Bill Thornhill

Bill was born on 11th May 1888 in No. 10 Rathmore Terrace, Belleek, the only child of Edward and Mary Thornhill,  Belleek, Co. Fermanagh.Bill’s mother was a member of the O’Shea family of Druminillar. Eddie Thornhill had one known brother, George Thornhill who lived in what is now the Thatch Coffee shop. It is thought that the Thornhills came to Belleek as potters when the Belleek pottery was founded in 1857. There are a number of unusual events if the family history. Mrs. George Thornhill had been born on the Rock of Gibraltar. Her parents were members of the McGoldrick/Walsh families from the Mulleek district of the parish. Her father was a serving soldier in the English army and in those years a soldier could be accompanied by his wife on campaign. Her father had served in the Crimean war that started on 28th March 1854 when Britain and France declared war on Russia. He was transferred from the Crimea to Gibraltar and it was there that the wife of George Thornhill was born.

      A grandson of the Thornhills – James Nelson was born blind and as young boy the first and only place that he could go alone was down the street two doors to the bicycle shop of Tommy O’Loughlin. Jimmy would go down the steps from his own front door, with his hand on the wall he made his way to the as he fondly called it ‘The wee bicycle shop’. There he listened to the workmen and customers as they discussed the current affairs of the period. As he grew older he became a student at a college for the blind where he trained as a telephone operator. Jimmy would come home to Belleek on his holidays. Then his uncle by marriage – Willie Dolan would take Wee Jimmy for walks along the banks of the River Erne. As they walked Willie described every thing about the river and the landscape to Jimmy, the good fishing throws and pools, the water falls and the rocks.

          The result being that the little blind boy could describe the area better than any sighted person. Although there were not many motor cars in Belleek then, Jimmy knew by the sound of the engines who owned them. He also knew who owned all the carts in the area. After his mother passed away Jimmy never returned to Belleek. I had the good luck to visit him once in the home for the Blind in Warrenpoint in Co. Down. He knew immediately that I was one of the O’Loughlin family, but was not sure which of the sons I was. With great emotion and feeling in his voice he asked me if the ‘Wee bicycle shop’ was still there in Belleek.  He had so many happy memories of the shop. I lost touch with Jimmy for many years when he was moved to a nursing home in Kilkeel, Co. Down. There with my wife and I visited him again. He had thought that any one in Belleek who knew him had all died. So he had made arrangements to be buried in Kilkeel. Due to the efforts of his social worker Gabriela McBreen plans were made that when Jimmy would die that he would be taken home to be buried in Belleek with his mother and the Thornhill/Nelson families. A short time late Jimmy passed away suddenly and he was brought back to Belleek for burial. His final wish granted.

       The father of his cousin Bill Thornhill was an expert fishing man and sad to say this led to his financial downfall. Supported by local clergymen and some others he took a law case against the Erne Fishery Company and in the courts won for the people the right to have free trout fishing on the River Erne from the County Wall on the Fermanagh/ Donegal border to the broad Lough. It is said that by appeals and other means the case went all the way to the House of Lords where Eddie Thornhill won the case. Attached is a copy of the permit issued each year to local fisher men. As can be seen from the attached photo Bill’s mother was an elegant lady and as a boy Bill was dressed in the latest fashion. As a youth he was a member of the local Hibernian Band and often told of their travel by train to play in Dundalk.

            When his parents died Bill was evicted from the family home. Local business people and neighbours built him a comfortable little cabin on the Rath Lane. The manger of the pottery, Eric Arnold who lived on the Rath Fort hill gave Bill a free electric light supply and each winter gave him a present of a bag of coal. Blessed with a fine pair of hands Bill would repair clocks, gramophones, umbrellas and broken fishing rods. He had a great interest in wild life and would feed the birds and other creatures during the cold days of winter. Like his father before him he was an expert fisherman, I have a clear memory of him with a large pike being brought by Bill up the Main Street, it was so big that he laced a rope through its mouth and gills, even with the rope slung over his shoulder the broad tail of the fish was trailing along the street. His favourite drink was a glass of Rum and his smoke a Woodbine cigarette. He had a beard long before they became fashionable and when funds were reasonable he would dress in style in Plus Fours and long stockings.

      A proud man Bill would never accept charity, but from people that he trusted he would accept a loan which would always be paid back. At one time he was given a present of a miniature steam engine and he claimed that with this machine he could control the weather. There were many lovely stories about Bill and his love of nature. He was also quite a good painter and the local curate Fr. Peter McCluskey would employ Bill to do the painting in the church and on the gates and surrounding railings. Each town and village in that era had its own unique character; few could match Bill Thornhill or have been as popular in their locality as he was. When he became of advanced years and in ill health Bill ended his days in comfort in a nursing home in Enniskillen. There he received regular visits from his friends and neighbours from the Pottery village who always ensured that he had never wanted for a smoke or a little drop of rum. Like his cousin Wee Jimmy Nelson – when he passed away aged 87 in November 1975 – Bill was given a fine funeral and laid to rest with his parents in St. Patrick’s Cemetery, Belleek quite close to where his little cabin had been on the Rath Lane. Recently a memorial stone has been placed on his previously unmarked grave to ensure that one of the greatest characters of the Pottery village shall never be forgotten.

 

In one generation of Bill’s mothers family there was only one son John, who had seven sisters, they all married locally. They became know in local folklore as ‘The Granny Shea’s’. They were Mrs, Mortimor, Mrs.McGarrigle, Mrs, McCauley, Mrs.Montgomery,  Mrs.McCabe, Mrs. O’Neill and Mrs. Gallagher.