Grand National 50th Anniversary - Mr What 1958 Race Video

The famous Grand National horserace is being run at Aintree this weekend and it's 50 years exactly since the great Mr What won, and I have a particular reason for celebrating the anniversary of his win.

My Great Uncle DAVID 'TONE' JOSEPH COUGHLAN (1898 - 1962) owned the racehorse MR WHAT when it won the Grand National in 1958 and came 3rd in 1959 & 1962, as well as another horse Careys Cottage which came 3rd in 1955. (He had gone to America in 1916 but returned to Ireland in 1938.) Mrs Barbara O’Neill of Rathganny, West Meath bred Mr What and strangely the next Irish winner was L’Escargot in 1975 also bred by Mrs O’Neill. What A Daisy dam of L’Escargot was a 3 parts sister to Mr What. In 1958 he was ridden by Arthur Freeman, the Queen Mothers jockey and won 'at ease' winning by thirty lengths, a record for the National and at odds of 18-1. Another record was the winnings, which amounted to £13,744, the largest prize distributed so far as a first prize.

Mr What was trained by Mr Tom Taaffe in Rathcoole, the grandfather of the present Tom Taaffe, the trainer of 3 horses running in this years National. As a report in the local paper of the time described it 'In Skibbereen town the bookies were disgorging for nearly a fortnight and bookies across Ireland that never in the history of their 'profession' did its members receive such a keelhauling. 'Tone' was the recipient of a gay reception in Skibbereen. A band met his family party at the outskirts of the town and there was a reception held at the West Cork Hotel.'

Mum and Dad sadly hadn't put a bet on, and nor had my great uncle! so they were mightily chagrined when the horse actually won and at such great odds. They had however, told the local milkman who did, and who was cock a hoop at his win. I don't think they ever really got over it :-) Ive found an old newsreel of the race which you can watch below, and very exciting it is too :-)

Since I started studying my family history and genealogy in general I have been trawling the internet for references to this little bit of history and have tracked down a Jacobs biscuit tin and a shot glass on eBay, and photos of my Great Uncles triumphant return to Skibbereen which was printed in the local paper at the time and Mr Whats return to his stables in Rathcoole, it's amazing what one can find with a bit of diligance!

NEW! NEW WEBPAGE DEDICATED TO MR WHAT ON MY WEBSITE - EVEN MORE NOW ON MR WHAT'S WEBPAGE

Are you a Coghlan/Coughlan with roots in Skibbereen, Co.Cork? Then visit my family history WEBSITE and get in touch.

If video link broken watch it on YouTube HERE

April Fools Day

Well, Easter has been and gone. We had the Boy Wonder to stay, and true to form he spent the entire time with his head buried in his laptop playing Warhammer! I do worry about that boy, but it would appear he is typical of boys his age (15) so I suppose I shouldn't really. We had the usual surfeit of Easter Eggs (I think I had 3 altogether!)and Caiti came with her partner for lunch.

We had roast chicken, roast vegetables, stuffing and yorkshire pudding. At this point I should tell you I didn't cook it, as Hubby does all the cooking in our house as he's such a great cook. The day he moved in I handed the kitchen over to him and have never looked back since :-) Anyway we enjoyed our lunch and then sat in the lounge chatting about the forthcoming arrival (Jonah is due on the 4th April so anyday now!. I had been hoping he would put in an appearance either yesterday (my birthday)or today (April Fools Day!)but so far no sign.

Talking of April Fools Day, I saw the BBC's spoof this morning. Apparently a colony of flying penguins have been found in Antarctica! It was very well done, the film clips showing all these penguins flying was brilliantly done. I can't help wondering how many people it fooled. I always remember the famous Swiss Spaghetti Tree Harvest they did a number of years ago and how many people thought that was for real. There was another one in our local Metro newspaper, this was about a new BMW car that had electric shock technology installed that gave any dog that cocked its leg against the wheels a 200 volt shock! (I don't think so!)There was even a diagram purporting to show how the system works with a detailed technical description. Someone had obviously spent quite some time coming up with this (I cant help wondering if they had a personal reason for this particular choice of subject :-).

Happy Easter Everybody!

I am so looking forward to the Easter break, even though the weather forecast is pretty grotty. Of course the country is going to grind to a halt tomorrow because the roads will be gridlocked, most of the railways are closed for engineering works and the airports won't be able to cope with the sheer numbers trying to get away, due to the increased security measures! So anyone with any sense will stay at home, put the TV on, their feet up and just chill. We won't even be able to get out into the garden it's going to be so cold and miserable. Typical British Easter Bank Holiday weather in fact :-) The fact that it's so early this year, the earliest since 1913 I think I heard someone say the other day, doesn't help either. The only cheery thing is that at least the spring flowers are nice and early as well.

We've got the Boy Wonder (aka my 16yr old stepson) coming to stay for Easter - oh joy! Actually he's no trouble because from the moment he arrives tomorrow to the moment he leaves on Monday he's going to have his head stuck in his laptop playing Warhammer, and he will only emerge for meals! The last time he came up he was here for a week and I think we only managed to get 6 words out of him the entire time. Communicative he's not - still I think thats fairly typical for a lad his age apparently. All my friends with kids that age have the same problem. Not that I'm complaining, it makes our life easy as we don't have to keep him entertained, but we are hoping that at the age of 18 he will emerge a whole and fully formed human being, like a majestic butterfly emerging from its chrysalis!

I had planned on going to the Black Country Museum this weekend, which would have been fun, but it's just going to be too cold and wet. I'll have to wait for better weather, but it's a real shame as there's going to be an Easter Bonnet competition and Easter egg hunts etc, but I think the whole weekend will be a washout.

We also have my stepdaughter coming down from Manchester on Sunday, she's expecting a baby on the 30th, so we're hoping it doesn't decide to put in an early appearance! They have already chosen a name for it, as we know it's going to be a boy, and for some reason want to call it Jonah! Of course that's brought out all the whale jokes, especially as she has got bigger :-). Hubby is looking forward to being a Grandad for the 1st time. The last time we saw them he took them into Mothercare and really seemed to enjoy himself choosing a new Moses basket for them. Going by how he is with my grandson, I think he'll be a terrific Grampy and he won't have to wait much longer :-).

I know I moan about the Boy Wonder spending all his time on his laptop, but I'm a fine one to complain. I tend to spend almost as much time on mine and that's just what I'll be doing over the holiday weekend. It will be split between my blog and associated activities and Ancestry.com as I have just been given some more info for a family history I have been doing for a friend at work. She's having it done for her father in law's 80th birthday as a surprise.

I have got one branch of the family back to 1700 and may be able to get beyond that with a bit more digging. Another branch is quite interesting in that they were artificial eye makers. I think they started out making them for stuffed birds and animals as the earliest ancestor I have traced was an engraver, but he had a bird stuffing business on the side, which is what they called taxidermy in the early 19th century. His sons carried on the business when he died and one of them moved up from Bristol to Birmingham and started a glass eye business up here and then gradually developed a process to produce hollow human glass eyes - which were of course much lighter than the traditional solid glass or wooden ones available at the time (Anyone who has seen Pirates of the Caribbbean will remember Ragetti chasing his around the deck!). So as you can imagine they became very popular. Anyway I will have fun filling in a few more gaps for this over the weekend.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and wish you all a Happy Easter (and dont eat too many Easter Eggs!:-)

Happy St Patricks Day

Wayhaaa! I've won on the lottery!!!!!!

OK - dont get too excited! It was only 5 numbers and as it was in the office syndicate I have to share it with 11 other girls. But its still given me £200 ($400)I didn't have this morning. So as you can imagine we have all spent the day planning how we are going to spend our ill gotten gains. Hubby has already told me I have to pay for the drinks when we go to the Red Lion tomorrow night. Well that's not going to break the bank! Anyway after some discussion with hubby tonight I have decided to splash out on the garden (I can hear you all going Whaaat! how boring is that!!!!)I admit it kind of spoils the rock chick image, but actually I'll get more pleasure from that than any amount of new clothes. I'm strictly a jeans and t-shirt type of girl anyway.

The problem is we stripped the garden last year pretty much (it's 60 years old and needed a revamp). The plan is to put in a new pond (we have actually dug it out, but the weather last year was so atrocious that's as far as we got). I have great plans for a waterfall and fountain with goldfish & lilies and flowerbeds with lots of roses, clematis, wisteria etc. I just want a riot of colour basically!. This will be the second garden that we have transformed (If anyone wants to see the first go here). So I can't wait for the spring and all that lovely shopping at the Garden Centre!

Sharing my sense of humour with you

I seem to be posting a lot of humorous stuff lately and not a lot of personal stuff. This is only because I am getting a lot of good stuff in my email and like to share it with you, my good friends. (Also I dont have a lot of time at the moment as I am working more on my new blog

Family History for Beginners

- feel free to drop in:-)I appreciate that not everyone is going to share my sense of humour, but I hope that you enjoy it. I only post what makes me laugh personally. It's all fairly harmless stuff, with only the odd joke that may not be in the best possible taste. I will continue to post anything I think will raise a smile among my readers and hope you continue to enjoy them.

My New Blog on Family History

I have just started a new blog on family history called Family History for Beginners which I am very excited about. Genealogy and family history is my main interest and I have been doing it for about 10 years. This site is my attempt at providing the information I would have liked to find when I first started. I have tried to make it as easy to understand as possible and will be adding regularly to it with a lot more information. Please check it out and and let me know what you think.