Mr. Eugene Mc.Camphill

A Tribute to Mr. Eugene Mc.Camphill by Pearl Hutchinson

I first met Eugene over 30 years ago when Marion Lennox started Kilrea Local History Group in January 1981. What a collection of people she brought together!.Andy Alexander, Kathleen Gillen, Brigid Henry,Martha Mc.Grath, G.A. McIlrath and RJ Mc.Neill and later James Mc.Ilfatrick. Coming to Kilrea as an outsider who knew nothing about the town, I quickly learned from the old hands. 
The fun and the laughter in that group was amazing. One telling a better story than the other. Eugene was always in the middle of it regaling us with stories from his youth. His great passion in life was  collecting memorabilia relating to the Kilrea area. He had an amazing collection of pictures that were used in our first publication
The Fairy Thorn.
Eugene enthusiastically helped with all the activities that the group were involved in. I remember the summer of 1993 when we embarked on the project of recording headstones in the various graveyards. Eugene devised a method of cleaning old headstones when the writing was unclear. He got a handful of grass and rubbed it over the writing. It did the trick every time and didn't damage the headstone.
In the summer of 1994 we organised an afternoon of Childhood Games in the Horse Fairhill. Eugene was there helping with the skipping and ball games which the local children really enjoyed.
I suppose the highlight was the history walk during the Fairy Thorn
Festival in 1992 when we were overwhelmed by the numbers who turned up to go on the walk. Eugene was there to lend a hand dressed in period clothes with his album of photographs to illustrate the tour.
Eugene made an enormous contribution to the life of Kilrea through  the history group but also through many other organisations including the Fire service. He will be sadly missed by all who came in contact with him. We salute his memory.

Presentating Richard Clutterbuck, Co. Tipperary with our latest book on St. Patrick's Kilrea.

The last Richard Clutterbuck presented gifts to St. Patrick's in 1664!.

The present Richard Clutterbuck is a Ph.D student at Galway university. He is studying field patterns in 4 areas in Ireland. One of the areas is around Kilrea. It was such a delight to meet Richard who will be spending some time in Kilrea.

Those in the picture (left to right): Andrew Kane, Pearl Hutchinson, Richard Clutterbuck and Josephine Kane. Andrew and Josephine are related to the Clutterbucks through the Church family. 

Latest book with beautiful photographs by Emma Hutchinson. Tells more than the story of the church.

Gives a glimpse of Kilrea in earlier times. Priced at £10 is available from Kilrea Barbers or Paul's the butchers. A must for anybody who wants to understand more about the history of the town.

Delighted that so many people are enjoying my weekly addition of photos on facebook.
If anybody has photos they would like to share pleas upload them to the site. I would love more comments
or memories about the pictures,