Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 26 March 2018
Northern Ireland's lake lands: Rain, history and the Mellons

an hour from Lough Erne a banker, industrialist and
in Omagh. Buildings from philanthropist, became
across the province of Ul- secretary of the U.S. Trea-
ster and from around the sury in 1921. A school that
U.S. have been carefully he founded is now part of
rebuilt or replicated here to Carnegie-Mellon University
help illustrate the stories of in Pittsburgh.
the many families who left But the Mellons' affluence
in the 18th and 19th cen- was not the usual migrant
turies for a better life in the story. More typical was a
New World. one-room thatched cot-
Those stories include the tage with a mud floor at the
remarkable odyssey of Folk Park, representing the
the Mellons. Their original home of a fictional family
homestead is the muse- of poor farm laborers, eight
um's center, and their de- children and their parents.
scendants remain among They ate potatoes for every
America's wealthiest fami- meal. In 1845, the potato
lies. harvest began to fail. By
The Mellons were fairly well- the time the Great Fam-
This July 28, 2017 photo shows the McCallister West Virginia House at Ulster American Folk Park in off tenant farmers when ine ended in 1852, a million
Omagh, Northern Ireland. they decided to emigrate people had died and an-
(AP Photo/ Siobhan Starrs) in 1818, several decades other million had emigrat-
before the Great Famine ed to England, Scotland,
By SIOBHAN STARRS sided, we hired a little boat gists think another depicts that decimated the coun- South Wales, North Amer-
Associated Press and set off to explore. We Christ. The unusual artworks tryside. Their son Thomas ica and Australia. Many
ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ire- landed at White Island, are thought to date from was just 5 years old when ended up in the U.S., where
land (AP) — We stood at home to ruins of an ancient the ninth to 11th centuries. the Mellons left. The fam- 10 percent of the popula-
the bar of the grand Lough church built around the On this isolated island I felt ily eventually settled in the tion is estimated to have
Erne Resort, looking out at year 1200. Its Romanesque like I was the first person to town of Export, Pennsylva- Irish ancestry — including a
the driving rain. archway remarkably re- discover them. The glimpse nia, where their large six- number of U.S. presidents,
"You see that lake out mains intact. of medieval Ireland room, log farmhouse still most recently Bill Clinton
there," mused the barman Among the ruins we found and early Celtic Christianity stands. The Ulster American and Barack Obama.
wryly. "That was a field this Other houses represent-
morning." ing American homes tell
This was my first trip to North- stories of real families like
ern Ireland's lake lands in the Mellons with connec-
the western region, two tions or roots in Ulster. The
hours by car from Belfast townland became a vil-
and a slightly longer drive lage with a replica pub,
from Dublin. We had rented drapery, pharmacy and
a two-bedroom static car- rope-makers. At the far
avan — what Americans end of the main street we
call a mobile home — on entered the dockside gal-
the shores of Lower Lough lery, which contains a life-
Erne last summer. It was just size replica of a ship. A fare
the right side of cozy for me of $5 would purchase one-
and my partner Matthew, way passage to a new life
and our 6-year-old daugh- in America. But this was not
ter Kitty. Our verandah the Titanic: There were no
overlooked the larger of luxuries onboard. Around
two interconnecting lakes 200 people and their be-
that comprise Lough Erne. longings spent the duration
Speed boats and jet skis of- of the six- to 12-week jour-
ten zipped past. ney, four to a berth, in the
But the changeable area between decks of the
weather meant we en- 100-foot (30-meter) vessel.
joyed a week of sunshine As we traced the migrant
and showers, often at the experience, wandering
same time. We also had from thatched cottage to
an opportunity to sightsee school house, forge and
and glimpse history, from This July 27, 2017 photo shows a Romanesque archway of a ruined 13th century early Christian church, our senses were
centuries-old Christian ruins church on White Island, Lough Erne in Northern Ireland. (AP Photo/ Siobhan Starrs) assaulted by the smell of
to a park that tells the story musty quilts, baking bread
of the mass migration of and smoldering turf. Chat-
the 18th and 19th centuries more treasures: six sculp- was a real thrill. Folk Park boasts a replica of ty guides in costume ex-
— including the roots of a tures depicting early Chris- that building. plained their chores, bak-
famous and wealthy Amer- tian figures. One figure FAMINE, MIGRATION AND Thomas became a lawyer, ing soda bread over an
ican family. holds a shepherd's crook THE NEW WORLD then a banker founding open fire, spinning sheep’s
(crozier) like a bishop, and We also visited a living T. Mellon & Sons in 1869, wool into yarn and creat-
MEDIEVAL RUINS is believed to represent museum called the Ulster today part of BNY Mel- ing smelly candles from ani-
As soon as the winds sub- St. Patrick. Archaeolo- American Folk Park, about lon. Thomas' son Andrew, mal fat.q