Ballycastle Marconi Festival - Sunday August 5

THE annual Marconi Festival takes place on Sunday, August 5 at Ballycastle's sea front.

This is the 12th year that the event has been organised by the Marconi Radio Group and supported by Moyle District Council's Community Grants scheme.

The event marks the work of Marconi, Kemp and Granville in 1898 when the world's first commercial signal was sent from Rathlin to Ballycastle across water.

The club will be sending signals across the world on Sunday from the seafront in memory of the work of the great Marconi that was pioneered in Ballycastle and Rathlin Island. .. Ballycastle Chronicle

Added August 3

Welcome to Moyle District Council - our website provides information on services, events, facilities and the many areas of outstanding natural beauty in the district.

August seems to be a quiet month in Moyle - or else some council officials have gone on holiday or remained in hibernation!

The Lammas Fair will be making its customary appearance towards the end of the month. Last year pedestrians were forced onto the road in the vicinity of the Marine Hotel corner because folks were trading on the pavements, despite the absence of pitches. Why was no action taken - at the very least on health and safety grounds - to maintain a clear passage for pedestrians, some the frail elderly, some young children? Why was trading permitted where there were no pitches? What's to stop the horse dealers continuing to use Fair Hill Street as they've done before? Does the Council have no bye-laws to deal with these issues? How many agencies of regional and local government does it take to sort such matters out?

Added August 5

Mitchell and Murdoch - from the Parish of Dunluce

Hello,


I had posted this photo that we have in our possession of relatives that immigrated from the Kilmoyle, Coleraine, Bushmills area. I have been looking for leads on this photo. Someone on Ancestry.com email me the link to your Flickr posting photo, which captured my attention as I saw the Nevin surname surface. 


In our lineage we have a William Nevin Mitchell, which in my understanding of how children were named, the surname would appear as the middle name. He immigrated to the US and his lady friend followed Alice Patrick Murdoch. They had two sons, lived their days out in Oregon. William's father would be Samuel Mitchell and mother Nancy Patterson. My great grandfather would have been Joseph Patterson, relative I think of Nancy. Joseph's father on the Nebraska Marriage Certficate is listed as a William Patterson (about 1836 or so) and his wife as a Jane Nebier (Neibour) sp? (perhaps from Cuberland England-1846...these trail has gone cold) I can not find any more about this family name anywhere so am wonder about the correctness of the surname on Jane.

[rt clk img > open in new tab > clk 2 enlarge]

I am at this point very curious about the tag teaming of the Nevin name coming into the family unit.
I have included my photo of the Kilmoyle school photo as well as the lineage that I have been able to trace so far.

I do not have a roster of children in the photo. All I know is that some relatives that immigrated to Canada as in this picture. The surnames that would interest me greatly would be: Patterson, Mitchell, Craig
Any light you can shed would be so appreciated!


Connie

I found a copy of the 1881 marriage details for Samuel Mitchell of Tullycapple and Nancy Patterson of Kilmoyle:

I've found some of Connie folks in the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses and in the 1860 Griffith's Valuation.

If you do a search for William Patterson, County Antrim, Parish of Dunluce, you'll find a William in Kilmoyle along with a Nevin family; Maggie Nevin is a witness for Nancy Patterson.

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml

There are several Mitchells in Dunluce parish including a John Mitchell in Tullycapple, Samuel's residence at the time of his marriage as well as the name of Samuel's father. The associated maps allow you to locate the position of the Patterson and Mitchell farms, sometimes even homes.

Samuel, Nancy and son William Mitchell in 1901:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Benvarden/Ballybogy/945163/

Murdock can also appear as Murdoch.

John, Margaret and Alice Murdock are in Bushfoot, Portballintrae in 1901:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Antrim/Portrush_Rural/Bushfoot_or_Lissanduff/943762/

but by 1911 are in Ballyrock Irish with Alice's grandfather Hugh Murdoch:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Beardiville/Ballyrock_Irish/126931/

If any one can provide additional information please contact NALIL blog at the address above.

Old Bushmills Distillery - in an Alcohol Free Area

A friend drew my attention to this curious juxtaposition in Upper Main Street, Bushmills!

Northern Ireland - FixMyStreet

Hello NALIL!

I'm writing from the not-for-profit mySociety. I thought your readers might be interested to know that our website FixMyStreet.com now covers Northern Ireland - so the residents of North Antrim can now report potholes, faulty street lights, and any other street problem through the site, and it will go to the right contact in the local council.

FixMyStreet launched in 2007, covering Great Britain only, due to conditions of the funding that helped pay for it. But with those restrictions in the past, the only impediment to spreading across the whole of the UK was time and resources. It had long been on our own wishlist to do so, but time was scarce. Fortunately, a project we undertook for Channel 4 last year used very similar code to FixMyStreet, and has allowed our developer Matthew Somerville to repurpose it and finally bring NI onto FixMyStreet.

The idea behind the site is a simple one: people don't always know who to contact when they experience a problem like fly tipping, graffiti or broken paving. With FixMyStreet all they have to do is pinpoint the issue on a map - or allow the site to automatically geolocate them - and their message is sent off to the right place. FixMyStreet covers all 26 local NI councils and the central Roads Service, and works quite happily on a mobile browser or desktop. Users' reports are also published online, meaning that other local people can read, discuss and advise on what's been reported in their own area.

With Northern Ireland having been added only at the end of last week, their pages are looking strangely sparse, but we're sure that's not because there's nothing to report! If your readers would like to give the site a go, they should visit FixMyStreet.com and enter their own postcode. This will bring up the local map where any reported issues can be viewed, or a new one created.