Biden's Carlingford: a village of cobbled streets and castles

Carlingford is a quaint little village of narrow cobbled streets and ancient castles. Joe Biden’s great, great, grandfather emigrated from there in the 1840s. My ancestors could well have been on the same ship.

At that time Major General Ross from Rostrevor had attacked Washington DC and James Gallagher from Ravensdale was the city architect for New Orleans.

Carlingford is just across the Lough from Rostrevor and one way or another I’ve spent a lot of time there. The International Border running up the centre of The Lough often meant a disparity in prices and that of course sparked a flourishing trade.

It was the 1950s a time of rationing in N. Ireland and while ‘The South’ could hardly be described as affluent, there were for a family like ours, commodities readily available and cheaper there.

In looking back it was the most idyllic of times. Every Sunday my father and our neighbour (who had a boat) would pop over to Carlingford where we children would enjoy exotic ice-cream and chocolate, the adults a few beers and relatively free of customs interference bring back things like tobacco, whisky, bacon, currants and resins, and curiously --- onions.

There has never been a week since that, whether working or socialising I haven’t been to Carlingford. Now a sophisticated tourist village of restaurants, gastropubs and upmarket dress shops.

From Carlingford (where Joe Biden visited in 2016) there is an uninterrupted view across The Lough of Major General Ross’s Monument.

‘Fenced by spectacular Buckingham Palace ironwork; terraces of granite steps thirty yards wide climb in flights and landings until from its high altar the great pillar thrusts into the heavens for a further thirty yards.’

The Monument commemorates his campaigns in Belgium; Egypt; and in the American War of Independence where (24th August 1814) Major General Ross captured Washington D C and proceeded to burn down all public buildings including the Presidential Palace.

Local lore relates that his action prompted the American troops to whitewash the charred remains boosting morale and giving the residence of the United States President (The White House) its name.

Around the middle of the 1990s I worked in Cooley for Canon John McGrain and the architect Gerard Fay. I mapped Grange Church; its surrounds ---and Cillmhuire. Cuillmhuire is an ancient graveyard and church (in ruins) associated with the Knight Templars.

The Church of St. James; is itself very old. It existed from the 1700s and in the early 1800s was the first and only work in Ireland executed by the local(Ravensdale) architect James Gallagher. 

Gallagher went on to be successful in New Orleans. He designed all the important structures in the area. Such was his influence that I believe the Administrative Office in New Orleans is called The Gallier Town Hall.

And it was to this city that Gerald Fay went to get a feel of the architecture and bring it back to Grange. And what a job he, Canon McGrain and the team of craftsmen made of The Church of St. James.

It has three balconies, a tiled floor and a bevelled roof. Light streams through the arched windows on the altar that is central to the people whether they be in tens or hundreds.

The floor is shades of dark brown, the woodwork old fashioned blue green. With its wonderful Keltic design granite baptismal font Grange Chapel is indeed exquisite!

However Joe Biden’s Carlingford goes right back; further than the Knights Templar or indeed the Vikings it goes back to the oldest and grandest epic poem in the ancient language of Ireland. “Tain Bo Cuailgne” --- The Cattle Raid of Cooley.

In this realm of mountains and fertile plain Gaelic literature began. Where a century before the birth of Christ ‘Meave of the Conflicts’ the great warrior queen; gathered her army and raged out of Connaught to capture Tarbh-Donn, Daire of Cooleys prize Dun Bull.

It is a tale of great symbolism, the sense of place overshadows the action itself, where, takes precedence over how and why. It’s an account that lingers soulfully from Roscommon to Louth.

And now Carlingford has Brexit; a European Border either in the Irish Sea or on the Island of Ireland. One dividing Northern Ireland from Britain the other the island itself.

A conundrum (on a knife edge at the moment) that will no doubt exercise The President --- while I ‘Sit on The Dock of The Bay’ and recall bringing home the neighbours ‘messages’ ----- a bottle of whisky, a couple of ounces of plug tobacco, fruit to bake a cake, and of course onions.

My mother would fry a big pan of them. First a couple of slices of bacon, then the pan filled with the sliced delicacy and a lid put on top. 

In time (and this is the wonderful bit) she’d cut in half farls of freshly baked griddle bread (and replacing the lid) they too were put on the onions.

Its a meal fit for Joe Biden - President of America’s United States.