Tag: Ireland

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The Dunfanaghy and Sheephaven Schools

Image of Holy Cross Church

Nowadays the children of the Dunfanaghy area have their education needs looked after with several local primary schools and their teachers – Holy Cross, Holy Trinity, Faugher, Ballymore and Murroe. In recent years, these schools have undergone some refurbishments and are equipped with the latest technology for learning in a digital age, though it has not always been like this.

The Irish School System has come a long way since the days of the Hedge Schools, when Teachers would teach pupils in the open air and in private homes to give children a chance of an education. The Hedge Schools were set up in response to the 1695 Stuart Monarchs which prohibited Catholics from getting an education. This remained in force until it was repealed in 1782. Its’s believed that by the 1820s, up to 400,000 students, in 9000 schools, were educated through Hedge Schools.

In the early 1800s, a formal education for Catholics in Ireland, was established by Ignatius Rice, and by 1831, the Board of National Education and the National School System was established. A Commissioner of National Education was set up and their role was to assist in the funding of primary school construction, textbook production, and the training/funding of teachers in National Schools. It wasn’t until 1967 with Free Secondary Education Act in the Republic of Ireland that secondary school education became open for all.

Just over 100 years ago in the Dunfanaghy area there were different National Schools to what we know now and some of these buildings are no longer standing. For the children of Hornhead, their school was located in a building in what is now Wilson’s farm in Lurgabrack. This was the school that my grandmother would have attended and she often spoke of having to run the gauntlet of passing Stewart the Landlords Bull which was in the field on the way to the school morning and evening on her way to school in the late 1800 and early 1900’s.  In those days’ children walked to school Summer and Winter often in the bare feet.  After the fall of the Landlords, this School was moved to the Gate Lodge for Hornhead House at The Bridge and it features on old pictures of when the sand blew in Hornhead and the Teacher and Pupils would have to dig themselves out of the sand in the evening and their Lunches would be filled with blowing sand!

In the late 1930s, it was decided to close this school and move the pupils to the Robertson School Board School which was located where the car park beside the Holy Trinity Parish Hall is now.  This decision did not sit well with the parents from Hornhead and there was a strike for a few months before the children eventually went to the Robinson School which was known as Dunfanaghy Number One National School. This meant a long walk for the children of Hornhead and there was no clock in the school. So, the Master would send the children over across the road to the Garda Barrack to get the time and often the Guard on Duty would give them the wrong time which meant the children would get sent home early! The headmaster here was Master Barlow and he went on to teach in Holy Trinity School when it was opened and the old School which was a landmark at the top of the town was demolished to make way for the car park.

100 years ago, the Catholic Children of Dunfanaghy would have been receiving their education in a school which is now also demolished at the entrance to the present day Holy Cross Cemetery.  The school then moved to the Old Fever Hospital in Dunfanaghy which is now the Gallery.  The teacher was Eamon Cannon who moved to Dunfanaghy from the south of the county and was to be instrumental in the Educational, Sporting and Musical life of Dunfanaghy for decades afterwards.

Both schools would share important information with each other such as when the School Inspector would put in an unexpected appearance. 

Master Cannon and his pupil, like their neighbours down the road, moved to a new school with the opening of Holy Cross NS which is still educating children today.

The Old Murroe School would have been providing education to the children in its area in the early 1900s, and like all schools at the time pupils would be absent from school when the hard work had to be done on the farm.  Ireland was largely a rural economy back then and the horses and carts were the driving force on the farms and the hiring fairs were still a fact of life which saw many children take the train to Letterkenny to be hired in the agricultural heartland of the Laggan and elsewhere. The new school at Murroe was built and opened in the 1960s. 

Among the other schools in the area were at Roshine which has closed and Kildarragh which only closed in the 1980s when its pupils moved to Creeslough.

100 years ago, Ballymore School would have been providing education to all the children in the area and among those who would have attended in the early 1920s would have been the late Bridget McBride from Knocknafaugher who only passed away recently. The School at Ballymore continued to educate the children of the area until Faugher NS was opened. 

Like Ballymore, Faugher NS continues to provide education for the children of the area and this is due in no small way to the campaign led by the parents in the 1980s to keep the school open when plans were afoot to close the school and move their pupils elsewhere. 

This is just a small history of some the schools in the area and things have certainly changed in the past 100 years and those at school then just at the start of the Irish Free State could hardly have thought that in a few short months a Civil War would have broken out and just 17 years later we would find ourselves in ‘The Emergency’ as the Second World War was known here would break out and they would certainly not have known about the technological advances which would take place during their lifetime and change their lives forever.     

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The Port na Blagh and Dunfanaghy Fair

Dunfanaghy Fair Vintage Car

Monday the 7th of August was the annual August Bank Holiday here in the Republic, and for years it was traditionally a very busy day for Festivals in towns and villages up and down the country. None more so than in Port na Blagh and Dunfanaghy where Sports and Fairs have been traditionally held on this date for years.

For the months leading up to the Port na Blagh Sports Day, the hard-working local committee would be making preparations as well as getting the all-important sponsorship gathered up to keep the Sports Day going. The fundraising meant visiting businesses as far away as Letterkenny and members of the committee would spend a day visiting all the pubs and business premises on the Main Street in the Cathedral Town gathering much needed sponsorship.

The annual Port na Blagh Sports Day were held on ‘Mullens Keadue’ which is situated close to Port na Blagh Pier. This was one of the biggest sporting events in the North West, attracting the best athletes from around Donegal to compete as a medal won at this event was to be cherished. As well as the Track and Field events, there was also the Bonny Baby Competitions, Cycle Races, Curragh Races, Tug of War and the choosing of the lucky girl who would get the title of Miss Port na Blagh.

The Sports would be followed by the Annual Sports Dance in the nearby Pier Hotel, which used to be a mecca for dancers and disco goers for miles around but which is now sadly confined to the annals of history. 

The Portnablagh Sports ran for many very popular years before eventually fizzling out in the late 1990s, despite the best efforts of the organisers and this left a void in the Bank Holiday entertainment in the area.

It would not be too long however before this void was filled by another local event which from small beginnings grew into one of the biggest annual events in north west Donegal. 

In the early 1990s, Holy Trinity Church in Dunfanaghy were looking at ways of raising money for the Parish finances. For a number of years previously, the Church had been holding Coffee Mornings, Socials, ‘Donegal Evenings’ and teenage discos in the Parish Hall as well as a Table Quiz and Treasure Hunt. The Select Vestry at the time felt that another bigger event might be able to be held which would replace some of the smaller ones and put less pressure on the fundraisers. 

They had seen that the Sports in Port na Blagh had been discontinued and thought that it might be a good idea to start a new event in Dunfanaghy in its place.

To this end a ‘Car Boot Sale’ was organised for the Saturday of the August Bank Holiday in Charlie McKinley’s Field on the Horn Head Road and in the following years the Dunfanaghy August Fair Day, as it came to be known, was established. The event grew into one of the biggest and most popular events with thousands of people flocking to Charlie’s Field on a yearly basis to meet their friends and have a great day out. 

Over the years, all the local Churches used the Fair Day to raise finances and the Table Quiz and Treasure Hunt were also organised for the week prior to the Fair Day as well as new events added such as the Beetle Drive, Float Parade, Underage Disco and the Choosing of the August Fair Queen so that the event became the August Fair Festival Week. In the early years, events were also held in the Green at Arnolds Hotel on the Saturday and entertainment from the likes Conal Gallen would be held in the Marquee in the Field.  The Sheep Dog Trials and Sheep Judging in John Joe McGinley’s Field were also a very enjoyable part of the Fair for many years as was the Angling Competition on Purt Lake. In recent years also Dunfanaghy’s very own Dog Show has become a very popular event also.

The August Fair continued in Charlie’s Field for a long number of years before moving to its present location of a field in Figart Dunfanaghy overlooking the New Lake.

For a number of years also, Holy Cross Church organised a very enjoyable Country Concert in the Ozanam Centre in the weeks leading up to the August Fair and this has added to the pre-August Fair atmosphere in the area and the Creeslough and Killdarragh Fairs would also take place around this time of year bringing visitors into the area from far and near.

Sadly, due to the Pandemic, the Dunfanaghy August Fair Festival Week nor the Concert nor any of the forementioned events has not taken place for the for a few years. Then, in 2022, the August Fair Day returned to the Calander and is now being held on the Holy Trinity Parish grounds of the Hall, Church, Rectory and Church on the Horn Head Road with the majority of pre-fair events also returned. On Bank Holiday Monday last, crowds again gathered to enjoy the Dunfanaghy August Fair keeping the tradition of Festivals in this area going and hopefully it will continue long into the future.

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The Hunters Moon

Whilst it can often be cloudy in these parts, when we get a chance there are often many things to see in the night sky. From the planes carrying their passengers to and from far flung destinations, to the stars and planets, asteroids and shooting stars, even the International Space Station or even a UFO or two. The sky is fully of wonderful things to see, but by far the brightest light in the night sky is the Moon. On October 9th, the Hunter’s Moon, also known as the Blood Moon or Sanguine Moon, was high in the evening sky.
The Hunter’s Moon is the first full moon after the Harvest Moon which occurred last month, and it gets its name from the tradition that after the harvest, hunters began tracking and hunting heir prey so to stockpile food for the winter ahead. On the farm, October was also a very busy month as the last of the crops such as potatoes would at least begin to be gathered up and in many cases the corn stacks would be thrashed in the Haggard This would involve a man arriving with a thrasher and the local farmers would gather at the first farm to be visited by the tractor and thresher and then travel to all the farms to the neighbourhood until the work was completed. This day of hard work would sometimes be followed by a supper and dance to celebrate the saving of the harvest.
In the autumn months, there’s no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise for several days in a row, around the time of full moon, meaning there’s prolonged periods of light which is the reason why these moons have traditionally been used by hunters and farmers to finish their work. This is where the name comes from in Native American Folklore where they primarily hunted big game like deer. In Ireland, it would be used to hunt smaller game like rabbits, hares, foxes and other animals. As well as that, country folk used the light of the moon as they moved around their neighbours to visit. This was locally known as “rakking”. This was a great tradition when neighbours would gather in different houses each night to visit and ceili and play cards which would sometimes mean that they would be rather late returning to their own homes over the country lanes, boreens and hillsides. This would give more importance to the light of the Hunters Moon as often there would be a storyteller in the rambling house who would frighten those attending with ghost stories making the journey home more frightening.
In olden times before the coming of rural electricity there were supposed to be ghostly happenings in many areas especially in poorly lit country lanes and byways. In this area there were reports of headless gentlemen roaming about as well as white ladies, strange lights and other unexplained paranormal activities.
Unfortunately, the coming of the electricity has seemingly done away with these stories or maybe the spirits have just retreated into the shadows and are still there waiting to greet the unwary traveller – a lovely thought as we approach Halloween!
Likewise, the month of October is the month of the Rosary and those attending the evening October Rosary’s in their local churches would have saw and walked under the light of the Hunter’s Moon as they made their way often over long distances to and from Church.
Interestingly, the Hunter’s Moon is not usually any bigger or brighter than any of the other full moons. The only notable difference between it and other full moons is that the time between sunset and moonrise is shorter, usually as little as 30 minutes.
These are just a few of the events and culture associated with the Hunter Moon and the long October Evenings. What do you think of when you see a Hunter Moon?

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The Market Square

In the early 1830s and 1840s, the Stewart landlords embarked on a land reclamation project in the town of Dunfanaghy which completely transformed the centre of the town and turned it into the village that we know today. 

Prior to the reclamation project, Dunfanaghy Bay as it was known, would lap up to street level which can be seen in old maps of the area prior to the 1830s. Dunfanaghy has long been a Market Town and the records show that there was a grant made to a Hugh Hamill to hold a market in Dunfanaghy and Castlederg, Co. Tyrone, on the 6th of March, 1679.  According to the records, the present Pier was renovated around 1830 and then the area around the Pier and the Market Square was reclaimed. That area of the town from, Ramsay’s Stores, the Social Protection Offices (which were originally the Offices of the Stewart of Ards Estate) and the Stewart Arms Hotel were built and would go on to play an important part in the life of the local community ever since.

Towards the end of the reclamation and building of these structures, Ireland was hit by the Great Famine. The local Poor Law Commissioners had to come up with Famine Relief Schemes to support the local destitute and keep them out of The Workhouse.  While the majority of these projects made little impact since they were quite literally roads to nowhere – known today as “Famine Roads” – in the Dunfanaghy area two of these relief works are still very much in use-The Market House on The Square in Dunfanaghy and Port na Blagh Pier. 

Nowadays, the Market House is home to Revive and a Yoga Studio, but in days gone by the Market House was centre stage in some of the biggest historical and cultural events of the time as it served as a court house as well as being the centre of the monthly fairs and markets. From the time of its construction, the Square would be full of carts as the farmers in the local area would gather in to sell their animals and produce.  Those were the days when cash was king and deals would be done on a hand shake, a far cry from the Cashless Society that nowadays we seem to be fast becoming.  After the dealing was done, it was custom for the fair goers to retire to have a drink in one of the local Public Houses and it wouldn’t be uncommon for the day to end in a bout of fisticuffs in the square and some of the participants who might have earlier that day had made a ‘deal’ in the Market House would find themselves back in the same building at the next Petty Sessions to explain themselves to the magistrate.

Old pictures show gates in the ground floor of the Market House and this was to allow Judges and prisoners to get into the building, away from the public eye.

It was when the Market House was being used as a Court House that the building became known internationally. In 1888 Canon James McFadden was brought with 19 others following the death of Inspector Martin after he tried to arrest McFadden outside St. Mary’s Church in Derrybeg during the Land War.  The trial was then moved to Portlaoise.  After a protracted trial, McFadden was eventually released and would continue to fight for the rights of his community as well as play an important part in the Fundraising for the new Cathedral in Letterkenny.   

A few years later in 1905, Padraig Pearse, one of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamatio,  would defend Niall Mac Giolla Bhridge in the Four Courts in Dublin when the authorities decided to prosecute Mac Giolla Bhridge for having his name written in Gaelic on his cart, which was considered an “illegible script.” This court case began in the Market House before moving to Dublin and the event is commemorated by a memorial Plaque which was erected in 2016.

Although these were just a couple of the high-profile cases to come before, the Dunfanaghy Assizes in those a look at the old records would suggest that most of the cases were more mundane and of their time including cases of Poitín making, working/fishing on a Sunday and breaking the Sabbath Day. There were also convictions for assault and fighting and a case of rioting at Crossroads (Falcarragh), having illegal weights and measures was another common offence as were farmers getting fined for having livestock wandering on a public road or street. There is one unfortunate case where a mother was charged with assaulting the Master of Dunfanaghy Workhouse after getting charged with deserting her children just before that – a sign no doubt of the abstract poverty which existed in the Petty Sessions area at that time.  

After independence the Market House continued to serve as the Court House in Dunfanaghy up until the early 1990s. 

The Market House continued to play an instrumental part in the life of the local community over the years; from hosting showbands at the dances that were held there, to hosting boxing contenders and actors.  The first of these to appear was Jack Doyle ‘The Gorgeous Gael’, who was billed to appear in a show there in the 1950s. Unfortunately for Doyle’s fans, who had gathered that night, were left a bit underwhelmed with their hero as Doyle who was known to enjoy a glass of Brandy or two or three enjoyed the hospitality of O’Donnell’s House across the street and only appeared at the end of the night where he gave a rendition of McNamara’s Band before promptly leaving the building and ending his visit to Dunfanaghy.

The Market House also housed a Badminton Club, and on occasion the late John Mandy Gallagher would come to show films with his travelling cinema.  It was also home to the weekly Bingo Session as well as to Santa on his yearly visits to Dunfanaghy. 

Dunfanaghy Boxing Club was founded over forty years ago and in the intervening years Eddie Harkin and the late Michael Durning and the other coaches of the club punched well above their weight producing multiple Ulster and Irish Champions a few of whom went on to fight in the professional ranks.  Indeed, the Market House and The Square beside it was often the location to welcome home these boxing champions. Among the Boxing greats to visit the club during its time in the Market House was Derry’s own Charlie Nash and Randall “Tex” Cobb an American Boxer and Actor who in 1982 had boxed Larry Holmes for the WBC World Heavyweight Championship.  Unlike Jack Doyle Nash and Cobb were only too delighted to meet and mingle with their fans.  

The Market House was also the home of the Dunfanaghy Community Band and the Market Square was where the people of Dunfanaghy gathered to see Charlie Nash announce Sammy McGarvey as the Lord Mayor of Dunfanaghy in 1978 and where locals gathered to welcome Anthony Molloy and the Donegal Team with the Sam Maguire Cup in 1992.

In recent years there have been plans to refurbish the Market House which is a focal point for the town which has played a very important part not just in the life of Dunfanaghy but the wider north west area over the past 175 years.

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Lughnasadh and The Tailteann Games

Tailteann Games

In Ireland, August is when two very important events occur; the first harvest of the year, and the festival season kicking off. Festivals have been an integral part of our history for thousands of years and have carried on to the modern day with new, innovative ways of engaging with our heritage while still maintaining a very traditional, if not ancient, celebration of life, agriculture and culture. The most famous, and one of oldest running, is the Puck Fair which as been going on since the 17th century, but many communities much like our own have smaller local fairs and festivals in the early part of August, but beyond it being associated with the harvest season, why else do you think we have so many localised fairs and festivals nationally, and do you ever think it’s associated to an Old Irish God?

Well, if you are not familiar with it already, the first of August is actually a festival in the Irish Celtic Calendar from ancient times. This festival is called Lughnasadh and its origins date back to when Ireland followed a polytheistic faith. The name is believed to be derived from the God of Craft and the Arts, Lugh Lamhfada or Lugh of the Long Hand – a greatly skilled hero and warrior in Irish Mythology who also has ties to the harvest and warrior culture. According to legend, Lugh was cast from the shores of Toraigh Island by his Grandfather, Balor of the Evil Eye, and was raised by his Foster Mother Taitliu. After clearing the plains of Ireland for settlement, she died and Lugh created a harvest festival with funeral games in her honour known as Áenach Tailteann. During this, there would be events honouring the dead, proclaiming the laws and the festivities following. Some of the sporting including running, hurling, spear throwing, archery and even horse racing, and the festival, much like today, would have competitions in crafting and music and food. Due to these great sporting events and competitions, the Tailteann Games are often referred to as the Irish Olympics because of this!

One of the stranger events that took place were mass arranged marriages where couples would often meet for the first time before being married amongst other brides and grooms. If you didn’t like your spouse though, you had a year and a day to decide of you wanted to divorce them.

This festival also celebrated the beginning of the harvest season. People would celebrate by cooking grand feasts, playing music, selling their wares and revitalising their connection with nature as the Irish landscape was bursting with produce and foliage. We still see this today with events like the Pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday in July. Lughnasadh is actually the last of the major festivals in the Celtic Calendar.

Today, the festivals that we have across Ireland have evolved into something new that reflects our ever-changing climate while still honouring and preserving ancient tradition. If you have a festival coming up in your community, take a moment and consider how this yearly festival has its roots in our rich line of cultures and traditions.

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Ards Forest Park – A Brief History

Today, The Ards Forest Parks one of the most popular tourist attractions in County Donegal with walkers and families travelling from far and near to enjoy the walks, trails and all facilities at the park. These facilities include a developed play park, the Coffee Tree Coffee Shop and art installations throughout the park.

The Ards Forest Park, which is maintained by Coillte, is a relatively new addition to the local landscape.  During the a time when the park was owned by landlords, the area the park now covers was once the Stewart Bam Estate. The Landlord carried out a number of improvements to the land including putting a sluice gate on to control the ebb and flow the water into the canal, which is still to be seen today.  These measures prevented flooding in the area for generations. However, in more recent years the sluice gate has been damaged and flooding is now a problem not just in the park but also for farmers in the surrounding countryside. During this time, a tunnel was also built from Ards House all the way to St. John’s Church in Ballymore supposedly so that the lady of the House could make her way to Sunday Service without meeting any of her tenants.

The area covered by the park was once a vibrant community and the main road between Letterkenny and Dunfanaghy passed through it.  Indeed, one of the last intact milestones to be found in the area can be seen close to the entrance to the Park still signposting the way between the two towns and Kilmacrennan.  There used to be more milestones in the locality but they were destroyed by the Local Defense Volunteers. There also used to be a village situated in the Forest beside what is now the Ballymore Bray.  There was even a Presbyterian Church in the Village but the village and Church were abandoned when the residents were evicted and rehoused elsewhere as the Stewart Landlord built a boundary wall around his estate which stretched from Ballymore to the Log Cabin. Parts of this wall can still be seen along the route of the N56. As part of the great temperance crusade of the 1800’s, Father Mathew addressed a large number of people on top of what is now known as Medal Hill.

After the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 many of the Landlords left Ireland and their land and Houses passed into the possession of newly formed Irish Land Commission and the Ards Estate was sold to the Capuchin Order and the Irish Forestry Service which then set about establishing what is now Ards Forest Park.  This involved planting thousands of trees and developing the facilities that we take for granted today. This was hard work and men from all over the locality would make their way on foot or on bicycles to the White Gate to begin their day’s work

Today, according to Coillte, the park covers approximately 480 hectares (1200 acres) and includes a variety of habitats, among them sand dunes, beaches, salt marshes, salt water lakes, rock face and, of course, coniferous and deciduous woodlands and is a powerful asset for the recreational and tourism fabric of the local community a far cry from times gone by when the landed gentry were in charge of this beautiful part of county Donegal.

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Tory Island and It’s History

This week’s Sheephaven History looks to one of the most inconic shapes in our landscape – Tory Island. Inis Toraigh or Tory is an island located off the coast of Donegal and, while small, is steeped in history with a rich tradition of music and mythology, as well as being a bastion of Ireland’s language and culture.  

For centuries, the island has stood as beacon in the Atlantic as it keeps a lookout on the continuing history of Ireland from ancient times right up to the present day. The Island has witnessed turbulent times from invasions to Wars and to Famines, and yet its people have remained steadfast against it all. The Islanders are fiercely proud of their island and its way of life, and visitors have traveled to the island in their thousands every year to immerse themselves in the language and Tory culture. Up until a few years ago, visitors were even greeted as they landed at the pier by the late King of Tory himself, Patsy Dan Rodgers. The rich tradition of Irish Kingship dates back millennium, and this made Tory one of the final places in Ireland with a King. 

Battles and warfare are as part of Tory’s narrative as the waves surrounding it, with many important parts taking place in its waters in both the History and Pseudohistory of Ireland. In the Lebor Gabhála Érenn or Book of Invasions, a medieval text which accounts for the mythical origins and history of ancient Ireland, Tory was the home of the Fomorian Stronghold, the enemies of the occupants of the mainland. According to legend, the third invaders of Ireland, the Nemedians, battled the Fomorians at the Conand’s Tower on the island, Conand being a Fomorian King. The later King of the Fomorians, Balor of the Evil Eye, locked his daughter Eithlinn in a tower on the island called Tor Mór in an attempt to prevent a prophecy that his death would come from her children.    

In more recent history, great battles and sieges took place around the island. In 1608, the Siege of Tory Island took place during O’Doherty’s Rebellion when surviving rebels from the rebellion made their last stand against the Crown on Tory Island. In 1798, the Battle of Tory Island (also known as the Battle of Donegal or the Battle of Lough Swilly) took place on October 12th between the French and British Squadrons during the Irish Rebellion. This was led by Wolfe Tone and the Society of United Irishmen and it was after this final Battle that Wolfe Tone was later captured by the British. In 1884, the HMS Wasp was on a mission to collect rents on the Island when it struck the rocks at Tory Lighthouse and was lost. Coincidentally, the Navy launched another HMS Wasp in 1886 but it disappeared at Sea a year later and was never heard from again. They may have wisely decided to not name another HMS Wasp after this. In 1914, on October 27th, the first British battleship of WWI was lost. This super-dreadnought ship, the HMS Audacious, was sunk off the island when it hit a minefield laid by a German merchant-cruiser. Officially, this loss was not publicisided until three days after WWI officially ended in 1918. The passengers of the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic, witnessed and photographed its sinking. This is only one of many other ships that would have sunk around Tory in the two World Wars, and it is sus[ected that there are over three hundred wrecks in the vicinity of the island with the loss of thousands of lives. 

In more recent years, the Tory Islanders have faced battles which threatened their way of life and the island’s very existence. In the 1970s, the future of Tory came under threat when the authorities tried to depopulate the island but the islanders fought the campaign to save their island. Despite the fact that half the population left the island, those who stayed oversaw great developments on the island such as the Ferry Service, New Pier and the building of a New Secondary School.  Tory has been a thriving hub of life for the past 5,000 years filled with music, stories and tradition, and today not much has changed. Tory is a thriving and close-knit community that everyone should visit and if you do, be sure to take in the stunning views, the lifestyle and maybe practice some Irish while you’re there!  https://www.toryferry.com/about

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Begging in Dunfanaghy

In the 19th century, alongside the tragedy that was the Great Famine, the people of Ireland were already familiar with their crops failing and imminent starvation. Prior to the introduction of the Poor Laws and the building of the Workhouses, there was no place for the poor to go for relief, and it would be years before the introduction of the old age pension. Due to these circumstances, our great grandparents would have been familiar with ‘beggars’ walking along the byways and boreens of county Donegal. 

Prior to the opening of the Workhouses and Asylums, there were few places for people to go for help. In 1836, a report from the Commissioners of Inquiry regarding the conditions of the poorer classes in Ireland was published. This report gives us an insight into what life was like for the poor in Ireland several years before the Famine, and includes a section on the Parish of Clondehorkey which includes the town of Dunfanaghy entitled “Vagrancy – as a Mode of Relief”. It says:

 “It is impossible to ascertain the number of vagrants here; there was, however, an apparent increase of vagrancy last year, most particularly which Mr. Harper, a farmer, attributed it to the failure of the crops. From April to August is the period of the year at which vagrancy is most common; their own stock of potatoes being exhausted; the poor people are obliged to have recourse to mendicancy.  The majority of traveling beggars (who generally consist of old people), and women with tribes of children, go to strange parishes to seek alms; shame prevents them from remaining in their own parishes.  When employment is scarce, the labourer’s wife starts on a begging tour and leaves the husband to support themselves as well as he can. It is a common practise with the cottier tenants (having set their potatoes) to wander about the country seeking alms. There are also many beggars who had been farm servants; but very few tradesmen, as they show the greatest reluctance to beg and suffer the greatest privation before they do so. There have been no instances of small farmers in this neighborhood having transferred their property to their children, in order to adopt a vagrant life.” 

Destitution is generally the primary cause, but laziness often induces mendicancy.  It depends on the season, the supply of food in the country, and the tale he tells of the state of the family behind him, whether a sturdy beggar can obtain much more food than he consumes; but in most cases they obtain more food than they can obtain themselves.

Those who can afford to do so, generally increase the quantity they give in proportion to the number in the group, though every poor giver can only give a trifle in either case; they seldom separate in order that different members of the same family should apply for alms to the same individuals, they find it more in their interest to remain in in groups so as to excite pity.  Among discriminating persons there is always a difference made in favour of the infirm; nevertheless, the able bodied may get more in the day from visiting more places; and their having children to take about aften prevents beggars from getting so much as they otherwise could, as they cannot travel so much as when unencumbered.

The plea of those persons who seem to be able to work always is that they cannot get the work.”

There are some instances of beggars encouraging the appearance of rags, dirt, and lameness, in order to excite sympathy, some, who state they were shipwrecked sailors, are in the habit of producing forged certificates. 

A Mr Hugh O’Donnell, speaking of the poor in the area, is quoted in saying: “they are forced to beg and it is only when they and their children are half starved, that they do beg”. The poor of Dunfanaghy were not of the dissolute habits and were never known to have been concerned in any outrages on persons or property. “I have seen” Hugh continues, “ a poor woman with only one child dividing her meal with another who had five children”.

Mr. Harper, the farmer referenced in the report, relates the following from his own account of witnessing beggars: “I knew one case where a woman having only one child of her own appeared with four and she admitted afterwards to me that she had borrowed them”.  A local man named Mr Stewart states that he frequently saw the same children coming with different individuals to his father’s house.

Our own Wee Hannah Herrity, whose story you can hear in our exhibition, took to begging towards the end of her life. She was not ashamed for begging, as she recognised that for many people this was their only means of survival during these harsh times. 

Alm = Something (such as money or food) given freely to relieve the poor distributing alms to the needy.

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The Stewarts of Horn Head

Horn Head House

For those who travel the Wild Atlantic Way, one of the sites that they might see is an old imposing mansion nestled overlooking the Forestry on the way into Hornhead known locally as ‘Big House’. The façade of the building might be old and decaying now but for two centuries the old Hornhead House was the home of the powerful Stewart family of Hornhead who were the local landlords in the area. 

This branch of the Stewart’s claimed Royal Blood. According to family history the Stewarts of Horn Head are traditionally descended from the Stewarts of Darnley, ancestors of the Earls of Lennox, the later Royal Stewarts and the Dukes of Lennox whose title merged with the Crown in 1872.  They are most likely therefore a branch of the Stewarts of Reiss in Renfrewshire of which several family members went to Ireland in the 17th Century. 

Parts of the present Hornhead House was built by local O’Boyle Chieftain and dates from the 14th Century.  In the 1600’s, the area was granted to Captain John Forward and Captain William Sampson who sold the extensive Donegal Estate of Horn Head on the 4th February 1700 to Charles Stewart. He was the High Sheriff of Donegal in 1707.  He was originally an Officer in the Regiment of Foot commanded by William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy.   The Stewart family continued to reside at Horn Head until 1922 and the Estate was sold in 1934. 

Charles Stewart was succeeded by his son Frederick Stewart, who died on the 7th April 1768.  One of his other son’s, Andrew, was killed following a fall from his horse.  His eldest Son Charles inherited the Horn Head Estate on the death of Frederick and both men were High Sheriffs of Donegal.  Charles Stewart built the Front Porch on Horn Head House and he also put the first tenants on Horn Head so perhaps some of us can trace our ancestor’s arrival in the area back to this time.  Capt. Stewart died in 1799 and was succeeded by his eldest son who was also the High Sheriff of Donegal.  He married four times during his lifetime and had 17 children.  It was during his lifetime that the improvements were made to the Horn Head Estate including the building of the Hornhead Bridge. He was succeeded by his eldest son the Rev. Charles Stewart. He was not succeeded by his eldest son William as he had died in 1864. He was a Captain in the 3rd Regt. Of Foot (The Buffs) and had seen action in the Crimean War and in China. His second son also died in 1844 and so he was succeeded by his 3rd son Charles Frederick, of whom’s daughter, Emily Anne, was married on the 6th October 1883 to Rev. John Brodie the first Rector of Dunfanaghy Parish Church (Holy Trinity) from 1773 until 1905.  It was during Charles Frederick’s time that the land around Horn Head House was cleared of all stones providing the good fertile land that is still evident today.  This stone was also used to build the stone ditches which can still be seen in the area till this day.  He was succeeded by his eldest son Charles Frederick Stewart who was the last of the Stewart Landlords to live in Horn Head House.  The last representative of the line was Lindsey Stewart. 

The Stewart’s employed a large staff in the house and estate. They also owned the town of Falcarragh and during their time in Horn Head, the family had lived through many wars and revolutions at home and abroad including The Great War. They also lived through the Famine and Charles Frederick Stewart was on the Board of Guardians in the Dunfanaghy Workhouse during this time. 

During the time of the Stewart landlordship, the area greatly changed.  There was no road access to Dunfanaghy from Horn Head and the only way out was to cross the strand which would have been dangerous as the strand that we see now was more of a Bay. They could also cross a small bridge near Errarooey called Trimnaburn part of which still survives.  In 1809, the Hornhead Bridge was built. When the storm of 1917 occurred it altered the scenery, not just of Horn Head House but of the entire peninsula. The Marram Grass, which had been growing on the Sand Dunes to protect them, was cut by the landlord and sent to the Front in France to provide bedding for horses.  Unfortunately, the sand dunes blew with the strong winds silting up the Sand bar in Dunfanaghy, preventing water from getting out and the New Lake was formed.  The Bridge was blocked and the fine surroundings of Horn Head House which was home to Tennis Courts, Terraced Drives, Orchards and a Canal was destroyed by the sands which left the area unrecognizable and from which it never really recovered.  

After 1922, Stewart still returned to the area for holidays and still expected his tenants to save his turf for him.  The last person to live in the big house was Mrs. Short. Hornhead House and part of the farm was bought by local man Billy Durning who lived with his family in the Coach Mans House adjoining the property for many years, before its sale a number of years ago.  The rest of the Estate was divided up amongst the tenants.  Some of the land was planted out in trees by the Forestry Service. 

Mrs Short, the last person to live in the house, had only one servant.  She was described as a strange woman. She always wore black and traveled around in the area in a Black Trap which was pulled by a black horse and the locals were a little afraid of her and it was said that she practiced “The Black Arts”. She had come from England and it was said that she had a hand in the death of her husband.  When she lived in another property in Horn Head, she used to white wash the brace of the wall above the fireplace but it was said that no matter how often she washed it, his face would always appear in it.

The Stewart’s were not the worst of the Landlords in this area. I remember interviewing Frances McElhinney from Horn Head around the time of her 100th birthday in 2001 and she has vivid memories of working in the House as a young girl and minding young Master Lindsey when he was a child. Another more recent story is one of the sons of Charles Stewart who left Hornhead in 1739 for the American colonies to work as a clergyman.  Interestingly, three years ago a descendant of this man who is still a clergyman in America visited the area with his granddaughter and was astonished to find that Horn Head House where his ancestor left from almost three centuries before was still standing..

The era of the English Landlord is long gone in Ireland but memories of this period can still be found in the memorials to the Stewart Family in Holy Trinity Church in Dunfanaghy and in their graves which can be seen inside the old Church of Clondehorkey at Kill.

Perhaps one of the more colourful aspects of the history of Hornhead House occurred just four years before the Stewarts bought the land and the house when in June 1696 the King of the Pirates, Henry Avery, sailed his ship full of stolen plunder into Dunfanaghy Bay after hot footing it across the Atlantic with the Navy on his tail. He engaged the occupants of Horn Head House in a short gun battle before he outwitted the local coastguard and made his escape again. Interestingly this was the last confirmed sighting of Avery and he was never seen again. This is just one story in the long history of Horn Head House.

Dunfanaghy may be best known today as a tourist destination but perhaps this might not always been the case as in the 1700’s a Clergyman in Killybegs warned his congregation against landing in the area and described the natives as being wild saying “that if the sea would not drown you, then the natives would kill you”. Thankfully, the welcome for the visitors is much more cordial in the area now!

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The Second Battle of Moytura

For 2022, we want to start sharing more posts to do with our cultural heritage and our Mythology, so we’re starting up Mythology Monday with our Heritage Officer, Róisín. Even if it’s a condensed version, it’s so important that we’re able to share these stories and this week we’re starting with one very close to home, the Battle of Maigh Tuireadh.

In an Ireland times gone by, a great battle took place to restore the honour of the old Gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Tuatha were made up of Gods and Heroes that nurtured the earth and the mortals, gods like Brighid, the Dagda and Dian Cecht. For years they had been oppressed by the Fomorians under their king, Bres, but enough was enough. They raised their armies to fight their oppressors and reclaim Ireland.

They fought ferociously against the Fomorian armies, the Dagda lifting his great club, Nuada slicing with his sword, the Claomh Solais, and the Morrígú crying out their battle cry but the Fomorians pressed on. Their leader, Balor, struck down their men with his Evil Eye, a cursed third eye which killed any man in its line. However, when things seemed lost, Lugh Lamfhada rose. Lugh, son of Eithne and Grandson of Balor, stood with the Tuatha and faced his Grandfather. Balor laughed, as all Lugh had before him was a slingshot – such a weapon could not defeat him! But Lugh was not deterred. He swung his arm and fired a stone towards Balor’s head. The stone ripped through his evil eye and Balor and the Fomorians fell.

The Tuatha were victorious, and Lugh took his ranks amongst them. Prosperity returned to Ireland and the Fomorians retreated back to the sea and their fort at Tory Island.

Suggest other myths you’d like to see next week! The reason why this is so close to home? Some versions of the myth say this battle took place in the Poisoned Glen in Dunlewey! In fact, it’s said Balor is buried in the side of Errigal.

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