Tyrone Roots

17/08/2025

I took a trip down to Sligo last week. As well as visiting W B Yeats grave at Drumcliff, we went to Lissadell House. Great visit , especially if you are into the era of Yeats.

23/07/2025

May be of interest to people living locally.

Join Mellon Centre for Migration Studies and North of Ireland Family History Society and learn more about how you can research your ancestors - Everyone welcome! 🙌

📅 Friday 1 August
⏰ 10:30am - 3:30pm

13/07/2025

I took some guests to visit Springhill House, a National Trust property near Moneymore. As well as a beautiful building and grounds, the House has a fascinating history and a lot of the family possessions from previous generations are preserved and can tell their story.

03/05/2025

I will be speaking at an event organised by Fintona CCE during the Tyrone Fleadh week. Sharing the platform will be two others who may bring a lighter touch to the proceedings

06/04/2025

A bit of a "busman's outing for me last week. I joined a tour organised by https://www.facebook.com/TheChurchesTrust on the places associated with St Columba in the City of Derry. We started at https://www.facebook.com/stcolumbaheritage and our very knowledgeable guide then brought us on a walking tour of the many places associated with St Columba (also known as St Colmcille) who founded the monastery at Iona in Scotland. Disclosure! My daughter Catherine Brogan is the Project Coordinator!

09/03/2025

Some great historic photos on this link.

21/11/2024

I went for a bit of early winter sunshine to Tunisia. There is a flight weekly from Belfast Int. Airport so the connections were good. I had a great time, fine hotel with good food. Staff very helpful and I did have a few cultural experiences! I would recommend it as a destination.

01/10/2024

Finally got to visit Darach the Giant on top of Mullaghcarn. Co incidentally I took a client there about 5 years who was planning to put in a submission for the project to produce 3 sculptures. He didn't get it, but this artist has done a sterling piece of work. The weather was mostly dry but very windy. I was used to climbing up Mullaghcarn with a group of others but this time I was on my own, planning to meet my son who was coming from another direction.

01/10/2024

I just changed my Cover Photo; this is where my father was brought up, in the cottage which was between these two buildings. A hearth fire was very destructive to the stone and this why it could not be reused. In 1930, my father helped to build a new dwelling adjacent to these farm buildings and it was this that drew him away from going to USA, for which he had the "Papers". His eldest brother, 2 years older, had already gone and he was to join him. However it was the height of the Depression and things would not have been favourable. His brother went in March 1930 and is found in the April 1930 Census staying with his mother's married sister.

13/09/2024

Visit to my own Ancestral homestead! I've been busy over the Summer months but at last took time to revisit the farm, along with 3 of my brothers, where my Father grew up. The farm is occupied by our cousin Peter Brogan and his family. is in the townland of Tirmurrity, close to Gortin Glens and Lislap, about six miles from Omagh. I spent time on summer holidays in my teens, particularly after my Grandfather John Brogan, died in 1960. It was my Grandmother Mary Brogan (Minnie "Watt" McCullagh) who gave me a lifelong interest in family history, and my father, Vincent Brogan, who gave me an interest in local history.

23/07/2024

I was just going through an old notebook ( from 2014!) in case there was something relevant to today. I found a cutting of an article from the Irish Times about this museum in Connecticut. Written by Fintan O'Toole it describes it as the largest repository anywhere of material relating to the Great Hunger. A connection with Omagh is the sculptor commissioned from John Behan by the Cunningham family of Strathroy Dairy of a "Spancelled: Man and Cow" at their premises.

Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum at Quinnipiac University contains the world’s largest collection of Great Hunger-related art by noted contemporary Irish and Irish American artists as well as a number of period paintings by some of Ireland’s most important 19th-century artists.

09/06/2024

Had a bit of a "busmans" holiday last Thursday when I went with a group from Omagh to visit Castle Espie, near Comber , Co Down. It is on the shores of Stranford Lough and the centre is run by WWT Castle Espie Wetland Centre. Opened in 1990 by Sir Peter Scott, I had it on my list to visit for some years. Our guide for the visit was Brigid Watson from Sustainable Journeys Ireland who gave us a great tour and spoke knowledgeable not only about the centre but the rest of the area around Strangford Lough. Highly recommended.