We hope that you will enjoy the recent issue and support our efforts.We have endeavoured to improve the quality by introducing colour. Please advise those who may be interested. We would like to say thanks to those who purchased last years magazine and earlier editions.Also thanks to those of you in many parts of the world who contacted us with material and comments. Feedback is always appreciated. Please call back from time to time.

No magazine was produced for the year 2001 but a new team with an interest of the area's history started putting together a new magazine early in 2002. This magazine was aptly named The Winding Roe after the river Roe which rises in the hills close to Glenshane Pass then flows seawards through the Benedy Glen, skirts Dungiven to the immediate north then links with the Owenreagh and Owenbeg rivers and numerous other streams as it flows down the Roe valley passing close to the west side of Limavady town then swings north-east eventually emptying into Lough Foyle close to Ballerena.
To date eleven issues have been produced. Issues No. 1-11 for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006. 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. For those overseas please contact our office in Dungiven the address of which is as below for cost and postage details. A check can also be made for availability of issues earlier issues. Issues 1 and 6 have been sold out but you can copy early issues by clicking on the icons below. The last issue of the Benbradagh magazine was number 30 issued at the end of 2,000. It had been published faithfully for some 30 years and was much appreciated by not only the local community but by people in far flung lands whose family roots are in the Roe valley or indeed in the general area of this part of Co. Derry. Sadly there are no copies of old issues available which prompted the new team of contributors to have the old issues put on the Internet. We hope that those of you who visit this website will gain information from the old issues and that you will pass on our website address to your friends both in this country and abroad. As now we get requests for old editions or photocopies of pages from specific issues. This is not really a practical approach so we now hope that you can print off from the files here on this Internet site. Note that the files are in PDF format and because of size may takea little while to download. So be patient and allow for your local Internet speed and the speed of your computer.

The Winding Roe/Benbradagh website is primarily aimed at those who have ancestral roots in the Roe valley and who may be doing research on this. We hope that the information in the files will be of use to you. We are aware that there are families in such far flung places such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, S. Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Continental Europe and every place the Irish diaspora has linked will hopefully find this website useful. Maybe you have photos, stories or old letters brought by your ancestors to their new homelands all those years ago and you would like to share with us. If you would like to contact the webmaster please feel free to send an email via the website Email icon provided.Your comments and feedback appreciated. Be aware that you can forward images and text via the website Email icon so no need to have to write, send photos etc. all that dreaded "snail mail" stuff. Thanks. Though this website contains material mostly associated with a more "domestic" history of the Roe Valley some of you may become interested in the general history of the area and especially the N.E. area of Ireland the province of Ulster.To get a good comprehension of the history it will be necessary to understand the intertwined relationships between the main clans of Ulster the O'Neills with their smaller clan allies the O'Donnells and to a lesser extent the O'Cathans and their interaction with England especially after the Reformation and the coming of Elizabeth 1st and James 1st to the throne. Irish history in this part of Ireland changed for ever in the late 16th and early 17th century. The O'Neills and their allies fought a protracted compaign against the English but eventually were defeated and rather engage in a formal surrender chose in 1607 to flee Ireland for Continental Europe. Needless to say the run up to these events was a period of intrigue, religious differences, deals, deceit, power struggles, arranged marriages, family fueds and the usual events that change history to this day. The reader may find it helpful to do some reading up on these aspects to get a good comprehension of our history and where we are at this moment and the history that your ancestors lived in generations gone by. The Benbradagh a cross community magazine was issued between the years 1970 and 2000 some 30 years in Dungiven Co. Derry by a small group of local historians in the area. The magazine is now out of print. The magazine was generally about 20 to 30 pages of roughly A4 size. The Benbradagh was issued each year before or around Christmas or early Spring and its content usually consisted of articles by local writers on the history of the immediate Dungiven area but also on the Roe valley or about people having links to the area. The magazine will be of interest to people world wide who have their roots and family history in this part of Co. Derry, the lands of the O'Cathans, McCloskeys and O'Mullans. An area of much history and greatly affected by the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th century.

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