The family’s two goats

The family’s two goats were both a source of trouble and a delight at the Aughawillan home. Their repeated escapes frustrated Susan McGahern’s efforts to protect the shrubs, trees, and planned flower garden, but for the children their unruly presence made the ground around the house a place of exuberant play.

The Goats at Home

The goats were young, and Bridgie McGovern called them springers. They belonged to a household also keeping a cow, brown hens, and a jennet; unlike those animals, the goats are remembered especially for the movement and excitement they brought into the space around the house. Their appetite for the shrubs and trees ran directly against Susan McGahern’s plans for a flower garden.

Escapes and Play

To keep them away from the garden, Susan McGahern tried to contain them on the hill. They repeatedly escaped, however, and the children’s cries of delight followed as the goats chased them round and round the house. The chase carried across heaps of stones and the faces of open drains, features made familiar by the family’s work filling the drains with stones. What had been part of an effort to manage the dampness around the house became an obstacle course for the goats and children.

Narrative Significance

The goats’ small domestic rebellion gives the household landscape a playful life: the same ground shaped by practical tasks and garden plans becomes a setting for pursuit and delight. Their presence is recalled through a recurring pattern of attempted confinement and escape, with Susan McGahern’s concern for the garden set against the children’s pleasure in the chase.