Paul

Betty and Sammy think their grandchildren really are grand!  Their own five children have been good examples.  Because children do what they see, their grandchildren are turning out wonderfully, and seeing the importance of a good education. 

Insert BlakelyPB9 Paul, Stephen, Kevin – Stephen’s wedding

Insert BlakelyPB10 Karen and Barry – Stephen’s wedding 

Like many grandparents, Betty and Sammy say they have probably a hundred baby photographs of their oldest grandchild, Christopher, son of Stephen and his Malaysian wife Jenny.  He was born on September 2, 1991, with a quiet nature like his Grandad.  The family lived in England then, and Betty and Sammy got to go over for his birth.  Christopher is very sensible, well grounded and courageous. He got his education at Queens University in Belfast and now successfully works as a computer programmer/developer in Belfast.  They don’t get to see Christopher as much as they’d like, but were glad to help him raise money for a charity marathon he participated in. He’s a wonderful boy.  Insert Blakely5.1 Christopher

His beautiful sister Jennifer came along on March 8, 1995.  Once when she was about two or three weeks old, she came over so Granny could watch her, but she screamed the whole time.  Screamed and screamed and screamed.  The moment her mother came back, she stopped.  Jennifer worked in retail while she was at the university and now has a job where she travels worldwide. Her grandparents are very proud of her.  Insert Blakely5.2 Jennifer  Insert Blakely4.12 Christopher and Jennifer with their Mom, Jenny

Stephen’s second family lives in Sweden.  Stephen has taught himself to speak Swedish and his three children, Noah (April 27, 2009), Lily (February 27, 2014), and Amelia (September 17, 2011) are all bi-lingual.  When they get to do video calls with Stephen’s family, Betty and Sammy are so impressed at the ease with which the children, who have been exposed to both languages from a young age, move from one to the other with ease.  Insert Blakely PB29 Stephen  Insert BlakelyPB30 Stephen  Insert BlakelyPB27 Lily, Noah and Amelia

Insert BlakelyPB28 Noah and Tina

Lily loves to walk about in her bare feet.  Insert BlakelyPB26 Lily and Amelia

Paul immigrated to America when his son, Ethan (April 29, 1999), was about one year old, and the whole family are now naturalized citizens.  A favorite video of Sammy and Betty is of Anna (September 15, 2002) and Caeris (February 10, 2006), probably about age eight and four, standing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, not pronouncing all the words correctly, but very sincere.  Betty and Sammy have visited Paul in the U.S. many times and saw the children when Carol brought them over to visit her Mum and then they came on the Derry train to visit their grandparents.  Insert Blakely5.6 Sammy, Betty, a neighbor child, Anna, Ethan, Caeris, Paul  Insert BlakelyPB37 Anna, Paul, Caeris, Carol, Ethan  Insert BlakelyPB45 Caeris, Ethan, Anna

As a child, Ethan was small, quiet, sensitive and very well mannered.  Ethan has matured into “a great young man…a big, strong and lovely lad.”  After a high school soccer game his junior year, he was approached by a scout for Moravian College in Pennsylvania and offered a soccer scholarship.  The standard of play at college is a huge step up from the standard of varsity at high school, but Ethan has started every game and is now the Captain of the team. His studies in Bio Chemistry are in preparation for a career in medical research or medical practice we think. He’s a credit.  Insert Blakely5.3 Ethan

Anna is very quite, but very strong-willed and loves soccer as well.  She received a soccer scholarship to Centenary College in New Jersey where she’s studying Psychology. Her Dad says she’s going to be an FBI profiler and her grandparents really enjoyed the video of her learning to play the saxophone when she was younger.    Insert Blakely5.5 Anna

Paul’s youngest child, Caeris, is boisterous, funny, very sweet, and just a bundle of energy. She’s another excellent soccer player and Betty and Sammy love the video of her, decked out in her soccer uniform, scoring a goal from a penalty kick and running down the field celebrating. They know she’ll do great things like her older brother and sister.   Insert Blakely5.4 Caeris

Insert Blakely4.10 Paul and Kevin on a pub crawl/boozy night out 

Kevin’s daughter Aoifa, born October 6, 1999, attends Manchester University.  Though she’s now taller than Betty, when she was a toddler, about three years old, Granny Betty would sometimes collect her from her other Granny’s and bring her to their home.  The route they drove crossed two bridges, the Foyle Bridge and the Craigavon Bridge; Aoifa thought she needed to help and would say, “No! No, Granny Betty!  Take the blue bridge!”  Insert BlakelyPB65 Aoifa

Born on June 4, 2008, Sophie is a serious sort who tends toward technological subjects. 

Charlie, born on December 21, 2010, is a more relaxed child and into fishing, as shown in a favorite photo Betty and Sammy have of him catching a big trout in the River Mourne.  Their family lives nearby so Betty and Sammy see them occasionally when they come up to visit.  They spend a lot of time with their other granny while their mom works at school. Insert BlakelyPB42 Charlie  Insert BlakelyPB43 Charlie and Kevin  Insert BlakelyPB44 Charlie and Sophie

Insert BlakelyPB22 Karen’s graduation  Insert PB20 Richard & Karen’s wedding, with Sammy  Insert BlakelyPB23 Karen’s wedding, Sammy and Karen

Karen’s son Jamie was born April 15, 2000, while she was still in the university, so he was basically reared by Granny Betty until age five, and consequently, has a very close bond with his grandparents.  When Karen took him to the south of Ireland, it was so heartbreaking that Betty decided to participate in the New York City marathon, to keep from going crazy.  So gregarious is Jamie, that he would, as they say in Ireland, talk to the head of a crutch, an endearing trait he got from his Granny.  His father, Richard, showed Betty and Sammy a video one day when he was in their area for an auction.  Jamie and another lad, both students at Trinity College Dublin, were making a pitch to a millionaire businessman and Jamie’s verbal ability was absolutely brilliant!  Jamie is studying engineering; he’s into building and racing cars, loves rugby and is working on a project to produce clean water for Africa and other nations.  When he and Ethan were just kids, Paul took everyone out for lunch and instead of ordering burgers, the two boys ordered sirloin steak and it cost Paul 50 quid just for the boys! He wasn’t happy.

Karen’s son Zach, born on June 24, 2008, is a very determined person.  But Sammy notes that he is “more sophisticated, more refined.  Like me.”  (“Oh the cheek of him!” quipped Betty.)  When asked if he wants to be a mechanical engineer, Zach said no, he’s going to be a researcher.  Insert 5.7 Baby Zach with his mother, Karen, and grandparents Betty and Sammy

The boys are never idle and do everything under the sun.  They waterski and ride horses. They play Gaelic, hurling, and rugby.  Once when they were visiting, Karen’s family took Sammy and Betty to Cork.  At the lake, Zach, only about two then, rode on a skiboard.  (Betty says she couldn’t watch.)  Now they waterski.  On a more recent visit when Betty and Sammy were minding the boys (not that they needed much minding), Betty said they were going to Saturday night mass.  “I’m not going,” Zach announced.  “I’m Presbyterian.”  But she insisted and even offered to pay him to go to mass, but Zach was equally insistent that he would not.  So they compromised and watched online.  They attend Catholic school and have had their First Communion and taken Confirmation there.  Insert BlakelyPB41 Karen, Richard, Zach, Jamie at Zach’s confirmation    Insert Blakely4.3 Jamie, Zach, Karen and Richard      Insert BlakelyPB19 Sammy, Karen, Betty, Richard

Insert BlakelyPB36 Barry and Sinead’s wedding  Barry’s children are Ellie (November 3, 2014) and Fionn (April 7, 2019).  Ellie is very intelligent and amazing.  Mildly autistic and extremely gifted, she can recite the names of all 32 counties in Ireland!  A jigsaw puzzle featuring the map of Ireland, which she got for Christmas, she put together very quickly though she’d never seen such a map before.  She, too, is a chatterbox like her Granny Betty.  Fionn is a happy toddler who always smiles.  The moment he sees you, his face just lights up!   Insert BlakelyPB31 Barry and Sinead  Insert BlakelyPB32 Ellie  Insert BlakelyPB33 Fionn

The family photograph on the back cover was taken on the day of Paul’s wedding.  Betty spent an hour getting them all together, because she knew it might never happen again. ( l to r – Barry, Karen, Paul, Sammy, Betty, Kevin, Stephen)

Insert BlakelyPB62 Sammy portrait   Insert Blakely PB63 Betty portrait  Betty and Sammy are both shocked to be the “big” age they are, because they don’t feel old.  Recently a friend from their years on Laurel Drive died.  They still know her daughter and husband.   It is troubling to think about their own mortality and they are conscious of the way things have changed during their lifetimes.

Although they couldn’t even have imagined it on their honeymoon, Betty and Sammy have enjoyed a lot of traveling.  Shopping in their younger years was different compared to now.  For instance, when Betty goes to buy something, even groceries, she puts the credit card in and pays for it.  Back in the day, she says, “You had a shop and they knew you.  So you were sent for a quarter pound of ham and six pounds of potatoes, and then it went into a little booklet. And at the end of the week you paid off what you could.”  And that was how everybody else shopped as well.  Because things are better for them financially, Betty still enjoys going in, getting whatever she wants, and paying for everything right away.

One thing that hasn’t changed is Sammy and Betty’s pride in and loyalty to the Irish people.  Sammy’s grandfather emigrated to America, and Sammy still has family in Paterson, New Jersey.  Recently Betty and Sammy attended an anniversary in Connemara, and were reminded that as a result of the Irish famine, thousands of people died and thousands got on board ships bound for America.  The Blakelys proudly note that America has many Irish people and Irish-named landmarks, like O’Hare and Kennedy Airports.  However, Sammy himself was named for two uncles, Samuel and Alexander, non-Irish names—which still rankles.  Why not Barry or Patrick or O’Shaughnessy?

September 2, 2020 marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the second world war.  Betty remembers that her dad wouldn’t ever speak about the war.  Sammy’s father, too, was in both world wars, but would never talk about it.  Many people were recognized in the country’s celebration, including Captain Sir Tom Moore, a nearly-hundred-year-old man who raised 39 million pounds for the NHS (National Health Service) by walking up and down his garden.  Vera Lynn, who passed away at age 103 in June of 2020, was a great singer, who entertained and encouraged the troops with songs like, We’ll Meet Again. Insert 4.6 Sammy’s Dad between his neighbor Ferguson (l) and brother Barney (r) 

Sammy’s father’s death in 1960 at the relatively young age of 62 was a shock to the family.  He went to bed as usual on a Saturday night, but Sunday morning his mother said, “I can’t get your father wakened.”  Teenagers, Sammy and the others didn’t really respond to that immediately.  Several minutes later she said, “There’s something wrong!” and then they jumped on it.  He died in his sleep overnight.  Though she’s known Sammy for 60 years now, Betty, never got to meet her father-in-law.  Sammy’s mother, Hannah, died in 1977. 

Sammy’s sister Vera, who turned 85 on November 26, 2020, never had any children.  Her husband Gerry died in 1994.  When their sister Patricia (Patsy) McMenamin was nearing the end of her life, Vera stayed with and cared for her.  Now Patsy’s son Michael checks in on Vera, the only sister of the family who is still alive.  She lives a short distance from Betty and Sammy on her own in a lovely bungalow and gets regular visits from her brothers Sammy and Freddie.  Insert BlakelyPB14 

The photo of Betty with her sister Annette and her brothers George and Eddie shows them to be dirty and wearing their wellies.  The picture was taken by someone from the neighborhood who was “rich” enough to have a camera.  How grateful Betty is that they captured four muddy children in a photograph, though it’s hard to believe those little boys are now gone.  Annette is still alive.  Insert Blakely4.4 Betty, Georgie, Annette, Eddie

On a typical day, the children would have played outside.  The lads would have taken some planks and wheels and made something to go up and down the street.  Or they’d be pushing the pram, or building castles in the mud.  Even the water pump outside the back door provided some measure of entertainment while children helped get the family’s water.  They, of course, didn’t have phones or even games.  There was no TV.  The boys, says Sammy, were influenced a lot by the cinema.  When they came back from watching a movie at the theater, their play consisted of pretending to be the characters they had seen.  They’d emulate Roy Rogers or Gene Autry.  Robin Hood movies inspired the boys to make bows and arrows and reenact the scenes.  Movies with heroes who spent considerable time fencing with swords were popular with the boys as well.  

Many children played with glass marbles—and they were so precious!   They played games in the street with them where you might win a marble or could lose marbles.  A simple game.  Just so simple.  The children who had a bike were very lucky indeed!  “You created your own amusement,” says Sammy, “because there was nothing else.”  

The River Foyle ran through the town and, of course, children would all go over to throw stones in the river.  Betty remembers that during her childhood, three lads drowned in that river, which may have fostered her reluctance to go near the water.  She doesn’t like water and is scared of it.  One day every year, a bus went from their town to Donegal, a seaside place.  If you had enough money and were lucky enough to be able to go on the bus, you got to have that one day at the seaside each year.  

The children then were all out on the streets, playing rough, and there was no trouble.  Betty and Sammy say they never see children playing outside these days.  In fact, says Betty, if Social Services now saw the picture of her and her siblings all muddy, they’d have assumed the children were neglected, which they certainly were not.  They see on Facebook pictures of children all dirty in the streets, with comments like, “I wish we were back there with our own children because we can’t get them out the door!”

Betty’s great-grandmother had 14 children.  Families then were fed on pork, that they butchered themselves, and cabbage and potatoes that they grew.  Imagine the difficulty feeding a family when there was no cabbage nor potatoes in the field during the famine.  It was a very difficult time.

Before he got a job as a lorry driver, George, Betty’s Dad, was struggling because all his big family had gone to England, to Manchester and Birmingham, to the chocolate factories, but he was working for a contractor as a laborer.  Then he took a test and he was able to drive a lorry, a great job, though the money wouldn’t have been fantastic.  He was a brilliant man and very likable.  All the grandchildren adored him, and Stephen, the eldest of Betty and Sammy’s four boys, is just like him.  “Yes,” Betty said, “my father was a great man, and he loved his wee whiskey.”  When they would bring him home, they parked near the kitchen window.  He would thank them and tell them to “go on home now,” and they would see from the car that he went to the cupboard and sneaked his wee whiskey.  They don’t know why he was sneaking it, but that was the way of it.   Her Mammy also was amazing, like all those ladies with their big families.  Betty wonders whether young people today could cope like they did.  Insert 4.7 Betty’s parents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary    Insert Blakely4.5 Betty’s Dad, Barry, Betty’s Mom, Sammy, Betty and Karen, on the day of Barry’s confirmation at Betty’s parents’ house

Betty’s mom died at age 83.  A small stroke had changed her personality, so that one minute she might be helping you and the next minute throwing a cup at you.  Her Dad just lived on and on and on, then died one day very quickly.  He was never sick, but was always on the go.  Just before he died, at age 88, he wasn’t feeling well and her sister Claire had come from Australia, arriving on a Saturday night.  On Sunday morning she could hear the phone ringing because his alarm button rang the phone.  She quickly went down and found him barely conscious.  It seemed their Dad had waited until Claire arrived to decide to go.  By the time Betty got there, he was unconscious, but still alive.  The paramedics found him unresponsive and staring into space.  His death came quickly and they were glad he didn’t suffer.  Insert Blakely4.8 Memorial Cards for Betty’s parents

Insert Blakely4.9 collage including grave of Betty’s parents  

   

Living in the country brings the Blakelys such peace and joy.  In stark contrast has been the isolation and worry over Covid-19, which seems worse than the Troubles, if that’s even possible.  How has Covid-19 changed their lives?  Sammy and Betty were in Tenerife from January to February 2020, and were coming back on the 23rd of February.  The next day all the airports shut down.  They got home in the nick of time and were very fortunate.  Then they were locked down at home for four months. Insert 3.1 Sammy and Betty in Tenerife

In Sweden, where their son Stephen lives, things are different.  A reporter from Northern Ireland showed how in Sweden the streets were packed, there was no lockdown, nothing closed.  Betty asks about the wisdom of lockdowns, “I can’t understand why other countries continue the lockdowns, when they don’t seem to be beneficial and the economy’s going to be destroyed.  It feels like those in charge don’t have a clue what they’re doing.  The lockdowns don’t seem to work, because after they’ve been ‘in’ for a period of time everyone just goes a little crazy and it’s not helping reduce the infections.  Leaders all over the world are doing different things, hoping it’s the right thing, but it’s just too soon to know.”

The pandemic has changed everything.  The 18th of August was their 56th wedding anniversary, but Betty and Sammy weren’t allowed to go anywhere.  Even in Ireland, they were not allowed to cross the border into the Republic of Ireland, because there is fear that people are taking the virus with them.  For Betty’s birthday, Karen invited them to visit her and the grandkids, but they couldn’t.  Having Northern Ireland license plates on their car would alert the authorities in the South; they would be stopped and sent back.  Where they would normally have gotten to visit their children, Betty and Sammy have had to stay home alone together.  “We can’t just run to a shop, or go get a coffee anymore.” says Betty.  Even church attendance is out because of fear of contracting the virus.  The church is only five miles down the road, but thankfully the services are now being broadcast online.

“There’s a bit of a crisis at the moment because the government is thinking about locking down again, because with people out and about the infection numbers are going up,” observed Betty.  In September 2020, the British Prime Minister threatened a £200 fine for people who don’t wear a mask.  The Irish government will likely follow suit.  As of November 2020, their area in the Northwest has the highest infection rates in the UK and Ireland.  The north of Ireland—Donegal,  Derry, Strabane—their numbers are high at the moment, though it doesn’t seem to Sammy and Betty that the virus is being spread by the older people, but by house parties and students coming back to university and then they’re all locked down.  Response to the virus has been really tough and has taken away people’s freedoms.  The airlines are devastated, the shops are devastated.  The pubs, only just opened up, are now shutting again.  The gyms are shutting down—everything except the hairdressers, but their shutdown is probably in the cards, too.

“Paul sent a picture of his television at home in Los Angeles, surprised that the mayor of Derry and Strabane was on the worldwide news!” Betty commented.  The infection rates have been particularly high in Los Angeles too.  Not to be deterred by Covid, Paul spent his birthday money from his parents on champagne because Liverpool football club won their league for the first time in 30 years.  No fans could be in the stands because of the Coronavirus, but they can still play, thankfully, and celebrate.  

Recently, Sammy and Betty were at the hospital so Sammy could get his arthritis treatment, which went well.  But they heard later on the news that Ward 42, the elderly ward in the hospital, had Covid, but thankfully not a single elderly patient had caught it.  The nurses had it and must have brought it back with them.  So now, they’re checking everyone, every day, just to be on the safe side.

When Sammy and Betty went to have new tyres put on their car, they were surprised to see that not one of the eight or so people at that garage had a mask on.  “What is it about Irish men?” Betty asks.  “They just don’t want to be told what to do,” Sammy explains, “even if it’s for their own good.”  People always think it will happen to someone else and not themselves that gets it.  It seems inevitable that when there is a crowd, like at a game or performance, it’s likely people will come down with it.”

The ramifications of having to be so isolated to be safe are horrible; Betty and Sammy miss their holidays and going to visit Karen in Tipperary and Barry in Belfast.  Luckily, their children are still able to earn a living during the pandemic.  Paul owns his own brand consulting business and can run that comfortably from home.  Barry’s employer set him up with an office in his home and Kevin works for a firm in Belfast from his home just down the road from his parents.  Fortunately, they do get to see Kevin though he’s very busy.  “He comes in the front door with a mask,” Betty remarked, “and goes out the back door like a flash!  If he’s looking for something though, a wee favor perhaps, he doesn’t disappear as quickly.  When I went to the print shop about scanning pictures for this book, I noticed that everyone who worked there was young.  The young woman who waited on me said it would cost £2 per picture to put them onto a flash drive.  When I told Kevin, he said, ‘No, no, no, I’ll do it.’  But I suspect it’s going to cost more than £2 per picture for him to do it when all is said and done!”

Before all of the travel restrictions, Betty and Sammy were able to visit Stephen in Stockholm, and his family was in Ireland to visit several years ago; they won’t be allowed to travel now.

Sammy and Betty also have a lot to be thankful for as they live in a large house in the country and view their circumstance pragmatically.  Like during their humble childhoods, everybody’s in the same boat. 

Yes, everything’s changed, but thankfully in December 2020 the government announced that a vaccine had been developed, so hopefully things will change for the better in 2021.

Insert BlakelyPB64 Sammy and Betty, newly wed

“We’re spoiled rotten!”  Living up on a hill in the Irish countryside, in a home of their own design, with a beautiful, half-acre garden, Betty and Sammy have come a long way from their very modest childhood.  Their lives now reflect the benefit of being married to one’s best friend, the blessing of God on their family, the reward of hard work and diligence, and the positive changes that have happened in their community and country over their lifetimes. Insert BlakelyPB11 Betty and Sammy’s home, “Prospect”   Insert BlakelyPB12 garden   Insert BlakelyPB13 well-themed garden

On December 28, 1939, Sammy was born to Fred and Hannah Blakely, the second youngest of twelve children. The four boys, eight girls and two parents lived in Derry City, Northern Ireland, in a house with two bedrooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs.  They had an outdoor toilet and no hot water.  His father had been a soldier in both the 1914 to 1918 and the 1939 to 1945 world wars, then worked at a labouring job, and his mother naturally ran the house, reared, fed, and clothed everyone—a truly remarkable woman.  “During the time I was reared,” said Sammy, “in Ireland they would have called it a time of ‘need,’ rather than a time of ‘have’, but my mother made sure we had what we needed.”  The main jobs during the time were held by women.  Derry had six or seven shirt factories, and the women left their homes and went to work at those factories.  A song about Derry says that the women worked in the shirt factories and the men stayed at home with the kids and walked the dog.  Now, only Sammy and another sibling survive from their family.  Insert Blakely1.4 Sammy’s parents on either side of Freddie holding their grandson Michael McMenamin

While most of Sammy’s family remained in Ireland, his brother Fred settled his family in Scotland.  Once when they came to visit, their 11-month-old son, Freddie Jr., took ill and was not fit to travel back to Scotland with his family.  Sammy’s parents agreed to keep him until he was well, but instead Freddie stayed with Sammy’s family permanently; he was raised as a brother to the siblings yet living at home, and still lives in Ireland.  Insert BlakelyPB15  Sammy in front with brother/nephew Freddie and his wife, Mary; nephew Willie and his wife, Kathy

At nine years old, Sammy joined the local flute band and remained a member for 14 years, finally becoming the band piccolo player.  Insert Blakely1.3 Sammy in the band, second row behind the bass drummer

He attended the Christian Brothers Technical school from age 12 to age 16, when he left to take a job as an apprentice electrician, working on the Royal Navy Reserve fleet for seven years.  He was the only member of his family to attain a second level of education.  The rest left school at the age of 14.  The girls worked in the shirt factories.  His brothers delivered the post.

Betty’s family story is similar to Sammy’s.  She was born to Mary and George Devenney on October 18, 1943, 14 miles away in a country cottage at Milltown on the outskirts of Strabane.  Betty, the eldest of eleven children, with four brothers and six sisters, lived in town with her widowed Granny Brigid McAteer, to keep her company, and her uncle Frank, starting at about age four.  It was not an uncommon situation for a child in those days, and Betty certainly had no regret about it.  There were no cars, of course, so on Fridays, Uncle Frank would put her on the crossbar of his bike and take her into town.  When Betty was twelve, Granny McAteer fell while she was out in the shed bringing in wood for the range that heated the room and cooked their food. Betty was helping her get the wood so quickly raised the alarm, but she subsequently died the following day at the age of 84.  Betty then went to live with her father and mother; she went from a relatively empty house to one with ten or so people.  While her family didn’t have much, they did have everything they needed.  They had a one-acre garden where they grew raspberries, strawberries, potatoes, and other food.  Insert Blakely1.5 Betty’s parents’ wedding day  Insert BlakelyPB6 Newspaper obituary of Granny Brigid McAteer

Her father, whom everyone called Geordae, worked as a lorry driver; her mother, known as Mamie, reared the family, with no complaining.  Although the family had limited means, Betty’s mother was glad to donate what she could to the nuns and their “mission,” as she called it.  Eventually, the family moved to town and their home was pretty much identical to the Blakely home.  “We were just like everyone else on the criss-cross of streets in our area.  Nobody had any more than anyone else.  Everyone was glad to have and keep a job and people did the best they could,” Sammy recalled.  Betty agreed that they were rich in community.  “Life wasn’t bad,” she said, “we just weren’t rich.  We had our suits and ties and shoes; we went to the snooker hall for entertainment.  For some, they lived three or four families in one house and it was very difficult to get a job.   Families who had a car were considered rich.  My friend’s father had a car, and their house had carpeting!”  Insert BlakelyPB4 Betty, six months old, with her Mom

It was a time of poverty for the entire country where only the elite and the owners of companies would have been used to “high living” while the rest were workers who just scraped a living, with enough food and clothing, ways to amuse themselves and keep out of trouble—which was easy to get into.  Looking back, both Sammy and Betty see their parents as heroes for what they endured.  “They managed to perfection.”

When Betty got married, (“She married well,” says Sammy.) the eleventh and youngest member of her family “couldn’t even come to the wedding, a wee, tiny baby just six months old.”  There was no such thing as birth control or anything like that.  Contraception was forbidden by the Catholic Church, which now seems rather appalling, so all the families were big.  Ireland was just that type of a country.  That’s the way everybody lived.   “If you had a good job, that was the thing and you just did the best you could,” Sammy explained.  

Another difference was that Catholic children then did not get the same quality primary and secondary education and were, for the most part, not allowed in the university.  Now, though, it’s expected that children will attend the university.  Even the blue collar workers, like Betty’s nephews, had to go to college to do the paperwork after they apprenticed as a plumber and an electrician.

Betty said, “My Mom and Dad, God bless them.  I never had a bad day in my whole life, never had a sad day. The only thing I didn’t like or got angry about was that I was the one to push the pram.  All those children!”  Later, in searching through family papers, Betty found a note from her Mom, saying she was sorry that Betty always had to push the pram while other girls were out playing.  But even so, not a sad day of her life.

Back then, the Catholic Church ruled the community with a rod of iron, and to adhere to Catholicism, as it was preached, was very difficult.  There was a lot of mystery and things you accepted because you were told to. The children attended parochial school and were taught by very stern nuns, though Betty says she never had a problem with them herself.  Except that one time…a lace tablecloth went missing from the altar at the church.  “Somebody mentioned my name, and my Mum was—we lived at the bottom of what we called ‘the grove’—up that grove double-quick, and nobody said another word after that!  The last thing I needed was a lace tablecloth.  To this day, I don’t know where it went.”  By now, all the nuns are dead and that big, beautiful convent has been removed.  

Betty has wondered since whether, living all together like they did, it was not surprising that the nuns were bad tempered.  There was a lot of competition between them.  One nun, in particular, was not her friend because she recognized that Betty couldn’t sing a note and wouldn’t let her in the choir.  “They could’ve stuck me at the back.”  Sister Brandon, on the other hand, was an angel to Betty and took her under her wing.  Once she said, “Betty Devenney, come up to the front of the class.”  Then she proceeded to point out how perfectly dressed she was, and told all the other girls she wanted them to “show up to school tomorrow just like that, white socks and proper clothes and all.”  Betty feared she’d be murdered on the playground.  Sammy commented that they had methods back then, like being able to “whack” a student, but teachers now can’t dare touch a student.  Betty said she was never given physical punishment, so she was either “a wee angel altogether, or very lucky.”  Mention the nuns now to Betty’s classmates, and you would hear, “Don’t.  Even.  Go.  There.”

Even with the financial challenges, when the time came for confirmation and first communion, every girl, no matter who she was, had a beautiful dress and shoes.  Nobody went there looking like they couldn’t afford it.   Insert BlakelyPB3 Betty’s first communion

After attending “the tech,” Betty felt like, as the eldest of 11 children, she needed to help out by being employed, so off to the factory she went, where everyone else in town worked.  She worked at Adria Knitting Factory, a hosiery company which made tights and employed over a thousand workers, mainly from Strabane.  At one point, the town had the highest unemployment in Northern Ireland, so the coming of Adria to Strabane was a godsend!  The men worked there during the day and the women worked at night.  They were good, hard workers and nobody complained.  People got on the best they could and most of the Blakelys’ contemporaries did well for themselves, ending up much better off financially than their parents. 

Betty’s and Sammy’s paths crossed in 1962, when they met at a dancehall, The Palladrome Ballroom, in Strabane.  Every weekend, several double-deck buses brought loads of young men.  On the opposite side from where the young men stood, the young women lined the wall praying they would be asked to dance and wouldn’t be a wallflower.  While that was funny, “There’s one thing that everybody needs to know,” says Betty.  “There was no alcohol at all at the dancehall.  There was mineral water and mineral drinks, no alcohol whatsoever.  But the men, before they came in, they would be able to go to the local pub.  Not the women.  No, no, no!  So we were lucky back then that life was much simpler, you know?”  Although he smoked from a very young age, Sammy did not touch alcohol and was what the church called a Pioneer. The Pioneer Total Abstinence Association of the Sacred Heart (PTAA) is an international organisation for Roman Catholic teetotalers that is based in Ireland. Its members are commonly called Pioneers and its members completely abstain from any alcoholic drinks.

Sammy and Betty went out together for two more years, mainly dancing and going to the cinema.  Early in 1964, Sammy proposed to Betty.  Sammy says, “She couldn’t believe her luck!”  Betty clarified,  “He said to me one day, ‘Suppose we’d better get married?’  There was no ‘down on his knee’ or anything like that.”  In his defense, Sammy says young men in that day and age weren’t very romantic, but to their mutual good fortune, she accepted.  (And now, 56 years later with five children and fifteen grandchildren, it still seems like a good idea.)  They were engaged, and gathered the money to get married with the help of some poker winnings (a pastime of Sammy’s back then).  So, it appears, Sammy was indeed a very lucky young man!  They were married August 18, 1964, in Strabane Chapel in Betty’s hometown.  Insert Blakely1.2 wedding collage  Insert BlakelyWeddingPic  Sammy, his Mom, Betty’s Mom, Betty

They spent a week in Dublin for their honeymoon.  One entertainment they remember was standing at the airport watching the planes, like two children.  There was no thought in their minds that they would ever get on a plane and go somewhere; they were just happy to watch them.  Fortunately, they had already paid four weeks ahead on the rent for their apartment; the £5 note in Sammy’s pocket that they had left over from their honeymoon was all the money they had in the world, and had to last until the next payday.  One thing that was very helpful was not having to pay for medical needs.  Since 1948, Ireland’s National Health Service has paid medical costs including prescriptions.  There was also a program to help the underprivileged.  Betty and Sammy believe they were really very lucky to be where they were at that time, because for mothers and fathers rearing children in the pre-war time, say the 1930s, if someone was sick there was no money to pay.  Insert BlakelyPB7 Sammy and Betty on the train to Dublin  Blakely1.9 Betty in sweater she made  Blakely1.8 Sammy at the Dublin airport  Blakely1.7 Betty at the Dublin airport  Blakely1.10 Betty in another sweater she made at the old Dublin airport

Sammy continued to steadily move up in the workplace.  In 1963, he got a job as an instrument technician with the DuPont Company in Derry.  This American chemical company based in Wilmington, Delaware, was a truly remarkable and good employer.  They introduced a company pension, paid a good salary, and made shares available to employees.  

Living in that apartment on Great James Street in Derry, their first child was born on the 30th of May in 1965, a boy they named Stephen Samuel.  Once when the family lived in the apartment in Derry, three-year-old Stephen Samuel went down to play on the railway line.  His parents were, of course, frantic but when they finally found him he was just playing happily.  Their second child, also a boy, was born in September 1967, and they called him Paul Anthony.  When Paul was five, Betty took him down to the school and returned home with tears in her eyes to go about her work.  She looked out the window to see Paul come walking up the driveway.  She asked what he was doing and he replied he was coming home to his Mum.  “And they didn’t even miss him in class!”  Mum took him straight back down to the class, and he never did that again.  Insert BlakelyPB8 Stephen 1 1/2, Paul 6 months  BlakelyPB2 Stephen and Paul with an organ grinder’s monkey

In 1968, they bought their first house, a terraced house in King Street Waterside, Derry, with three bedrooms and a bathroom—but still no hot water.  They later had a hot water system installed.  

Sammy’s contemporary and fellow Derry native, the great John Hume, a local French teacher, became an icon in the 20th century civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.  He led marches to protest sectarian discrimination, and to peacefully bring to light grievances suppressed by the Unionist government.  Starting in 1969, there were civil rights marches against the violence and bombings of those terrible years when the community lost a lot of people.  The Good Friday Agreement, negotiated in part by Hume, brought changes.  The lives of the people improved tremendously, and the discrimination is now nowhere near what it used to be.  John Hume was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace prize in 1998 for his work in the Northern Ireland peace process and was revered by world leaders, such as Bill and Hilary Clinton, President Obama, as well as many European dignitaries.  Hume died on August 3, 2020.  Betty and Sammy proudly remember him as a local Derry fellow, educated at a local college, a famous speaker who went on to be a famous politician, who fought for civil rights.  Services for Hume would have been attended by world leaders, but for the restrictions caused by covid.  “He was really one of the greats,” Sammy observed.  Betty commented, “He wanted a peaceful solution, not bombs, because we had been through a very bad time with the troubles.”  

John Hume also became a hero for starting a people-run organization called the credit union.  The Irish people were all still struggling financially, even those with a job.  If they needed money, they’d go to the credit union to borrow it; the people saved with the credit union too, so there would be money to increase their capital.  On a personal note, John Hume married Patricia (better known as Pat), a woman who was Sammy’s neighbor.

In April 1969, Sammy and Betty bought their first car, a yellow Mini.  It cost £220.  They borrowed the money from their local credit union.  Sammy could not drive so he took lessons and passed his driving test the first time he took it, in August 1969.  He passed his test on a Monday, and five days later the family packed up and left for a two-week tour of Ireland.  “What great timing!  The wee Mini was a godsend.  We fed the children and ourselves from food we had in the boot of the car,” recalled Betty.  No hotels for them, they stayed in B & Bs along the way.  They really enjoyed that holiday.

In March 1971, the Blakely’s bought a newly-built, detached bungalow in a new development on Laurel Drive in Strabane.  It had a garage, central heating and…hot water!  It was a big step up.  Insert BlakelyPB1 Paul and Stephen at the Laurel Drive house

In April 1971, Kevin Gerald, their third child, was born.  They were still driving an old “banger” of a car, a very rusty Austin 1100, but this house was a new start for them.

In 1973, Sammy was promoted to Maintenance Supervisor at his job, and they were now able to buy a decent car, a two-year-old Vauxhall Viva.  Again they borrowed the money from the credit union, but could well afford to repay the loan.  They traded in the Austin 1100 and got £50 allowance for it.  Sammy began playing golf as his main hobby in 1974. 

In 1975, Sammy was given responsibility for maintenance in the Hylene plant, and remained there until he supervised the shutdown of operations in 1982.  During the intervening years, Betty worked several jobs and earned money to take the family away abroad on holidays.  Their first foreign holiday to the sun was to Majorca in 1980 for two weeks.  A fabulous island! The Blakely’s had a holiday in the sun nearly every year thereafter.

The family growth plan had a big, eleven-year gap until 1982.  “Then, guess what!  We got a wee girl!” Betty said.  Elated to have a girl, they named her Karen Elizabeth.  Also in 1982, Sammy was transferred to the start-up of a new Hypalon plant and during that time did a correspondence course, sponsored by DuPont, earning his Diploma in Management.  Sammy remained in Hypalon until its closure in 1996. Insert Blakely1.6 Betty with Karen on her favorite horse

The last addition to their family, a boy they named Barry Patrick, was born in April 1984.  Sammy and Betty were so happy.

Sammy applied for available early retirement in 1996, but was asked to reconsider.  He decided to stay on, was then transferred to the Neoprene Plant, and was promoted to the position of Area Engineer and then to Engineering Department Manager.

In 1997 Betty and Sammy purchased a three-quarter-acre site in the Strabane countryside, and designed and supervised the building of a new home there in 1998.

Also in 1998 Sammy assisted in the supervision of the closing down of Neoprene, the first plant to be built back in 1960.  He then negotiated the transfer of 53 employees to other plants across the site.

On the 31st of  October, 1998, after almost 36 years with DuPont, Sammy finally retired in order to supervise the building of their new home which they moved into at Christmas the same year.  On Boxing Day, a violent storm blew a lot of roof tiles off the house and caused other minor damage; the electricity was off for four days.  When the electricity was reconnected, they settled down to decorating their new home and playing lots of golf.  Insert BlakelyPB5 Betty and Sammy

In 2000, Sammy began to suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis, a very debilitating illness affecting the body joints, bone structure, and ease of movement.  The golfing days came to an end and more effort was put into tinkering about in the garden.  Betty, thankfully, has maintained good health, being dedicated to walking every day.