Notes from Jeanette's Trip to No. Ireland in 2001

17 Sep 2001

"What a wonderful time we had in Northern Ireland and we have found out so much information on James Munce - I spoke to the undertaker last night and he is a walking history book and he knows the house that Agnes Cleland lived in and there family is now called Cleland McVey so that is why we cannot find much on her family. He spoke to these people for me and has found out that the poem on Carrickmannon was in every household in Carrickmannon in the early 1880 as he was their idol and known as the "Robbie Burns" of Donaghadee a lot of his poems were made into songs and he is now going to get me more information. I have also found out that an Andrew Munce was the Headmaster of the Donaghadee school and he is trying to find out if he was related to James Munce it was from 1900 to 1950 he was Headmaster of the school. Anne, I met with W.G. Pollock he was about 80 plus and was a Headmaster he is the man who wrote the book "Six miles from Bangor, Donaghadee and the Copeland Islands "- well you know that in that book James Munce is mentioned as the Robbie Burns of Donaghadee and they have a poem in the book that he wrote about Donaghadee I have photocopied this in the library - and now I am trying to get a copy of the book - so if Wayne can see any more copies of this could you get it for me as they are out of print and the last printing was in 1982. Pollock was an unusual man, very frail and I feel that he was tired he was busy getting organised to go to Bangor on the bus but it was lovely meeting him - I met this man in a shop who knew him and he took Graham and I down to where he lives - so he had no warning that we were coming. The people in Ballygowan were wonderful and Betty and Dennis the undertaker and his wife are coming to Australia on the 4th October and they might come to Melbourne so I will let you know what happens.

"Well I am off to-day to the Mitchell Library I am now in Glasgow and Isabel I can see how Bruce loves this place it is wonderful and so beautiful, the people are so friendly and warm and I would say that beside Australia it would be heaven on earth to live except for the winter months.

"We are going to Edinburgh tomorrow and I will get the pages of the book of Poems that are missing from the copy we have and see the difference in the copies of the poems that were printed."

24 Apr 2002

"I went to Northern Ireland last year and it was a wonderful experience - I went to the school in Carrickmannon that James Munce had attended and met people in the area from Ballygowan which is next door to Carrickmannon and from Saintfield where Agnes Cleland came from. One of the people that I met and have also had come to Australia and stay with us whilst they were visiting Australia for a wedding in Brisbane was Denis Porter the Undertaker and his wife Betty from Saintfield - Denis before he came did some research on James and found that the poem that he had written on Carrickmannon in 1861 was in every household during that period and that some of the poems that had been written had been made into songs, I thought that this was interesting but unfortunately he did not know which ones.

"During the visit to Scotland Graham and I spent several days at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow photocopying the books of Poems of James, making sure that we had copies of all the poems that he had written. I have those here and I have decided that the easiest thing to do is to scan them into the computer so that you can all get the copies and just print them off. My cousins here all want copies and so do cousins on my grandmother's sisters side in Canada and in Sydney and Brisbane - the photocopying is expensive they charge here 20 cents a sheet and there are many many sheets so this is what I am going to do."