ROOTS
I was born in Northern Ireland and have lived on a small farm for the greater part of my life. My family can trace our roots back over three hundred years in this land.
POLITICS
In 1981 I was elected to the Ulster Unionist group in Magherafelt District Council where I successfully defended my seat on five more occasions. However in 2005 the Ulster Unionist Party went into the final stages of self-destruct mode. The traditional unionist members who had consistently opposed the Trimble policies had now all but left. The 'rump' in Mid-Ulster which remained under the fickle 'leadership' of Billy Armstrong and George Shiels decided that they needed to replace me, their premier vote-catcher with a retiring farmer / ex-UDR soldier. Never being a politician who gave-in at the first hurdle, I subsequently ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate. The UUP first preference vote callapsed in Moyola and Magherafelt with both DEAs recording the worst UUP votes in at least 25 years. The remnants of this once proud party have now not even enough members to form a quorum in Mid-Ulster - no meetings have been held for months!
In past years my membership of the Ahoghill Young Farmers Club led to valuable experience at public-speaking and stock-judging. The social life was always hectic and some of their money-raising activities were novel as in the 1986 expedition on the Lower Bann river. They raised over £6,000 in one day for two charities.
CREDIT UNION
I am a member of my local Credit Union at Kilrea, where we help our members to save and to use money wisely for their own betterment. The Credit Union is modelled on a global idea that people should save money in a co-operative fashion so that they have their own local friendly source of affordable credit. New members are always welcomed.
ORANGE LODGE
I am a member of Lisnagrot L.O.L. 1517 which meets regularly in Kilrea Orange Hall. This lodge is affiliated to the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.
WASTE THERMAL TREATMENT
I am interested in the thermal treatment of municipal waste (household rubbish, etc.) to produce energy such as electricity and steam for industrial heating. I would particularly like to hear from users or manufacturers of 'Waste to Energy' plants which can operate on as little as 30,000 tons per year. I have seen the excellent system at Gothenborg, Sweden where they heat the homes and shops of the city as well! They even heat the footpath on the main shopping street to keep it ice-free! Northern Ireland needs to use a method like this to cope with a percentage of its waste management problem. The idea of also burning willow in the same plant to aid combustion and to produce extra electrical power also appeals to me.
Certainly the farmers in this part of the world need to start to produce some sort of crop that is both profitable and environmentally friendly. A willow contract might just be what they need and it would be suitable for our wet climatic conditions!My attempts to promote a local arrangement between farmers and Magherafelt Council regarding the growing and burning of willows etc. fell on deaf ears. No member of the present council seems to care a hoot!
Through this site and its former narrative I have been contacted by relations from Canada who were lost to me but who share the same ancestors. The ancestors left Ireland as it was then known in the 1860's.
By the way, some of the old gravestones shown in the foreground of the picture of St. Tida's Parish Church are of past generations of Junkin.
One of the more famous Junkins was Eleanor Junkin by virtue of her marriage to Confederate General (Stonewall) Jackson.An interesting site about Junkins based around Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland is at
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/j/e/n/John--Jenkins/
Please feel free to E-Mail me at junkinjohn@hotmail.com and I will try to help you in any query. Please be patient if your reply seems to be slow although a reminder can sometimes help!