Bells" road-trip down memory lane

Mullingar brothers Frank Bell and his brother Billy took a trip back to the Yukon after 40 years. They, like many others from Westmeath emigrated to Canada"s Yukon in the early 60s for a period to seek their fortune.After a short stay in the Edmonton and Calgary area, Billy went north to the gold and silver mines of the Yukon Territory, where he worked as a miner and operated a underground hoist for six to seven years in one of the remotest and most beautiful parts of Canada"s Great North, where temperatures drop to -50.The winters are dark and cold, but the summers are bright and beautiful and for a few weeks there is 24-hour sunlight, when you are very likely to see a bear as a fox roaming the mountains or crossing the Alaska highway, according to the two men.'We went out to make money, to search for gold, and it was worth it, it helped us get a start back home,' said Frank who, when he came back to Ireland, set up his well-known construction business. Billy, an ex-Clonkill and county hurler, upon his return to Ireland, moved to Moyvalley, and got into farming.And had Canada changed much in 40 years?'Absolutely. Especially where were, all the mining camps are gone. Apparently they closed up in the early "90s when they ran out of zinc and silver. Now it has gone back to wilderness. It"s amazing!''The mining camps used to be great operations. There were a lot of Westmeath people out there. We were out in the middle of nowhere, but there was a big community. There were truck drivers, mechanics, carpenters, etc.'The weather was severe. It was known as the land of the midnight sun,' says Frank.And do the Bell brothers miss it much?'Well Canada is something that you can never really get out of your blood. It was good to us, as it was to many Westmeath people who went out to seek better fortunes. Like I said, it give us the start back here at home.'Ireland is our home, and there is no place like it, but it was nice to return to Canada and see it after all these years. It"s a memory that myself and my brother will always share and will always have,' finished Frank.