Townies,
Your reveries are delightful. They sound just like my school experience in Brooklyn NY in the late 40s, early 50s. But may I change the subject?

Am searching for history of the so-called GAELIC CHURCH (OR CHAPEL) in Saltcoats in the early 19th C. My greatgrandfather, Thomas McAvoy, a Catholic, b. about 1830, was from that town. I have been unable to find his place of worship. Any clues?

Am sitting here in Santa Barbara, California, but I visited Saltcoats last spring and am enjoying some of the photos of the town on the net.
Cheers Sheila MacAvoy Block

From: "Mark Strachan" <namuseum@globalnet.co.uk>
To: <threetowners@topica.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 02,

Sheila Block asked about the Gaelic or North Parish Church.

It stood at the top end of Hamilton Street, where Safeways is now, and was built in 1836 and demolished in 1965. This church was part of the Church of Scotland when built and always was a Protestant church. Sheila's Catholic great-grandfather would have worshiped with Father William Thompson of Ayr who held occasional masses in Saltcoats. St Marys RC Church in Ardrossan Road, as it is known, wasn't built until 1856.

Mark

From: "Sheila Block" <macavoy@xx.net>
To: <threetowners@topica.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2000

Many thanks to all who responded to my query re: The Gaelic Church. I had no knowledge that this Church was Protestant, but I have since learned via certain articles in the net that it was a place of worship for Gaelic speakers who came down from the North of Scotland to work in the cities. At least that's what the articles say. I am sure there is more to it than that.

I am not positive that my great grandfather, Thomas McAvoy was Catholic, but he certainly was in the US. There was a Catholic Thomas McAvoy baptized by Father Thompson in Kilmarnock in 1832, about the same year of my ancestor's birth, but it is not my man. I have also been to Saltcoats and checked the records at St. Mary's but found nothing as the church was formed too late for my purposes.

I was hoping that some how, some way, someone alive today would have a relationship with this long gone person. In the tintype I have of him, he is a handsome fellow with dark hair and a fierce moustache which makes him look like an adventurer!

Re: the Gaelic Church, I searched for it when I was visiting last year, but could not find the building. No one seemed to know of it, although there is a photo of the Church in a little booklet about Saltcoats sold in the local shops. My husband and I finally gave up and went to Safeway to buy the fixings for our lunch. Little did we know we were standing on the bones of the old Gaelic Church.

Many thanks, Sheila MacAvoy Block