Birdman of Moville

Neil McLaughlin, who stayed in the house that I am now living in seventy years ago, used to catch and cage birds.

He did it so that he could hear their songs.

He had a birdline which he used to put in Cow Park or Fair Green just opposite the houses on the River Row.

That’s how he caught them.

Said Gerry McLaughlin (senior) “We used to call then Greys and he caught linnets too.

He kept them in cages in the front garden of the house.

“He knew what weeds to give them too” says Gerry, “so he never had to buy any food for them”.

This took place in the mid-forties, maybe just after the war.

He used to hang the cages up on hooks on the outside of the house. If you came down the River Row of an evening you would hear the birds all singing.

Sent for Snuff

Gerry remembers, as a lad being sent up to Lynott’s shop to buy snuff for Neil’s wife Mary.

She would put a little bit of it on his nose and told him to sniff it in.

“It was to make you sneeze” said Gerry.

“You never see people taking snuff nowadays but it was quite common then.

“In fact you often saw people’s clothes just under their chins stained by the snuff.

“You don’t see many people with pipes any more either. You used to see lots of people puffing on their pipes.”

Vegetable Garden

It seems that Neil and Mary McLaughlin used to have potatoes, leeks, turnips and carrots growing out the back and flowers at the front of the house.

During July and August they would move out of the main house and into the back house.

That’s because they would rent out the front part of the house to their mainly Scots visitors during those months.

Many people enhanced their income that way.

Neil was a cattle drover by trade. He use to go into Carndonagh every Monday on the bus with his dog to buy cattle at Carn market.

The he would bring them all back from Carn by road.

People were hardy in those days.


My father Gerry McLaughlin senior is over here at the moment.

I’m hoping to get as many of these stories of old Moville from him as possible while he is here.

So, look out for more of them.