My father was born in Knocknagree, Co. Cork which is close to the Kerry border and about fourteen miles north-east of Killarney. It was well known for it's cattle and horse fairs which explains why, of the fifty houses around the "Fair Field" thirty-one of them are still licensed establishments even though the fairs died out in the early 1960's.

According to my father, our Murphy's came from Wexford having been driven out following the 1798 rising but I have not been able to confirm.

As for myself, I was born in Derry but sadly my mother didn't survive the event and I went on to live there with my grandparents until my father my father remarried when I went to join the new family in England.

Following college I emigrated to Canada in 1967 and have been here since.

I believe I am one of a diminishing number of individuals who knew someone who was alive during the Famine.

That was my maternal great-grandmother who died in 1951 at the age of 102 years. She was born in Glenvar, Co. Donegal and lived in Clonglash, Buncrana, Co. Donegal following her marriage in Rathmullan. I could add a picture of me with her but I haven't figured out how to do that yet!