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St Johnston & Carrigans


EJ White, who was the undertaker and had a drapery shop run by his wife, Ethel, was the first person to have a car in St Johnston.  He then started a petrol station. 

He was a Garda Sergeant.  Ethel was a convert to Catholicism and they married late in life.  They had one daughter Deirdre.

His premises was the only three storey building in St Johnston!  He had a timber yard out the back.  His wife Ethel ran the drapery shop on the ground floor.

The hearse used to double as a means of transport for the young people of the time.  They would go to dances in Raphoe and sometimes Lurgeybrack in the hearse.  They pulled out the support that the coffin would lie on and put chairs in the back.  He facilitated local boys and girls who planned to go to the Plaza Ballroom in Buncrana. 

Vincent Devenney of the Boathole, St Johnston, who died in April 2008 drove the hearse for a time.  As the hearse doubled as a mini-bus it probably started him off on his career as a bus driver.  Vincent drove the School Bus to Raphoe to facilitate students of the Royal and Prior Comprehensive School and what was then Raphoe Vocational School.  He took the route to Raphoe up the Main Street in St Johnston and up the Whitehill brae and on to the White Cross near Raphoe where he turned right  and then left at Ballinalacky.

There used to be an egg store that belonged to EJ White down at the boathole until the early seventies.

Deidre became an actress and had a small part in the 1960s series z cars.