Posted online: Jul 27th, 2010

By Michelle McKenna
Reporter
LOSING a parent is heartbreaking enough but for one Derry man his pain has been made all the more unbearable with no photographic images to remember the man he lost contact with at the tender age of seven.
After his parents had gone their separate ways it would be another 13 years until John Brennan would learn news of his father, Daniel Brennan.
Upon learning the news of his tragic death, John was forced to accept that he would never get to know the man he loved and still loves dearly.
Having learned from the authorities that his father’s dying wish was for them to get in touch with his wife Ita Brennan in Derry, John and his beloved mother, who he lost in 1988, believed his father may have been trying to find him at the time of his death.
Initially informed that it had been her young son who was killed when a taxi struck him as he stepped behind the bus he had just got off in Chester-Le-Street, Durham, England in 1965, whilst the reasons for the grave miscommunication were never fully explained, both were convinced that his 42-year-old father must have had John’s name on his person which led the authorities to wrongly assume his son’s identity.
“I left Derry in 1962 and was in Rosyth in Scotland looking for work after getting sidetracked on my way to America when my mother contacted me and told me there had been some sort of mistake,” John said.
“The authorities had told her I had died and she assumed my father must have had something on him with my name on it.
“We never found out how this came about but we think he’d something in his pocket with my name on it and it was thought at the time he might have been trying to locate me.
“This is all speculation and it’s very frustrating as we can’t bring closure to anything.”
Cherishing what few belongings he has of his father including an original love letter his father sent to his mother around 1950 and his prayer book, John is hoping he can one day add a photograph of his father to his collection.
Reuniting with his then terminally ill aunt, Margaret Brennan three years ago just before her passing gave John renewed hope he might finally be able to see his father’s face again in a photograph and learn more about him but it was not to be.
“I was away for 40 years in Scotland and have been back home for ten years now. It was through Fr Paddy O’Kane in Ballymagroarty Parish that I met my aunt Margaret again as she lived nearby.
“But even then I couldn’t get photos or information. It was like coming up against a brick wall.
“No-one seems to know anything about what happened to him. I just want to know what became of him.
“We think he might have gone back to Scotland as he was born there but we just don’t know.”
It was in his aunt’s old neighbourhood of Springtown Camp that was to be the last address John shared with his father at his grandparents’ home of 141 Springtown Camp.
John and his younger sister, Anne lived here before his mother returned to her family home in County Donegal to raise her young family with John attending school at Rosgir, just outside Lifford.
John’s wife, Mena, who initiated the paper trail in January has since uncovered his father’s birth certificate and parents’ marriage certificate (dated April 12, 1945) and remains hopeful that the Salvation Army can trace his death certificate so they can travel to Durham to place a stone in his father’s memory upon learning the actual date of his death.
Grateful that contact with ‘Springtown Camp… from the inside’ author, Willie Deery and various other relevant addresses including the Genealogy Research Service and parishes, both here and in Scotland, shed some light on her late father-in-law’s life, Mena was overjoyed to present the fruits of her research to her husband on their tenth wedding anniversary on July 1 and at his recent surprise 65th birthday party on July 9.
“Willie was a great source of information and help to me – the photos we have come from him. We were able to identify John’s uncles, Jock and Wilford in the old photos he had and think John’s father, Daniel may be in them too,” she said.
“His book launch also helped as John was able to pick himself out in a photo of the (Derry families’) eviction from Belmont Camp where he is in his granny Brennan’s arms.”
Overwhelmed by his wife’s efforts to “fill in the gaps” of his father’s life in discovering he was born in Ewing Street, Kilbrachan, Scotland on July 2, 1923 and his parents’ wedding anniversary means he is now able to mark these important milestones.
However, John, whose birthday is also in July as is his two sons, remains hopeful someone can help him piece together further details on his father’s life following his departure from the city.
“The only memories I have of my father are of him taking me to Pennyburn Chapel every Sunday morning and then taking me down to Fort George to see the fish,” John said.
“And I remember his buying me toffee apples from a neighbour in Springtown Camp and taking my granny, mammy and me to the burn which was a little waterfall in Bridgend in the summer time.
“After we moved to my granny Lizzie Roulston’s I never saw or heard from him again.”
If anyone knew or recognises John’s father, Daniel Brennan in the photograph can they please get in touch with either John or Mena at 00353 86 820 1752 or leave a message for them on www.springtowncamp.com