Speaker for Tuesday 11th March 2014 - Miss. Bernie McGill
16/03/14 13:21
Photo: President Gordon Ward greets Bernie McGill, with Club Member Ian Scott (R)
Talk by Miss Bernie McGill on her book, "The Butterfly Cabinet"
Club President Gordon Ward welcomed members to the meeting and then introduced our speaker for the morning Miss Bernie McGill whose talk was entitled “The Butterfly Cabinet”, the story of the 1892 tragedy at Cromore House, Portstewart involving Mrs Montague.
Miss McGill hails from the Maghera region, studied English and Italian at Queens’ University and for a period lived in Ancona, Italy. She returned to Portstewart and spent time with “The Big Telly Theatre Company”. She joined a writers’ group in Flowerfield Arts Centre and eventually became leader of the group.
It was her ambition to publish a collection of short stories when research led her to the 1892 tragedy at Cromore House. The house was the dwelling of Lord Robert Montague (1825-1902) and his wife Ellen Cromie (1825-1857). Their son Robert Acheson Cromie Montague and his wife had seven children. Mrs Montague was a strict disciplinarian. As a punishment the children would often be locked in a dark closet and secured to a hook with a stocking. On one occasion this practice resulted in the death of a child from strangulation.
This was reported extensively in the local paper, the Chronicle, and other national press.
Mrs Montague was charged with manslaughter and eventually tried and convicted in the four courts in Dublin. The Prosecutor was Lord Edward Carson. Previously sacked servants gave evidence against Mrs Montague. She was jailed and gave birth while still in prison.
This was the Historical Fact which Bernie skilfully transformed into a work of fiction entitled “The Butterfly Cabinet”. The title was inspired, after a visit to the Ulster Museum, by a collection of Butterflies; someone had an obsession for collecting butterflies.
Names of the characters were changed. The mother being renamed Harriet. When building a character what is the obsession. Harriet was a member of the Route Hunt, who traded in horses. She was an expert in breaking horses and children!
On a remote estate in Northern Ireland a little girl dies and the community is quick to condemn her mother, Harriet Ormond. Now after seventy years, Maddie McGlade, a former nanny at the house knows that the time has come to reveal her role in the events of that fateful day.
This is a compelling tale of hidden secrets and cultural clashes played out against a backdrop of a large country house.
The Novel is published in the U.K. America, Italy and Holland, all editions having different covers:-
Good reviews were received from Julian Fellows and Tom Paulin.
Talk by Miss Bernie McGill on her book, "The Butterfly Cabinet"
Club President Gordon Ward welcomed members to the meeting and then introduced our speaker for the morning Miss Bernie McGill whose talk was entitled “The Butterfly Cabinet”, the story of the 1892 tragedy at Cromore House, Portstewart involving Mrs Montague.
Miss McGill hails from the Maghera region, studied English and Italian at Queens’ University and for a period lived in Ancona, Italy. She returned to Portstewart and spent time with “The Big Telly Theatre Company”. She joined a writers’ group in Flowerfield Arts Centre and eventually became leader of the group.
It was her ambition to publish a collection of short stories when research led her to the 1892 tragedy at Cromore House. The house was the dwelling of Lord Robert Montague (1825-1902) and his wife Ellen Cromie (1825-1857). Their son Robert Acheson Cromie Montague and his wife had seven children. Mrs Montague was a strict disciplinarian. As a punishment the children would often be locked in a dark closet and secured to a hook with a stocking. On one occasion this practice resulted in the death of a child from strangulation.
This was reported extensively in the local paper, the Chronicle, and other national press.
Mrs Montague was charged with manslaughter and eventually tried and convicted in the four courts in Dublin. The Prosecutor was Lord Edward Carson. Previously sacked servants gave evidence against Mrs Montague. She was jailed and gave birth while still in prison.
This was the Historical Fact which Bernie skilfully transformed into a work of fiction entitled “The Butterfly Cabinet”. The title was inspired, after a visit to the Ulster Museum, by a collection of Butterflies; someone had an obsession for collecting butterflies.
Names of the characters were changed. The mother being renamed Harriet. When building a character what is the obsession. Harriet was a member of the Route Hunt, who traded in horses. She was an expert in breaking horses and children!
On a remote estate in Northern Ireland a little girl dies and the community is quick to condemn her mother, Harriet Ormond. Now after seventy years, Maddie McGlade, a former nanny at the house knows that the time has come to reveal her role in the events of that fateful day.
This is a compelling tale of hidden secrets and cultural clashes played out against a backdrop of a large country house.
The Novel is published in the U.K. America, Italy and Holland, all editions having different covers:-
Good reviews were received from Julian Fellows and Tom Paulin.
Graham MacDonald - Assistant Secretary
For more on Bernie McGill visit: www.berniemcgill.com
