That the Glens of Antrim Historical Society is flourishing today is due in great measure to the input and influence of the late Jimmy Irvine.
In the beginning (1965) the young Society was allowed to take root naturally in the Glens whence its culture spread beyond their mountain wall. So in those early years it grew up “wild” with men like Jimmy Irvine seeking to cultivate it. There was a budding in 1968 with the publication of ‘Life in the Glens in the 1830’s,’ and a blossoming in 1969 with John Hewitt’s poems ‘The Day of the Corncrake.’
The fruitful years were yet to come. It wasn’t until 1970 that the first Committee was formed, with Jimmy Irvine as a member. He had moved from Belfast with his dear wife Honor to historic Lemnalary House near Carnlough in which he had spent happy boyhood holidays.
The first issue of our annual magazine ‘The Glynns’, was in 1973 and on it’s cover Honor’s sketch of Red Bay Castle which has since become the motif of the Society. It carried an article by Jimmy. Thereafter he contributed to every issue and his final article will appear posthumously this year.
As if that weren’t enough, he acted as Chairman of the Society for the fixed span of three years (1975—77), as Editor of‘The Glynns’s from 1976 until 1981 inclusive, served on the Committee till 1985, and gave a number of lectures.
His first year as Editor was hall-marked by the Society’s reprint of the Rev. George Hill’s, ‘The MacDonnells of Antrim’, first published in 1873. So well had Jimmy prepared for printing and distribution that our limited edition of 1,000 copies sold out within weeks. This high-class production ensured that all our later publications were sellouts: ‘Oh Maybe It Was Yesterday’ — Glimpses of the Glens from old photographs: ‘Or Fifty Years Ago’ — reprints of all fourteen issues of‘The Glensman’ (1931—32), and the one in which he took most pride — ‘Andrew Nicholl’s Paintings of the Antrim Coast in 1828’.
With fore-runners such as those is it any wonder that our most recent publication, an elegant edition of ‘The Day of the Corncrake’ with paintings by Charles McAuley, is now a collector’s prize? What a legacy he has left us.
With all, I think he would like to be remembered for something more personal, the publication in 1982 of ‘Letters Home to Lisburn.’ Jimmy edited the letters which were bequeathed to him by an aunt on his mother’s side, as he wrote in the introduction they ‘make first joyous and then poignant reading.’
Anyone privileged to have known this quiet, modest gentleman will feel the poorer with his passing. We in the Glens of Antrim Historical Society will have to redouble our efforts if we are to maintain the standards he has set for us. To Honor, still an esteemed life-member, and her family may we say, ‘thank you for sharing Jimmy with us.’
With fore-runners such as those is it any wonder that our most recent publication, an elegant edition of ‘The Day of the Corncrake’ with paintings by Charles McAuley, is now a collector’s prize? What a legacy he has left us.
With all, I think he would like to be remembered for something more personal, the publication in 1982 of ‘Letters Home to Lisburn.’ Jimmy edited the letters which were bequeathed to him by an aunt on his mother’s side, as he wrote in the introduction they ‘make first joyous and then poignant reading.’
Anyone privileged to have known this quiet, modest gentleman will feel the poorer with his passing. We in the Glens of Antrim Historical Society will have to redouble our efforts if we are to maintain the standards he has set for us. To Honor, still an esteemed life-member, and her family may we say, ‘thank you for sharing Jimmy with us.’
JACK McCANN