County Derry magazine ceases publication after 20 years

Synonymous with Dungiven Christmases over the past two decades, the Winding Roe magazine was the brain child of local Ballyhargan man, Aidan Farren.

Aidan had been a frequent contributor to its predecessor, the Benbradagh magazine, and said that following the closure of the publication, after 30 years, 'there was a feeling in the community of a need for the continuation of a similar community magazine'.

Following discussions with Seamus Hasson, one of the main drivers of the original book, they formed a plan to start a new publication.

Aidan contacted a number of people asking if they were interested in becoming involved.

One of those he had contacted was Mairead McCormack who recalls: “I was on maternity leave with my third daughter, Jennifer, when Aidan phoned and I thought that it was a great idea to continue the tradition of the Benbradagh – maintaining a historical and cultural record of a period in time, captured from a local rural community.”

The inaugural meeting took place in the Conference Room of Glenshane Community Development Limited in Glenshane Business Park, Legavallon Road on the 18th June at 8pm.

Present were Aidan Farren, Seamus Hasson, Mairead McCormack, Denis Hegarty, Ken Hunter, Stephanie Hilditch, Cathal Ó hOisín, Harry McCloskey, Marion Kelly, Councillors Gerard Lynch and Michael Coyle.

And so, constituted on 18th June 2002, the Winding Roe Magazine was born.

Michael Aemar Higgins, Donal Kealey and John McCloskey attended the next meeting where the Editorial Committee was formed. Mary Brolly was on board, typing up content, from the start and joined the Editorial Committee in 2016.

The Editorial Committee placed the call for stories, poems, photos and sports updates for the year out into the community. Adverts were placed in all the church bulletins, in the post office, schools were liaised with and articles then started to come in.

Referring to this time, Aidan said: “Seamus was a most important cog in the wheel with his vast knowledge of the history of the area and its people and he provided useful contacts to help get the Winding Roe off the ground as well as contributing to the content.”

Mairead recounts that first edition ad the effort that went into it.

“In early Autumn 2002, the school bus picked up my eldest, Emily, for school, I left Andrea to play school and Jennifer and I came to Dungiven to do page make-up for the magazine until it was time to collect Andrea.

"Jennifer was the best baby, sitting on my knee in front of the computer screen. I populated the magazine with content typed up by, and photos scanned by, Mary.

Pictured left to right; Mairead McCormack, Gerard Lynch, Mary Brolly, Aidan Farren, Denis Hegarty and Cathal Ó hOisin.

"With all of the Editorial Committee’s shoulder to the wheel, before you knew it, we had the first edition of the magazine printed and in the shops for Christmas 2002.”

In 2008, magazine production moved from Glenshane Business Park to the Board Room of Glenshane House on Main Street. The Editorial Committee of The Winding Roe Magazine over the years has comprised:- Edition 1-20 – Aidan Farren, Mairead McCormack, Denis Hegarty; Edition 1-14 – Seamus Hasson, Michael Aemar Higgins; Edition 1-10 - Cathal Ó hOisín; Edition 1-6 – Donal Kealey, John McCloskey; Edition 8-10 – Morrison Stewart and Edition 15-20 – Mary Brolly.

Mary Brolly was in charge of the logistics and getting the magazine out to the Dungiven diaspora, despatching it around the world.

“Assisting with the production of The Winding Roe Magazine over the past 20 years has been an exciting time for me,” she said.

“I always looked forward to receiving the various articles to type and the photographs for scanning were of great interest, sometimes trying to figure out who the people were in them.

"I prepared the delivery dockets for the various outlets prior to being delivered. Then checking on the progress of sales and finally invoicing and collecting the money.

"Quite a number of magazines had to be prepared for posting overseas and within the UK and Ireland as well.”

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She posted the first magazine to 27 addresses in England, 11 in the North of Ireland and nine in the South, 13 to the USA, six to Australia, five to Scotland, three to Canada and one to Mexico.

She has posted the last edition of the magazine to 14 addresses in England, six in the North of Ireland and four in the South, four to the USA and two to Australia.

The shops which sold the first edition and which have now closed are McCloskey’s Newsagents, the Old Post Office on Main Street, Mags Donaghy’s Mace Store, Hasson’s Drapery Store, the Dungiven Fruit and Vegetable Shop, Carla Kelly’s Sports Wear Shop, Angela’s News in Maghera and the Bookworm, Derry. The magazine was sold throughout North and South Derry during its lifetime.

Mary continued: “The magazines contain a wealth of information and history, much of which would otherwise been lost. There is still a vast amount of local history, songs and poetry which remains undocumented. Hopefully one day these will be put into print by future generations.

“These magazines are a great source of information for our local school children and some hopefully may carry on the tradition of capturing historical facts from the Roe Valley.”

In recognition of their historical importance, the first magazine and each subsequent magazine has been deposited in a number of archives.

These are - the McClay Library, QUB, Belfast; The Royal Irish Academy, Dublin; Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana; the Legal Deposit Libraries UK and the local Dungiven Library.

Michael Aemar Higgins digitalised all editions of the Benbradagh Magazine which Liam Lynch of LL Systems then converted to OCR readable documents. John Marquess of Maghera Historical Society subsequently digitalised all editions of the Winding Roe Magazine.

Mairead McCormack has designed the Winding Roe website and uploaded all past editions of both magazines to it so that they can be accessed online at http://thewindingroe.com/. 

There are still some editions in print available for purchase from Glenshane House, 112-114 Main Street, Dungiven if anyone would like a tangible copy.

Aidan concluded: “After 20 years, we now feel that times and attitudes have changed and the Winding Roe has run its course. If other people wish to continue with similar content, in whatever format, they will have our support.

"I would like to thank all those who worked so hard to produce the magazine and to all who contributed to it in any way.”

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