Month: May 2023

Wednesday 17 May 2023: Speaker, Mr John Orr: Topic “My life at sea”
John left school in Larne at the age of 14, got a job as a delivery boy and relished the freedom of cycling all around the town. In the course of his travels, he fell into conversation with a seaman from one of the ships docked in Larne harbour. Persuaded to go to sea he undertook a course of basic training at the Merchant Navy college in Gravesend and age 15 found himself on the SHELL oil tanker, St Vibex, en route to the Persian Gulf. He easily recalled travelling through the Suez Canal, past the remains of ships sunk during the Suez crisis. In the Bitter Lakes his shipmates pushed him over the side caring not that he could not swim because the water was so saline that he would not sink .
An impressionable youth each port of call was an adventure into a different culture with the opportunity to purchase trinkets and souvenirs from the hawkers that lined the quays. At the time he was earning £13.00 per month and rationed himself to £2.00 per week pocket money. With 300 Players cigarettes cost 3 shillings and 6 pence on board, it was more than enough to keep him in fags, although he has long since given up the habit.
John’s fascinating talk ranged over the many ships he had sailed in, and the many different jobs he was required to do as a deck hand. From splicing ropes to sewing canvas and painting the masts ,to keeping watch and steering the ship in heavy seas, he recounted his enjoyment of a life that took him all over the world.

Wednesday 3 May 2023: Visit to the President’s Garden
President Hugh Ward and his wife, Kathleen, are the owners and custodians of a magnificent property located at 115 Doogary Road, Omagh.  This year their home features on the front cover of the booklet published by the National Garden Scheme to promote “Gardens open for Charity, Northern Ireland 2023”. Inside the booklet, their home, Tattykeel House, enjoys the following description.
A country garden of approximately 1.5 acres, crated over a 30year period, planted with conifers, shrubs, roses and perennials. There is a sheltered seating area, a Japanese influenced area, interesting features and a collection of well grown climbers on the house. The garden underwent numerous exciting and significant improvements in early 2022.

On arrival club members were treated to tea, coffee, scones and traybakes in a gazebo erected on the patio where Hugh passed around photographs of his garden taken first when he and Kathleen moved in and in the years since to chart how the garden has grown. Members were then shown round by Mrs Ward, Hugh claiming modestly that he only cuts the grass and does some weeding. This claim was belied by the number of elegant structures fashioned by Hugh to add height and character to the garden. In the lower part a stream babbles sweetly over boulders all lovingly created to induce an atmosphere of calm and wellbeing.

Th tour ended in Hugh’s “man cave”, a barn coming down with garden tools, ride-on lawn mowers, cultivators, hedge cutters – all that is needed to maintain a large garden and provide an escape area for the man of the house.  Afterwards all were invited into Kathleen’s studio, there to marvel at her paintings, screen prints and other examples of her craft work. On leaving members were delighted to make a contribution to the “Children’s Heartbeat Trust”, the Ward’s chosen charity for 2023.