1 April 1974
Therefore, from now on if I refer to myself I shall say my …
Figure 4: Castle Crine, Sixmilebridge, County Clare,
circa 1928.
Obviously Keighley’s writing, “Castle
Crine” is just visible under the photograph, penned on what was
likely to have been a postcard or commemorative photograph given to
him after his departure to Australia.
My father (your great grandfather) was Edward Francis Irvine Graham and was born at Saint Peter Port, Guernsey (in the Channel Islands). His father, Colonel Graham, was in charge of a regiment of soldiers in that country. The above gentleman [Colonel Graham] married a Mrs Butler of Castle Crine, County Clare, Ireland. Incidentally, our branch of the Graham family came from County Wicklow, Ireland (but this is only hearsay on my part).
Figure 5: Keighley’s parents, Edward Francis Irvine
and Beatrice
So my father, as aforementioned, was brought up in Ireland and was the second of three brothers and one sister, my Aunt Beatrice, to whom the whole of the proceeds of the Castle Crine Estate were left.
Figure 6: Keighley’s mother, Beatrice Graham,
in her later years
Of the children by the first marriage of Mrs Butler only the second daughter, Sophia, married. She married Lord Clarina [Edward Massey] of Elm Park (about 12 miles from Limerick). They had no male heir only four daughters, cousins Zoe, Susie, Gertrude and Leo.
Figure 7: Sophia Mary Butler, Keighley’s Step-Aunt,
Lady Clarina, in her later years
When I went on our trip to Europe in 1970, we met cousin Zoe, the Right Hon. Mrs Butler-Henderson of Faccombe Manor in Andover, Hampshire. She was then 82 and drove us all round the 2000 acre property in an old Austin. We took photos which I think you have seen. The Aunts’ Butler, [Anna] and “Puddie” (Henrietta) never married but lived and ran Castle Crine for years and years.
My grandfather, Colonel Graham, passed on shortly before the First World War (1914-1918). I am uncertain of the date and there is no one alive now who is likely to know of it. But as a boy I can remember the Aunts saying that going out to Canada to see Dad and Mum hastened his end. At any rate he lived years after the passing of Mrs Butler (his wife). I stayed on to see the mortgage paid off the land at Castle Crine.
Figures 8 and 9: Front and side views of Castle Crine,
Sixmilebridge, County Clare
Throughout the ages, Ireland has been a trouble spot. But the original law left all estates entailed, that is, they could not be sold. Under the rule of Mr De Valera in the 1930s the tax was increased on the roofs of all buildings and the entail law was wiped with the result that in 1970 when Co and I went to Ireland only the cool wind of the heavens blew over the spot where once stood the wonderful edifice of Castle Crine where countless families had lived.
Figure 10: The demolition of Castle Crine, Sixmilebridge,
County Clare, 1955
John Moloney (left) and Edward Francis Irvine Graham, Keighley’s
father (right), are pictured.
[Photograph courtesy of Patrick “Paddy” Moloney whom I met
thanks to Neil Keogh in 2003.]
