Hazel Howe grew up on a farm in the Aghadrumsee in Co. Fermanagh and married John McVittie in 1970. John farmed on the Fermanagh Monaghan border and was an A/Const in the RUC. On 8 July 1986, he was shot by the IRA while working on a tractor on his farm at Drummady, in the company of his thirteen year old son, Gary. John had been stationed at Rosslea with three colleagues, each of whom was rostered for duty in turn, and Hazel explains that two of these colleagues had been fatally shot and the third had had a lucky escape with his life, so the family lived with the fact that John’s life had been in serious danger. She recalls the traumatic aftermath of this atrocity, when she had no option but to remain strong in order to rear her three children and continue to run the farm. Eight years later, in 1994, she married schoolteacher William Little and the couple live in Killyroo.
This collection, carried out by Irish Life and Lore on behalf of Cavan County Library Service, is funded by the EU Special EU Programmes Body Peace IV fund under the objective to build positive relations with people from different backgrounds and communities to support peace and reconciliation.
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