Copies of the Donegal Annual 2023 are now available to purchase in the bookshop. The Donegal Annual is an annual publication of articles on Donegal local history, published by the Donegal Historical Society since 1947. This year’s Table of Contents is as follows: President of County Donegal Historical Society – Rev. Raymond Alexander Blair Eithne Coyle and the Struggle for Irish Nationhood – Méadhbha Ní Bhaoill Joseph Murray: Revolutionary, Teacher and Garda – Niamh Brennan Untold – Donegal Women in…
Looking forward to the launch of the 75th Donegal Annual at the Magill Summer School in Glenties, Co. Donegal, this weekend, at 4pm on Saturday August the 19th in the Highlands Hotel. The Donegal Historical Society are very fortunate that Dr. Joe Mulholland himself will launch the annual, and we’re very grateful to have been included in such a prestigious programme. All are welcome to attend, booking is not required. Copies of the annual will be available for sale at…
As we’re coming back round to the annual country and music spectacular that is the Clonmany Festival, while I won’t be grandad-dancing myself (my granddaughter is now approaching her 25th birthday) I intend to be a spectator in the Square in the village. The scenes of dancing and merriment which we’ve become accustomed to at the festival may give rise to thoughts of how life in the town has changed over time. My thoughts may bring me back 140 years…
Copies of the Donegal Annual 2022 are now available via the Bookshop. Table of Contents The Garda Síochána in Donegal (1922-1923) – Seán Beattie Night of Terror in Mountcharles – Helen Meehan The Border in Finnegans Wake: ‘the sanguine boundary limit’ – Donal Manning In Search of Fahan Mura – L. S. McLaughlin Richard Hayward’s Donegal Connection – Paul Clements Painting Life in the Rosses: W. H. Bartlett (1856-1932) – Raymond Blair Bundoran Golf Club: Unique Sporting Inscription – Anthony…
RTE A Word in Edgeways – Thanks to Sheila O’Callaghan and Shay Byrne for the invitation to broadcast on the show. See below: https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22010513/
Happy Feast of Colmcille Day! To mark the occasion, I was invited to read a short piece on the saint on RTÉ’s Edgeways series this morning, as part of the ‘Rising Time’ early morning show. The image featured here is the cross slab at Port Cille, Shrove, Inishowen Peninsula, where Colmcille stopped off having sailed down Lough Foyle for the last time on his way to Iona. He came ashore to climb the hill hoping to get one last view…
How the 1918 flu changed the course of the War of Independence in Donegal The Covid-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect not only on our social life and freedoms but also on our economy. It was no different in the last great pandemic in 1918 known as the Spanish Flu. Largely forgotten until recently, the Spanish Flu had similar consequences for our forebears. In the case of Donegal, it had a dramatic impact on the War of Independence a…
History and Folklore Seán Beattie Recently going through my records, I came across a series of interviews I conducted in the 1990s with the late Johnny O’Donnell of Cruckaveel, Ballyharry. He had a vivid recollection of times past and what follows is a short version of some of our discussions. One hundred years ago, in March 1921, the villages of Carrowmena and Ballymagarraghy became victims of the Black and Tans during the War of Independence. Reports of Volunteer drilling in…
Photo (L-R): Jim Crumlish (accordion), Robert Carey (tenor saxophone), Dan McCann (singer and drums), Charlie O’Kane (trumpet), Margaret Fullerton, Malin (piano). While the late 1950s and early 1960s are recognised as the era of the great showbands, they have their origins in the local bands performing in rural towns and villages in the early 1950s. This was the post-war era with life returning to normal, and people were keen to get out and enjoy themselves (sound familiar?). The Tremone Dance…
Seán Beattie Sixty years ago this September coming (1961), a group of Council workers were working in a quarry set in a dune landscape, 200 yards behind Lagg Presbyterian church. The quarry can still be seen today from the church grounds. Working with shovels, they came across 3 rectangular box-like stone structures covered by a large flagstone. On opening the first, they found a male skeleton lying in a crouched position; a second slab was raised to reveal a female…