium. My mother, Marie Clancy, the daughter of an insurance man, was Irish. Her grandfather grew up on Turbot Island off Connemara. Her uncle Robert Clancy was a U.S. senator. Dad boxed as a young man (Joe Louis’ manager wanted to manage him). He won the … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Dad and J.F.K.
Photo Album: A Visit to Santa
Christmas, 1959 One Christmas was so much like another in those years, to borrow a line from Dylan Thomas. Mother began the preparations in late autumn. The plum pudding was stirred one final time for good luck and steamed in a bowl on top of the wood-burning Stanley stove. The big square Christmas cake, heavy with fruit, raisins, sultanas and glacé cherries, was baked until … [Read more...] about Photo Album: A Visit to Santa