John Harland (b. 1854) was a farmer, businessman  and grocer in the village of Bessbrook Co. Armagh. He was the agent who provided tickets for steamship companies such as the White Star Line. This photograph was taken in 1901 with his second wife and his seven children His first four sons, by his first marriage, were each to find a wife in a different continent. Tom married a South African, Willie an Australian, and Jack an American. Only Wallace, after several years in New York USA and service in the British Army during the Great War, returned to Ireland to marry his girlfriend from their schooldays together; after she too had been part of the diaspora.

This story is rather unusual  because it shows how this family, although so widely dispersed, kept in constant communication with each other down the years. Any  reasons for this limpet-like behaviour remains obscure but some explanations may be found in the few snippets of human geography and history of Ireland. Check in the following pages and sections:

                                                                                                                                                     
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