Uel Deane – The Armoy Tenor

Uel Deane was a famous Irish Tenor born on 21st October 1935 in Armoy and died 7th September 2006, at his home in Provence, France. Uel was a freelance soloist who travelled the world most notably in Scandinavia, Germany, India, China and Russia.

Uel is best remembered in the UK for his many BBC radio broadcasts. He made more than three hundred appearances on long running programmes such as Friday Night Is Music Night, Among Your Souvenirs and Viennese Nights.

Uel Deane’s �rst recording released in 1965 was a song arranged by Hugo Wolf, George Butterworth and Richard Hagemann. He was accompanied by his lifelong friend Otto Freudenthal, with whom he was to undertake many concert tours of Europe. Later records like On With The Motley and Uel Deane Sings The Great Ballads had a more popular appeal and reached high sales �gures across the UK. The best known recording includes highlights from Balfe’s The Bohemian Girl, Wallace’s Maritana and Benedict’s The Lilly Of Killarney - the so called Irish Ring Cycle conducted by Havelock Nelson in 1968.

After 1970 Uel was featured in more than two hundred TV programmes produced by the BBC and other independent television companies. In 1983 he portrayed John McCormack in the BBC’s I Hear You Calling Me. His many solo recordings were released on EMI-HMV and Phillips – contour labels.

In the summer of 2002 Mr. Deane cast a wider net by instituting stages de charts for students from the United States of America, together with Robin Bowman head of the vocal studies at the Guildhall School and a British émigré conductor John Burrows. It is here that many American students came each summer to study with him. Deane became a member of the Adjunct Voice Faculty and regularly gave master classes in London.

Limepark

Limepark dates back to 1720 as a forti�ed farm built on limestone which was good dry agricultural land. It was sold to the Craig family in 1812 for eighteen pounds twelve shillings. On the 8/9th October 1959, the farm hosted the seventh world ploughing championship. The worldwide entries are commemorated in a Cairn of Peace which is inscribed with the words Pax Arva Colat which is after the World Ploughing Organisation motto ‘Let Peace Cultivate the Fields’. An engraved stone from each participating country is embedded in the monument. The monument is crowned on top with a replica of the ploughing trophy. The countries represented at the contest were Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Finland, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Holland, United States, Italy, New Zealand and Northern Ireland. The winner of the 1959 competition was Northern Ireland man Lawrence McMillan and the runner up Charles Bonney from Canada.

In more recent years motorbike enthusiasts will be interested to know that Mervyn Robinson, one of the famous Armoy Armada road racers ran his vehicle repair workshop from here. The farm building is listed and of historical interest due to its traditional construction of lime mortar and �eld stone. The barn contains rare Belfast trusses which have been well photographed by architects as have the original working forge and the brick built bread oven in the kitchen.

The Tilly Molloy Centre

From the 1920s there was a number of prominent three storey buildings situated on Main Street. This type of building represented a sign of wealth and prosperity. For many years the centrepiece of the village was the building alongside the River Bush known as Tilly Molloy’s. The hall itself was constructed during the 1920s by the Molloy family. Tilly and her sister Veronica were very much behind the success of the family business as the shop became famous far and wide due to the sale of Tilly’s home-made ice cream. The shop also contained a small tea room.

From the early 1920s until the late 1960s the Molloy family operated a picture house facility which attracted large crowds of local people. In the great hall the Molloys also organised dances which very much re�ected the music of the era. The hall was noted for its disco ball which was a very rare sight around North Antrim.

Tilly Molloy’s business empire was very much the focal point of village life as the family were one of the �rst people to own a car which was used as a taxi. On a personal level Tilly Molloy was a woman who endeavoured to make things happen around the village and created a sense of community. This was very much re�ected in the dances that she organised as it was nearly one of the only venues in the area which was open to all denominations.

The outbreak of the troubles in the late 1960s saw the closure of the dance hall and subsequent dereliction for many years. The drapes on the dance hall stage were given to Uel Deane’s music school in Pourrieres, France. In 1995 following a meeting of Armoy Community Association the derelict building was purchased at the cost of forty thousand pounds. In purchasing the building the Community Association aimed to try and rekindle Tilly’s decency which was once the hallmark of the village to join both communities together. Tilly was a local positive �gure and has inspired the Community Association to carry on with cross community co-operation.

Uel Deane - On With The MotleyThe Molloy Sisters – Annie, Maggie, Tilly and Mary The Golden Plough

ARMOYA History Guide

St.Patrick’s Church Of Ireland Armoy

The name Armoy is certainly of Gaelic origin although it has roots which can be traced back to the Scots-Gaelic Ard Magh (the eastern plain) as it was at one time ruled from Scotland. The village of Armoy has many unique connections as it was once a very important settlement within the ancient kingdom of Dalriada. Its foundation can be attributed to St Patrick whose ministry led to the creation of a monastic settlement being founded in 474 AD. Legend suggests that St.Olcan, the �rst head of the monastery, was fostered by King Fergus McEirc when he found the child abandoned in a pagan graveyard on the site of the Lagge Church at Armoy.

History suggests that the original village of Armoy was built around the monastery and the round tower. However during the Norman period the village moved to its present day location on the banks of the River Bush to accommodate the Norman operated mills which demanded large volumes of water. Therefore a location by the riverbank was much more suitable.

The round tower was built around one thousand years ago and was thought to have been used for storing documents and artefacts. It was also used as a place of safety and refuge from the invading Vikings and for monks during the Reformation period. The tower itself was originally much taller but with so many burials in the surrounding vicinity, the ground has risen substantially and the tower has subsequently shrunk. When the tower was at its full height the inhabitants were able to see as far away as Ballycastle beach and the estuary at the mouth of the River Bann in Coleraine. The entrance of the tower was estimated to be around twelve feet from ground level so that invaders were unable to gain access to the tower.

The area surrounding the present day Church is of special signi�cance as it has several oval shaped tunnels which have been dug under the rock all the way down to a cave at the Lagge crossroads below the church. This tunnel from

the tower to the crossroads was used as an escape route as it leads down to the River Bush. The word Lagge is of signi�cance as it translates as hollow and legend has it that a giant lifted an ‘L’- shaped section of the ground at Lagge Cross and threw it into the sea creating Rathlin. Surprisingly in years gone by both the parishes of Armoy and Rathlin were amalgamated together.

In recent years an archaeological dig at the Church uncovered the remains of an old double ditch boundary which revealed a network of underground tunnels. It also revealed the remains of a small metal working factory and a lignite jewellery making enterprise. The dig uncovered the inside of a bell clapper, pottery and artefacts, even well preserved one thousand year old fruit compressed in the clay ditches. In 1997 the �oor of the Church was lifted and skeletal remains were uncovered. These skeletons were most probably buried outside the medieval church which faced north/south. They were exhumed and reburied in a plot in the graveyard.

The present day Church Of Ireland was built in the 1820s and the bell tower and the east wing were added in the 1840s. It has been suggested that one of the previous rectors the Reverend Ralfe Wilde was a relative of renowned Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde.

CCGHT IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR INACCURACIESWITHIN THIS PUBLICATION.

Special thanks are due to Reverend Frances Bach Rector of St.Patrick’s Church, Gerry Burns member of Armoy Community

Association and John Ward proprietor of Limepark for their contributions. The publication and images were compiled by

Lee Simpson and design work undertaken by d�ned.

Headstone of the Reverend Wilde

St Patrick’s Parish Church

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