Family History

There is something special about having Irish ancestry. Like many Australians, my parents emigrated by boat from Ireland in 1960 and arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia. For the three months at sea, my mother experienced morning sickness for the duration. Their eldest daughter was born shortly after their arrival.

This page is a celebration of my mother’s patriarchal line: the McCaffrey family from Clogher, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

The following photos were taken in August 2022. The land is still owned by the McCaffrey family.

The McCaffrey mountain home bordering the north and the south of Ireland.

My mother lived in this house, along with nine siblings and her parents Francis McCaffrey and Rose Ann Treanor. Francis’s parents were Felix McCaffrey and Bridget Sherry. They had 12 children. It is possible that Felix’s father James McCaffrey and his wife Mary McNally also lived here, as well as Felix’s sisters Bridget and Mary Ann.