A light walk ‘thoís cois na trá’ (meaning down at the beach) around Belcruit and Cill Bhríde, Cruit Island and the resting places of Patrick O’ Donnell, composer of the Gaelic song Thoís cois na trá, and Seán McBride composer of The Homes of Donegal. Hear the stories of a giant’s grave, an ancient turas or pilgrimage, holy wells, monastic settlement, the Battle of the Atlantic, tsunami, the little people and much, much more. Distance: 3 km, Duration: 2 hr.
A light walk around the Bunbeg Harbour while hearing stories of Lord George Hill and his Biblical Proverbs, Shipwrecks, An Gorta Mór, Land War, Coastguard Stations, War of Independence, Commercial Fishing, Commerce and much more. Distance: 1 km, Duration: 2 hr.
A light walk on Mullaghderg’s golden beach, view the resting place of a Spanish Armada treasure ship, an early 19th century signal tower and an ancient cemetery much, much more.
In the townland of Mullaghderg near KIncasslagh in west Donegal lies a headland named Rinnalea on the ordnance map or locally called The Ranny Liaths, a Hiberno-English version from the vernacular Na Rannaigh Liath meaning the grey headland at sea level. Although recorded in state papers from the Ulster PIantation as Rinnalea, I find that the name has evolved because the heath covered headland is neither grey nor at sea level.
Situated in the back garden of the Mullaghderg ale-house formerly known as the Red House, the Teach Bán and later the Tower Bar there was a medieval church and graveyard called Cill Feic which according to tradition meant the churchyard of the foreigner. Looking in Irish English dictionaries the word Feic is not to be found and the only word for foreigner is Gall as in Dún na nGall (Donegal) or na gallólaigh(gallowglasses) meaning foreign warrior.
This holy site is now lost in the mist of time with advancing overgrowth covering the simple grave markers. William Dudgeon of Mullaghderg who died in Dunfanaghy Workhouse in 1885 was the last to be laid to rest here, thus ending a millennium of use. According to Canon Maguire in his book History of the Diocese of Raphoe, this cell was founded by Naomh Dubhtach of Innisdooey who flourished in the tenth century.
Herman Moll 1716 AD Nicolaum Vesscher 1689 AD
From the sixteenth century and for the next three hundred years English and European cartographers have been inserting a place called St Helens or S~Helena in an area between Annagry and Keadue strands and sometime they place it on the headland or bay named S Helens Head or Haven. St Helena gradually disappears from the charts towards the end of the 18th century with Mullaghderg appearing for the first time in 1759. Mullaghderg and S Hellens (or various forms of both names) never appeared together on the same map.
But what could St Helena mean? There are a number of places with this name in England and elsewhere, but only a few have been recorded in Ireland. One of these is situated near the present day Euro-Port of Rosslare in Co. Wexford. Now known as Killilane, it is a phonetic translation of Cill Fia or Liath, a medieval church. Killea on the Donegal-Derry border although not phonetically changed, has many possible meanings such as Cill Liath (grey church), Cill Aodha (Hugh’s church), Cill Fhiach (St Fiach’s church). Cill Fiach could also mean the church of the ravens.
Whatever the adjective connected to the word Cill or Hell, the church recorded in west Rosses by cartographer William Petty in his map of Ireland 1689 with an icon representing a ecclesiastical centre lends it name to the headland Rinnalea. Rev. Frederick Corfield used the title Perpetual Curate of Mullaghderg as late as 1850. Since the reformation and establishment of the Protestant faith in Ireland, Anglicans often took over church buildings that had their origins in ‘Celtic’ christianity. Was Rinnalea originally called Rann Cill Liath meaning the headland of the grey church or abbey or the headland of the church with an long forgotten description? Did cartographers take the old place name and record it phonetically as Hel-ene Head and St Helena?
We progress on our tour, down the newly built boardwalk leading on to the golden sands of the Mullaghderg Strand, a hoop shaped beach enclosed by two of the great headlands of the Rosses, Rann na gCaorach and Rinnalea. On the shore adjacent to the boardwalk there is a plaque erected on a granite rock commemorating the swimming disaster on the 13th July 1971 where four youngsters lost their lives.
Half way along the strand there is a semi submerged reef, visible at low tide. This rock, the only one on the strand has been called the Spanish rock ever since a ship of the Spanish Armada ran aground near it in mid September 1588. This unidentified ship of war foundered here after a round robin bid to escape the English Navy after a series of battles in the English Channel that forced the Armada to sail around Scotland and Ireland return home. The winter storms that began early in 1588, forced the convoy of ships to veer from their course and seek refuge of the coast.
These sailors would have seen a very different topography than that of today; a safe inlet stretching back into the hills, with none of the large sand-hills that accumulated in later years. They set a course to travel straight up the centre of this loch, but were most unfortunate to strike the only reef in the cove. Local folklore records that Spanish were taken under the protection of Eoghan Mac Suibhne, chieftain at Port an Chaislean near Cloughglass. The survivors would later go on to train the forces of Tír Chonnaill in siege, musket and pike warfare in their victory against the English at Ballyshannon in 1597. The Spanish dead were buried in the nearby Cill Feic a medieval churchyard that we will discus later in this account. The Sweeney clansmen would have gained from the small arms, lead ballast, timber and money aboard, but their greatest prize was the Arab ponies. These clean-limbed and lively ponies changed travel in the remote north west, where the only accessible and safe paths were along the shore. From their arrival until the increase in population in the nineteenth century they were the main form of transport. It was said that these Arab ponies once carried a nine gallon keg of poitín as far as Fintona in Co. Tyrone.
Due to crossbreeding with other breeds of horses, the Arabs were in decline from the 1830’s, and with the introduction of larger work horse breeds from the 1880’s and full bred stallions introduced from South Africa by the Congested Districts Board, the true Armada ponies became extinct. Arab ponies were breed in the Inishowen as late as the 1940s, while the similar Connemara’s are still breed worldwide.
While the name of the shipwreck was never established, the most popular name at present is the Barca de h’Amburg or the Barque from Hamburg in Germany. The 600ton Barca de h’Amburg, of the Urca class had a crew of 264 two hundred and twenty four, mostly soldiers with twenty brass cannon guns, and a cargo of golden treasure.
Over the years other names have been suggested. Some locals called it The Most Holy Trinity. There were a number of ships with the name Trinity or Trinadad in Spanish but very little of these fits the description of a ship with a seventy foot keel, thus a vessel of six to eight hundred tons. Other names suggested was the Julianna or the San Marcos with the Marquis de Penifel aboard. The Julianna was positively identified recently as one of the wrecks on Streedagh Strand in Sligo, while the San Marcos foundered at Spanish Point, Co. Clare.
Over the years the burned out fore-castle of ship could be seen at low ebbs. The earliest recorded appearance was at the end of the eighteenth century when a team of sixty men led by Connell Boyle of Falmore, Maghery together with Paddy McGonagle, a diver from Owey Island retrieved five brass guns. They lifted the heavy guns by securing a rope around them and connecting them to the stern of five rowing boats at low tide and when the tide was at full spring, the oarsmen were able to lift the guns and transport them ashore. When ashore, they dragged the guns to higher ground where they melted the brass in a fire fuelled by many cart loads of black turf. When the brass was soft enough, it was broken it up and loaded onto the four horse carts and brought to Glenties to sell. There three cartloads equaling thirty hundredweight was sold to a Hugh Mulreany from Mountcharles for four pence halfpenny per pound totalling £15 while the last load was sold for one schilling per pound making the increased amount of £56.
Hugh Mulreany started a foundry with the profits made on this sale and went on to become a successful businessman making spades, turf spades and other agricultural implements.
Sheet No.18- The Rosses surveyed by Captain George Bedford R.N., in 1853 showing the wreck site
While riding across the strand in the 1850s the Perpetual Rector of Mullaghderg and his daughter came upon a cannon gun bearing the Spanish Royal Arms with the date 1586 lying in the sand, some sixty tree yards from high tide mark. The Rector returned several days later with help, but it was not to be found, covered again by the sands of time.
There were further salvage attempts including one by the Admiralty in September 1852, but nothing of value was recovered. With the change of tides the wreck slowly sank into the sands. In 1893 an attempt was made using long iron rods to probe the sand in an effort to locate the vessel and in the hope to lift the hull, but this was unsuccessful. The Derry Sub Aqua team who located other Armada wrecks came to Mullaghderg to dive on the spot in 1960, but the sands didn’t yield any sign of a wreck ever being there. Hopefully some day her treasures may be unearthed again.
It is interestingly to note the discovery of a skeleton in the sand dunes in 1901 ‘with perfect teeth and bones as white as snow’ and buried in a north/south orientation; a possible relic from the wreckage.
At the end of the strand the most peculiar rock can be viewed. This type of rock have long since been a source of study by antiquarians and students of geology at many leading universities. The outcrop of red granite with curved shapes has intrusions called orbicular granite and Mullaghderg Strand is one of only a handful of such occurrences in the Northern Hemisphere.
Donie Sweeney inspecting Mullaghderg granite
named Rinnalea on the ordnance map or locally called The Ranny Liaths, a Hiberno-English version from the vernacular Na Rannaigh Liath meaning the grey headland at sea level. Although recorded in state papers from the Ulster PIantation as Rinnalea, I find that the name has evolved because the heath covered headland is neither grey nor at sea level.
Situated in the back garden of the Mullaghderg ale-house formerly known as the Red House, the Teach Bán and later the Tower Bar there was a medieval church and graveyard called Cill Feic which according to tradition meant the churchyard of the foreigner. Looking in Irish English dictionaries the word Feic is not to be found and the only word for foreigner is Gall as in Dún na nGall (Donegal) or na gallólaigh (gallowglasses) meaning foreign warrior.
This holy site is now lost in the mist of time with advancing overgrowth covering the simple grave markers. William Dudgeon of Mullaghderg who died in Dunfanaghy Workhouse in 1885 was the last to be laid to rest here, thus ending a millennium of use. According to Canon Maguire in his book History of the Diocese of Raphoe, this cell was founded by Naomh Dubhtach of Innisdooey who flourished in the tenth century.
From the sixteenth century and for the next three hundred years English and European cartographers have been inserting a place called St Helens or S~Helena in an area between Annagry and Keadue strands and sometime they place it on the headland or bay named S Helens Head or Haven. St Helena gradually disappears from the charts towards the end of the 18th century with Mullaghderg appearing for the first time in 1759. Mullaghderg and S Hellens (or various forms of both names) never appeared together on the same map.
But what could St Helena mean? There are a number of places with this name in England and elsewhere, but only a few have been recorded in Ireland. One of these is situated near the present day Euro-Port of Rosslare in Co. Wexford. Now known as Killilane, it is a phonetic translation of Cill Fia or Liath, a medieval church. Killea on the Donegal-Derry border although not phonetically changed, has many possible meanings such as Cill Liath (grey church), Cill Aodha (Hugh’s church), Cill Fhiach (St Fiach’s church). Cill Fiach could also mean the church of the ravens.
Whatever the adjective connected to the word Cill or Hell, the church recorded in west Rosses by cartographer William Petty in his map of Ireland 1689 with an icon representing a ecclesiastical centre lends it name to the headland Rinnalea. Rev. Frederick Corfield used the title Perpetual Curate of Mullaghderg as late as 1850. Since the reformation and establishment of the Protestant faith in Ireland, Anglicans often took over church buildings that had their origins in ‘Celtic’ christianity. Was Rinnalea originally called Rann Cill Liath meaning the headland of the grey church or abbey or the headland of the church with an long forgotten description? Did cartographers take the old place name and record it phonetically as Hel-ene Head and St Helena?
Nicolaum Vesscher 1689 ADHerman Moll 1716 AD
A list of maps that recorded St Helens and Mullaghderg in different forms for five hundred years
Year
1567
Map of Ulster
S Helens
1606
Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594)
St Hellens Head
1606
Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594)
St Helena
1606
Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594)
St Helene Haven
1610
John Speed
S Hellens
1665
Nicolas Samson
S Helene
1665
Nicolas Samson
S Hellens H
1689
William Petty (based on the Down Survey of 1657
S Hellen (marked with church building icon)
1716
Herman Moll
St Hellens
1700
De Witt
S Hellens
1750
Du Roy
S Hellens
1759
Murdock Mac Kenzie
Mullachderrik
1765
Roque
S Hellens
1770
Murdock Mac Kenzie
Mullachderrik
1777
Roads of Ireland Survey-Taylor & Skinner
Mullaghdearg
1778
Bernard Scale
St Hellens
1786
Boswell
St Hellens
1790
J. W. Norie
Mullachderik
1796
County Donegal Grand Jury- William McCrea
Mullaghderg
1801
Weidner
S Hellens
1813
Cadell
Mullaghderg
1830
Longmans
Mullachderick
1835
Ordnance Survey
Mullaghderg
The British built a signal tower on the highest point of Rinalea in the first years of the nineteenth century. Mullaghderg Signal Tower was one of many built at vantage points all along the coastline, in response to several French invasions in 1798, and the growing treat to national security from the Napoleonic Wars. The tower built as defensible quarters for signal crew, consisting of two midshipman and two signalmen.
From the admiralty records below sourced from Kew, England, Robert Patterson the Midshipman in charge of Mullaghderg Tower earned £87 19s five pence halfpenny from 1 June 1806 until 1 Nov 1807. In similar period his colleagues Midshipman Joseph Mahon from Mullaghderg earned £9 14s 5d 1f and the two signalmen Robert Hamilton from Tubberkeen and M. Donnell (O’Donnell) earned £6 2s each.
Around the same period Sea Fencibles was set up and the following people from Mullaghderg area were on the pay-roll in 1804 under Petty Officer George Mahon from Mullaghderg; Owen Brennan, James Gallagher, John Mahon, John Mahon Jnr, Charles Morrow, Hugh McCauley, Charles McGinley, Daniel McGinley, George McNair, Robert McNair. They earned a schilling a week for coast watching services while those who operated from a curragh or boat earned double that amount.
The construction of the forty foot high tower took six months to complete. The tower with walls eight feet thick walls cost £1,800. A stand of pounder guns were mounted on its flat roof parapet but never saw action. Local folklore records the hardship of women carrying small stones, sand and gravel to the site with donkey and creel for the princely sum of two pence a day. The material was taken from a hollow behind the present day Kincasslagh Cope aptly named Poll a’ Túr meaning the tower hole or tower’s hole. The larger building stones could have been sourced close to the site.
Caiseal meaning a ring fort was recorded in the Plantation Inquisition at Lifford in 1609 and in the Calendar of Patent Rolls of 1642 but it has now disappeared from living memory. It was the name of a quarter land that included Mullaghderg. Could thisring fort have been the source of the heavy material needed to construct the largest building to date in the Lower Rosses?
The signal tower used the Murray signal system, also referred to as an optical telegraph. It signalled south to Crohey Head and north to Bloody Foreland by sending a message that involved raising and lowering a large rectangular flag, a smaller blue pendant and four black balls in various combinations along a system centred on a tall wooden mast. The station could also communicate with ships at sea. With the yearly running costs of maintaining the signal tower averaging £80 and the threat of invasion diminishing following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Mullaghderg Signal Tower fell into disuse.
When the sappers of the Royal Engineers came to Mullaghderg in the early 1830s to survey the area for the first ordnance map, they recorded a signal tower in ruins with no sign of the quarterland of Caiseal. The did however use the tower as a principal part of the triangulation network, lining it up with the highest hills in Annagry, Innisfree, Cruit, Owey and Carrickfinn to produce the first accurate hand-drawn map in Ireland, published in 1835.
The tower was used again during the Great War when two coastguard personnel were stationed there. A telephone connection was set up linking the tower up with Seán Rua Sweeney’s house in Mullaghderg were they and their families lodged.
Researched and written by Jimmy Duffy September 2021
Rann na gCaorach, a headland jutting out from Drumnacart, was sheep pasture in olden days, hence its name. Today, there is a stone build cairn in memory of Dom Sweeney centrally located on the headland. Over the years visiting holidaymakers would pile up the granite stones found scattered around, possibly in a way of remembering the victims of drownings or the nearby mine explosion. The exposed cairn would fall over due to tremendous winter storms, only to be rebuilt during next holiday season.
A number of years ago, the late Patrick ‘Mai’ Gallagher, Mullaghderg reconstructed it into a permanent structure in memory of his good friend the late Dom Sweeney of Rannyhual who was lost in Burtonport harbour on 31st October 1987 aged just 42 years. Dom was brought up in both Glasgow and in his father Paddy Sweeney’s (1918-2012) homeplace in Rannyhual, His mother was Rosie ‘Annie’ Gillespie (1923-2008) from Loughnanoran. A top class musician and singer, he became a household name in west Donegal when the singing lounges like Neddie Sharkey’s in Mullaghduff, Leo Brennan’s in Meenaleck and Jack McCloskeys in Annagry became all the rage.
There is a small concrete slip, to the east of Rann na gCaorach. This spot was a landing place used by locals who fished down the years in their curraghs and yawls for salmon, lobster, flatfish and whitefish. In the 1920s the landing spot was concreted into a safer quay by the Board of Works.
And west of the slip is a sheltered beach called Trá Dic Foster or Dick Foster’s Strand, now more frequently called ‘The Swimming Strand’ because of its new found use after the tragic lost of four Irish language students in 1972 on the main Mullaghderg Strand. A group of children who were attending local Irish Colleges under the supervision of their teachers went for a swim on the 13 July 1972. They formed a ring, holding hands and enjoying the waves, when they were struck by a rip- tide, causing four of them to be swept out to sea. When all rescue attempts failed, local fishermen with knowledge of the currents, tied a few oil drums together and set them adrift. The drums landed at the nearby rocks. The fishermen believing that children remains would be close by, directed a diving team to descend at that spot. Not long after, the divers located the bodies of Catherine Carroll, Bernadette McCabe, Susan O’Reilly, and Máire Grae. Máire Grae was a granddaughter of author and lexicographer Niall Ó Dónaill from Loughanure.
Mullaghderg Strand has been the scene of many other tragedies over the years, the mayhem and death conjuring up many spooky tales, the most noteworthy of these is the Bean an tSíoda or the Silken Lady, sometimes mistaken for the Banshee, whose exploits we will discuss in a future chapter.
The following translated from a story entered by Belcruit National School in the Schools Folklore Collection 1937. At Mullaghderg Strand, on the North coast of the Lower Rosses there is a rock that is called ‘Spanish rock.’ At the time the Spanish Armada broke up, they lost a lot of their ships around Ireland. It was said that some of the crew came ashore and stayed around here. They also say that their tribe is still living among us. There is an O’Donnell family in Mullaghduff and they say they descended from the sailors that came ashore. They are big strong people with dark hair and a tan complexion. The old people say that the captain of the ship had his wife aboard, and that there’s a ghost of a woman to be seen. They also say that there was a silken cloak on this spirit and you can hear the ruffle of the cloak as she walks along. Many old people saw and heard her. They call her the Bean a t-Síoda or the Silken Lady. There’s a wee hill close to the main Kincasslagh Mullaghduff road called Jane’s Hill. It is directly inside Mullaghderg Strand and it is at this hill that the Silken Lady is always seen. Jane Lindsay was the name of the captain’s wife and that is why they call this hill, Jane’s Hill.
Was the Silken Lady the wife of a captain of another unknown shipwreck, or was she aboard the ill-fated Armada ship that foundered on the Mullaghderg strand in September 1588, or was she the ghost of Lady Cuffe Martin searching for her loved one as the following news story explains;
On the morning of Sunday, 29th September, 1844, the body of Gregory Cuffe Martin, who, with his wife, was drowned in Garavogue river, Sligo on the night of the 14th August previous. Mr Martin who represented the town in Westminster were crossing the river by horse and trap with his wife in route to a bathing pool in Doreen’s Island when the wheel of the trap broke, throwing the couple into the rapids, and were swept to sea. They were survived by five young orphans. The following is an excerpt from the Derry Sentinel…An inquiry was instituted by Mr. Foster and Mr. Russell, magistrates, respecting the finding of the corpse, and from the address with which Mr. Foster conducted the investigation, he discovered that the individual by whom it was first drawn out of the water had secretly taken possession of the unfortunate gentleman’s watch, which he then gave up. The body was a good deal mutilated. The eyes were out, and the ears eaten while in the water. The remains were put in a shell. and after prayers had been read over them, they were lightly covered with earth in the churchyard of Dungloe; but it was expected they would be disinterred and conveyed to Sligo for burial, and for the purpose of having a coroner’s inquest held on them. We understand that a suspicion exists of Mr. Martin’s having been murdered, and that two men are under arrest, who are charged with the murder.
Drumnacart or Droim na Ceárta meaning the ridge of the forge is one of the smallest townlands in the Rosses, at just 28 acres, entirely of sandy ground. One could argue that it gets its name from the smelting down of Spanish cannon taken from a nearby wreck in 1795, but this area was called Mullinacart meaning height or brae of the forge from at least the sixteenth century. It was part of Mullagh, one of sixteen quarterlands of the Rosses. Quarterlands were a unit of land division used among the shore dwellers through the ages. In the Rosses they amounted to one hundred and twenty acres, the poorer land not being quantified, but in reality the average area of a quarterland in the Rosses was about 3,506 statute acres, the size of some quarters was greater, while that of others was land in general.
The other townlands that made up the quarterland of Mullagh included Ranafast, Derrynamansher, Meenaleck, Loughnanoran, and Annagry. The townland of Mullaghderg was part of the quarterland of Cashel , while Rinnalea headland, part of Mullaghderg today, was in the quarter land of Eithermoy, an area in Cruit Island. After the flight of the Earls in 1607, the escheated lands of the new English style county of Donegal was carved up at an inquisition held in Lifford on September 12th 1609. The precinct of Boylagh was given to Sir Robert MacLennan, Lord of Bombay in Galloway, Scotland. This area comprising the northern half of the ancient territory of Tír Ainmhireach, took its name from Ainmhire, the great grandson of the fifth century ruler Conal Gulban, who’s kingdom was the nucleus of Tír Chonaill. Stretching from Loughros Bay to the Crolly river, this area included ‘the great proportion of the Rosses.’ Lord Bomby leased the land frequently until John Murray of Cockpool in Dumfries took possession in 1616. The lands changed hands many times until Murray leased 2000 acres of the Rosses in 1619 to Captain Thomas Dutton who with his wife and children and six other English families set up home here. Dutton was soon to realise that in order to make his venture profitable, he would have to rent his territory to the ‘mere Irish’ or the native clansmen who would work their ‘own’ land and pay their dues. Maolmhuire Óg MacSweeney ploughed, pastured and grazed five balliboes or sub-townlands of the quarter of Mullagh and another half quarter of the Mullagh was rented to Hugh son of Donnchadh Bán MacSweeney. The names of these tenants and their allotments was subject to an inquisition held in Lifford in 1632, where Captain Dutton and John Murray who by then was the Earl of Annandale was found to be in violation of the conditions of tenure. Murray’s rent was doubled and he was fined, but he was allowed to hold on to his property. His cousin Rev. Alexander Conyngham was one of the commissioners. When his heir the 2nd Earl of Annandale died without issue in 1658, the Rosses was sold to Albert Conyngham. In 1666 Albert Conyngham was created Lord Mountcharles, the name of his title was in honour of his friend King Charles II. He had his seat in the village of Tamhnach an tSalainn which was later changed to Mountcharles. The Mountcharles’ later went to live at Slane in Co.Meath but they had resident agents in Rosses down the years. The Lordship of Mountcharles and later the Marquis of Conyngham were landlords of the Rosses until the foundation of the Irish Free State.
The closest rock off this coastline is called An Coinín or the Rabbit rock because it looks like a rabbit’s head with its ears lying down in the water, and to the north of that is a series of rocks called Na hÉillín meaning a clutch of chicks onto their mother island of Innisfree or heather island, formally known as Oileán an Aon Phoirt meaning the island with one landing place.
Behind Innisfree lies the Stags of Aran or locally known as na Trí Mic a gCorra or the three sons of Corra, a pagan King of Tory Island. They are locally known as Teague, Úna and Brian. Their mythological story is an early form of Christian propaganda, setting the saintly proselytiser against the evil pagan and his wayward children.
After converting most of the mainland to the new religion, the celebrated missioner of Tír Chonaill Colmcille, sailed his currach to the pagan controlled Tory Island. On arriving at the landing place on the island, he was refused entry. Colmcille asked King Corra, could he at least set down his cloak on rock at the shore. The king gave him permission to do this, and as soon as the cloak touched the rock, it began to spread across the island. All the people that were living on the island went down to the bottom of the sea.
The three children of Corra made their escape in route to Aranmore, to put the island under their magic spells, but before they reached Aran they were seen by Colmcille changing them into three rocks. Every seven years at dawn on May Day they try to continue that journey but their attempt has been successfully foiled by a red haired maiden forever on the look-out until now.
Bibliography:
Schools Folklore Collection.1937, (www.duchas.ie) Na Glunta Rosannacha, Niall Ó Dónaill, 1952. The Rosses from earliest times to 1640, Fr. Terence O’Donnell, Donegal Annual.
Written by Jimmy Duffy March 2021
Copyright of content on this site remain with the owners and use without the express written permission of the owners is a breach of copyright and actionable in law.
The story of Miseóg and her ability to predict the future is legendary in the Lower Rosses and beyond but it’s not widely known that Miseóg was indeed a person. Her maiden name was Peggy Boyle, and she was born in Mullaghduff Irish, locally known as Baile Mhanuis (Ballymanus) or Manus’ Town in 1816. It was after her father Manus Dubh Boyle that this townland was named. Peggy had three sisters and one brother. Two of her sisters married in Owey Island; Anna to Andy McGonagle, and Síle to Charlie Sharkey, her sister Sorcha married Frank Sharkey from Annagry and her brother Seánín married in the neighbouring townland of Braade.
Peggy earned the name Miseóg for predicting many happenings in the Lower Rosses and beyond, some that has yet to come to pass. As a little girl, she was sent out to the outfields herding cattle, as was the convention at the time. To pass the time, she would pray to Naomh Dubhtach, a saint that was venerated in the Lower Rosses since medieval times. One day, to her surprise the Saint spoke to her; telling her that if she looked under a flagstone, in a nearby spink, she would find a book. Peggy returned home with her animals, and told an old woman of her experience. Believing her story, the old lady said that she would assist her in her search. Together they searched, under every crag and spink until they found the book by the seaside on the third day. Peggy lifted the old manuscript, and opened it. It was said that even though she was illiterate, when she opened the cover, she could to read the history and prophecies held within.
The following is a collection of those prophecies. These were passed on by her neighbours after her death in the closing years of the 1890s. They were originally recalled in her native tongue.
Big white birds carrying people will come up the White Strand (Donegal Airport)
After that local families would fall out with one another. (fight over ownership of the Braade Strand)
Funerals will come up the strand but they’ll be no-one dead in Carrickfinn. (funerals taken across from Scotland to the Airport)
People will die everywhere, apart from in their own homes. (most people nowadays are dying in hospitals, homes or hospices)
There will be trees at every house without branches. (electricity/telephone poles)
Trees will growing on hillside without leaves. (windmills)
There will be no difference between men and women. (similar dress)
There will be no difference between the seasons, but for leaves still growing onthe trees in summer. (climate change)
A House of God or Chapel will be built at the mouth of the strand, and the day will come when no-one will attend it. (Annagry Chapel built in 1894, second part to come)
The day will come when the people will imprison the clergy. (Paedophilia)
The clergy will take down the church (on the way?)
A man from the Duffy clan will stand on a height in the lower part ofRanafast, and a red-haired girl from the O’Donnell clan standing in the upper part of Ranafast will say “Are there anyone left down?’ The man will reply that there aren’t. ‘Well! You can have the lower-side and I will have the upper-side.” (this is said to have come through when Gráinne Duffy married Mickey O’Donnell and shared the land on the west side of Ranafast.
They’ll be bridges across the streams and the drains of the country.
They’ll be big bridges over rivers
15. Men will not own women (Ní beith ag an fear a bhean.)
Cnoc a’ Deirigh will come down to the shore and the shore will go up. (Stone from Peter O’Donnell’s quarry on Annagry hill is around many houses in Carrickfinn, while for 30 years from 1968, sand from Carrickfinn was put into house foundation around Annagry.
Ships will travel in the sky and under water.
A black pig will come in through the hills, with smoke coming out of it’s mouth.(The Londonderry/Loch Swilly Railway 1903)
People of the Duffy surname will sleep overnight at Slodán Hughdie Mhicí.Duffy Circus stayed at Slodán Hughdie Mhicí, marshy tidal ground outsideDuffy Pub in Annagry)
The bottom of the sky at the mouth of Braade will be illuminated. Trá Bhán will be alight. (Lights at Donegal Airport and the running track)
Black boats will come ashore and the day they arrive, will be a dark day forIreland.
The Anti-Christ will come from the sea.
A bright light will light up the mouth of Port Tabhóige. (the Ballymanus Mine Disaster 1943)
There will be a battle fought between two foreign forces.
Interestingly there is a book shrine called the Miosach associated with Clonmany in Inishowen, now keep in the National Museum in Dublin. The shrine is an ornate book cover, but the book has gone missing. Could this be the book that Peggy Mhanuis Duibh found? Was she named after it? Without evidence, we can only speculate.
When Peggy was twenty four years old, she married to Paddy Chonaill Bán Harley from Ranafast (but of Braade ancestry) at St Brigid’s Church in Kincasslagh, and they set up home in Ballymanus. Peggy and Paddy were blessed with at least six children, Séimí (James), Manus, Conall (Condy), Margaret and Beití (Rebecca) and Mary.
Séimí married Anna Harley from Loughanure and lived in Annagry East, raising a large family. Beití married to Owen Ward and lived in Kerrytown. Beití and Owen had five children. Their eldest son Jimmy married Minnie Duffy from Meendernasloe and both were to the fore in the fight for Irish freedom. While in Dublin during this period, Jimmy went to the Public Records Office, to search the 1851 census, so that he could verify his mother’s age, to insure her eligibility for the old age pension. He found details of his mother birth in 1849, and the names and ages of her other siblings and that of her parents and their marriage. This record was later blown up at the start of Civil War. After the end of hostilities, Jimmy and Minnie-who both were captains in the local battalions of the Irish Volunteers and Cumann na mBan-resided in the family home at Kerrytown and raised a large family. On the night of the 11th of January 1939, two of the girls, Teresa and Rosie went outside to use the toilet before going to bed. While one them was waiting for the other to come out of the toilet, Teresa happened to glance towards the large granite rock face near the house. It was a dark night. With that, she saw what looked like a statue of a beautiful woman standing on top of the rock. She was radiating a brilliant light and looked like The Blessed Virgin. To this day, the rock is a popular place of pilgrimage.
Manus emigrated to his uncle Manus Boyle in San Francisco in 1868, but was reported missing by the Boston Pilot newspaper. His father Paddy Harley was working in Pennsylvania at the time. Paddy later retired home and died in Braade in 1886 aged 68 years.
Mary was unmarried and lived with her grandparent’s in Ballymanus. It is not known what became of Margaret. While the newly formed Calhame Marching Band was marching to Kincasslagh Chapel on St Patrick’s Day in 1877, Miseóg was there to greet them at the Maide Draoghain, a stream that drained the Mullaghderg Lake through the sand banks until a canal was constructed around 1900. She asked them if they knew Napoleon’s Grand March. They said they didn’t, so she whistled it for them. This march was composed by Johann Strauss II in the 1850s. The band later moved down the road and is still in existence as The Mullachdubh Band and the Grand March is still part of their repertoire. The question is how did Miseóg know this tune? Maybe she heard it from a travelling musician, one can only assume.
Condy married Gráinne Eoin Duffy from Braade, in the spring of 1890, and they moved into to a house close to the White Strand. This house was used by coast watchers employed by the admiralty in the past. It was last occupied by Edward Sweeney in 1863.
On the 8th December 1890, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Gráinne went into labour. Her neighbour and local midwife Jessie Boyle and her teenage daughter Anne went to her assistance. During the course of the day she delivered three babies, but unfortunately Gráinne died having the fourth child, a girl who died after delivery. Gráinne was carrying five babies in total. The three surviving girls were christened Mary, Brigid, and Anne in Kincasslagh Chapel, the same day that their thirty-five year old mother and their sister was laid to rest. Within three years, both Brigid and Anne passed away, but Mary survived in the 1940s. Following that shocking event, Condy battled with mental illness. During the period of the full moon, he would climb into a seaside cave below his house, and stay there until the pull of the moon subsided. It was known ever since as Condy’s Cave. Condy died in 1916 aged 67 years and Mary, a worker in he worked in Annagry Carpet Factory lived with her cousins, the John Eoin Duffy’s across the road in the townland of Braade.
Miseóg also predicted the coming of wars and the Ballymanus Mine Disaster in 1943, which exploded at Port Tabhóige, just below her former homestead. Many of her predictions have come true while some haven’t as yet. She died around the final year of the 19th century and is buried in Cill Bhríde, Cruit Island. Her descendants are numerous in the Rosses, and beyond to this day.
Port Tabhóige is the first strand in the small townland of Drumnacart, a twenty- eight acre sandy banks between Ballymanus and Mullaghderg. The name of this short golden beach facing Gola Island to the north has a couple of explanations. Port meaning landing place, and the second part meaning a sudden jolt like a jump down from a higher rock. It is recorded in the folklore of Tory Island as Port Cabhóige, meaning the port of the choughs. Whatever the correct meaning is, we may never know. but one thing is certain, this beach has been the scene of much sorrow over the years.
The following story was recorded in Cruit Island National School in 1937 for the Schools Folklore Collection, and a similar story has been recorded from Tory islanders by Fr. Owen Colm P.P., Annagry in his book Toraigh na dTonn. Long ago during the time of the famine smuggling boats used to arrive weekly at Tory island. The natives used to purchase these goods, and in turn sell them to the people of Mullaghderg, Kincasslagh, and Belcruit who used to assemble every week at an island called Oileán Glas.
When the goods were bought these people used to take their carts and go through the country as far as Letterkenny, selling them. The Protestants of Mullaghderg got to know of the smuggling. They were jealous of their neighbours and proceeded to inform the coastguards as to what was taking place.
The guards then went, and dispatched the people who were waiting for the goods, and they themselves waited. When the boat arrived the captain was unable to discern those who waited for him so he and his men came ashore with some of the goods.
As soon as they landed they realised their mistake, but as retreat was impossible since the coastguards barred their way, they determined to fight. A desperate struggle ensued in which the superior numbers of the coastguards carried the day. The unfortunate Tory men were taken prisoners and never seen again. A few weeks later the Tory priest was talking to one of the women of Mullaghderg, who was endeavouring to persuade him not to curse Mullaghderg, but he was adamant, and said to her that if she had seen all the orphans that he had seen that she would be just as firm as he was, and he said: ‘I will curse the Protestants of Mullaghderg, and where their houses are at present nothing shall ever grow except nettles. And such was the case. A few years later the last of the Protestants left Mullaghderg, saying that he was the last of the cursed tribe to leave it.
The year of this incident is unknown, by it could be 1843, for years ending in 3s have certainly been unlucky at this spot.
Maggie Doherty (Seán), Mullaghderg married Jimmy Boyle (Donal Neilín), Ballymanus in 1909 and within the next four years they were blessed with the birth of two boys Dan and John. In September 1914 Jimmy died suddenly while working in Scotland aged 33 years. Ten years later on the 19th July 1923 Maggie lost her son John off Port Tabhóige below their home aged 10 years and ten years nearly to the day after that blow she lost her twenty two year old son Dan at the same spot on 22nd July 1933.
Ten years later on the 10th May 1943, she witnessed another tragedy at the same stop when nineteen of her neighbours lost their lives.
‘A bright light will light up the mouth of Port Tabhóige’ – Miseóg’s Prophecies
Living in west Donegal where very little trees grow owing to blowing sand and salt from the wild Atlantic Ocean, anything yielded by the sea was highly sought after. Over the years many prizes were yielded from the incoming tide; mostly coming from shipwrecks or having been washed overboard off ocean going ships that plied their trade along a transatlantic shipping lane close to Donegal’s northwest coast. All sorts of treasured flotsam was washed ashore ranging from candle wax, pitch resin to prime timber; material essential to the coastal communities. The biggest “prize” of all came in 1854 when the sailing barque Salacia ran aground in Keadue Bar carrying enough timber to re-roof the parish church of Lower Templecrone at Kincasslagh.
In 1940 two young men were washed off the rocks at Carrickfinn while trying to retrieve incoming timber logs. Nineteen year old Charlie Patterson was drowned while somewhat miraculously his fourteen year old friend Hughie Duffy was washed back ashore. Hughie later perished along with eighteen of his neighbours and friends when a floating wartime sea-mine exploded at nearby Ballymanus on the 10th of May 1943.
When war was declared the morning of 3rd September 1939, the workers from west Donegal were coming out of Mass, not in their native parishes but in Scotland, the land that they migrated annually since pre-famine times. It was customary for young men and their fathers to leave home to work on the arable lands on the eastern Scotland after the farmer would write them a letter with their boat fare and stating when he required their help. They worked on these farms until the harvest was won; returning via Derry close to Hallow-Eve.
Many incidents like the finding of the lifeboat and victims from the sunken SS Andorra Star, torpedoed by U47 on 2 July 1940 seventy five miles west of Bloody Foreland to the the heroic rescue of SS Stolwijk by the crew of the Arranmore Lifeboat off Innisdooey later that year, brought closer the reality of war. A couple of years later twenty seven members of a shipwrecked crew were saved when their lifeboat got into difficulty off Gola Island.
Apprehensively the coastal dwellers proceeded with their everyday struggle for survival, a survival that was made all the more difficult by the travel and work restrictions to their migratory breadwinners. But in 1943 a sea-mine explosion on the shore at Ballymanus, situated between the coastal villages of Annagry and Burtonport was to change the lives of the people for generations. Ballymanus is adjacent to the townland of Braade and the aforementioned Carrickfinn, the location of the present Donegal Airport, recently voted the most beautiful landing strip in the world.
On a beautiful day in the month of May, all available hands were busy fertilising their farms with leathach, a broad seaweed that washed ashore after Scread na Bealtaine, a seasonal storm. After completing their chores, the young boys of the Braade met for fun and games. Fifteen year old Hugh Sharkey and his brother John (13) went down to their uncle Charlie Sharkey’s house to play with their fifteen year old cousin Anthony. Also joining them was their neighbours John Joe Carson (14) and Dominic Sharkey (15). Here the boys played the popular game of pitching pennies until late in the evening. Charlie Sharkey came out of his cottage to admire the setting sun; that evening it was a huge fireball setting behind Ballymanus to the west. Charlie speculated on what kind of bounty the incoming tide would bring as he showed the young lads the large block of cooking lard he found on the Braade Strand a few days earlier. He cut of a portion from the block and gave it to Dominic, instructing him to take home to his mother. Having finished their game, the remaining boys decided that they would go to the shore. Here they met Jimmy Duffy (16) and his brother Hughie Duffy (17). The Duffy brothers told them about an large object floating in the incoming tide and they should go over to have a closer look. On landing at Ballymanus there was a large crowd of young men and boys gathered. Other contemporaries on the beach were their neighbours Manus O’Donnell and John Boyle, brothers Denis and Owen Harley from Rannyhual, and their neighbour Joseph Harley who was accompanied by his collie dog. The three Harley cousins were also related to the Duffy’s.
Other teenagers present were Michael Sharkey and John McGinley both from Mullaghduff and Patrick Gallagher from Rannyhual. John McGinley aged nineteen years was the the oldest of those teenagers while the youngest was thirteen year old John Sharkey. John was a pupil in Mullaghduff National School.
At the start of World War One, the German Navy mined the entrance of Lough Swilly, then an important naval base. Also mined was the transatlantic shipping lanes close to the north Donegal coast. HMS Audacious became the first causality of that war when it stuck one of these semi-submerged floating bombs seventeen miles north-east off Tory Island. Over the years the mines broke away from their anchorage and sometimes floated ashore.
Local man Lanty Gallagher, a retired naval gunner together with Free State Army personnel dismantled a mine that weighted two hundred-weight in the Gweedore Estuary, a mile east of Ballymanus in 1934 and in May 1943 the national press reported that Tory Islanders got all sorts of valuable nicknacks when they successfully dismantled a mine on the island themselves.
This report was later proven to be false. On that fateful Monday evening upwards of one hundred men assembled at Ballymanus strand after word circulated throughout the close knit community. Here they watched the mine bobbing eastwards towards land. Although excited, the crowd dwindled, due to the coolness of the setting sun, some left to attend a labour meeting in the local hall, while others went home as they were migrating to Scotland the following day. Of those that remained was married man Jimmy Anthon Rodgers, the respected leader of Mullaghduff Fife and Drum, a marching band that was founded in 1881. The other men present were John Roarty, Dan Boyle and Edward Gallagher of Mullaghduff, Paddy Boyle and John Boyle from Ballymanus, James McGarvey from Belcruit and brothers Owen and Dominic Gallagher who were brothers of teenager Patrick. Dominic, a married man and father of two young boys, rocked his three-month old baby boy to sleep before going to the strand to look for his brothers.
As the the mine came close to land, it was observed to be over two metres in diameter, with some of its spikes bent. Fearing the mine would explode on its approach, the area coast watcher, Lieutenant Morgan Dunleavy and those present hid behind a small hill. The mine landed on the rocks and washed out and in with the tide. On seeing that it didn’t explode those present made their way down to the waters edge to inspect the mine.
One of the last to arrive was thirty-four year old Anthony Murty Rodgers. Anthony worked in Scotland in the building of jetties for the war effort, and saw at first hand sea-mines being dismantled and the devastation caused even in a controlled manner. Anthony returned home after his father’s sudden death in July 1942 and also lost his younger brother James Murty at sea when his ship SS Oropos was sunk by a U-Boat off the Canadian coast a few months previous. When Anthony heard of what was believed to be a mine, he left his home in Rannyhual, a mountain pasture two miles from the shore to warn those gathered of the impending danger. Lieutenant Dunleavy believing the mine was relatively safe, left the scene by motorcycle at 9.50pm to seek the help of the Ordnance Corps who were stationed in Letterkenny. He was the only member of the security forces present. The local Gardai in Annagry received three different reports of a sea- mine floating in Innisfree Bay that day from local fishermen. Sergeant Allen, Garda Boylan and Garda Coneally who were on duty choose not to act, a decision that caused devastation before nightfall. Standing close to the mine the men watched as it rolled to and fro on the rocks with the action of the tide. One of the men arrived with a rope from a fishing boat that was moored nearby and threw it out a few times before it caught the mine. They all began to pull the mine towards the shore, it rolled off the rocks on to one side. There was a flash and an explosion; the mine went off with a thunderous detonation, blowing many of the ill-fated victims high into the air and their bodies when recovered from the sea, some time later, were badly mutilated. The time, recorded on mantle clocks that stopped when the explosion shook houses in the neighbourhood, was 9.53pm. The ghastly scenes which followed this horrific event baffle description. No sooner had the roar of the explosion died away, when it was of the replaced by the groans and agonising cries of the dying and the less severely injured. In the fading light of day the beach seemed strewn with mangled bodies. A few people who had miraculously escaped went to the assistance of the injured, and were quickly joined by others who had rushed to the scene of the disaster. Very soon a dense crowd congregated and scenes of confusion were witnessed, as relatives of the men, who were known to be at the shore, dashed frantically to and fro seeking tidings of their fate. One of the most pitiful sights was a father walking up the beach carrying his dead son’s leg. Out of the twenty-four present, sixteen were killed instantly, four severely injured, Anthony Sharkey, Hughie Sharkey and John Joe Carson were removed to Letterkenny Hospital and Manus O’Donnell was removed to his home in Braade where he succumbed later that night. A couple of the survivors who were standing only yards away from the mine at the time and escaped completely uninjured.
The remains of dead;
John McGinley, Mullaghduff: (19 yrs 3mts)
Patrick Gallagher, Rannyhual: (18 yrs)
Hughie Duffy, Braade: (17 yrs 3 mts)
Joseph Harley, Rannyhaul: (17 yrs 3 mts)
John Boyle, Ballymanus: (17 yrs 3 mts)
Jimmy Duffy, Braade, brother of Hughie: (16 yrs)
Denis Harley, Rannyhaul: (15yrs 9 mts)
Owen Harley, Rannyhaul, brother of Denis: (14yrs 4mts)
Michael Sharkey, Mullaghduff: (14 yrs 9mts)
John Sharkey, Braade: (13yrs 8 mts)
Owen Gallagher, Rannyhaul: (20 yrs 6 mts)
Edward Gallagher, Mullaghduff: (22 yrs 5 mts)
John Roarty, Mullaghduff: (24 yrs 4 mts)
Dominic Gallagher, Rannyhual; (27 yrs 10 mts) brother of Owen andPatrick, husband of Gracie and father of Patrick (4 years) and Séamus(3 months)
Jimmy A. Rodgers, Rannyhual; (34 yrs 5 mts), husband of Cecelia
Anthony M. Rodgers, Rannyhual: (34 yrs 6 mts)
were placed in coffins supplied by Paddy the Cope in Dungloe and were taken to Mullaghduff Hall which acted as a morgue and a wake house. John Joe Carson, a 15 year old youth from Braade who had his leg blown off by the explosion succumbed in Letterkenny Hospital before morning. His remains was conveyed the hall the following day to repose with his friends and relations. Manus O’ Donnell, also from Braade who was aged 15 years and 5 months, died from his injuries at home during the night, and his remains where also taken to the hall to repose.
The dead reposed for two nights in the Hall and on the Wednesday morning May 13th, eleven bodies were conveyed by lorries and bread vans for burial after Mass in Kincasslagh, and in the afternoon seven were laid to rest in Annagry.
One week later Anthony Sharkey (15 yrs) died in Letterkenny Hospital from the loss of blood. His cousin Hughie Sharkey (15yrs 7mts), although severely injured was also treated in hospital, but made a full recovery. His wrists were pierced and he was also hit by a piece of shrapnel that was too close to his heart to remove, carrying it to his grave in 1996.
The people were left in a deep sense of shock and heartbreak. Many homes lost loved family members and people for miles around had lost their friends. A few years after the appalling tragedy, a Celtic cross was erected near Maurice O’Donnell’s shop, at the spot were the young men of the area usually congregated.
It took many years for lives to return to normal in this small rural community. The emotional scars were the most difficult to heal; for some they never did. It was only after the first official remembrance in 1993, that the community began to talk and remember them at in annual rosary at another monument erected at Port Tabhóige.
Some years later, it again was the scene of a tragic accident when the late Brian Boyle, a young fellow on holidays from Dundee-his father was a first cousin of the Boyle brothers who drowned in 1923 and ’33-hit the bottom while diving off the rocks. He received multiple injuries and was airlifted by a British Army helicopter to hospital. Brian who bore his disabilities with great fortitude died on August 13th 2002 aged 51 years.
By the beginning of 1921 the war for Irish Independence was raging throughout the country. The remoteness and nature of the Donegal countryside was particularly suited to the guerrilla warfare tactics adopted by the Nationalist Volunteers and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) patrols and barracks were a particular target for attack, particularly in more isolated areas. Such was the success of this approach that, with few exceptions, all RIC barracks in the county were evacuated by October 1920 and were quickly ransacked and burnt to prevent reoccupation(1).
Rutland Barracks, Meenmore, July 1920. (P. Boner collection)
The British Military presence for the area was based in Derry. Units of the Dorsetshire Regiment had been deployed there from April 1918 and from the latter half of 1919, the First Battalion of the Regiment occupied Ebrington Barracks as the Londonderry Brigade of the Regiment (2). In response to Nationalist attacks, the army made frequent forays into Donegal to enact reprisals and were facilitated in these movements by the Lough Swilly Railway Company who operated the railway extension to Burtonport in the far North West. Such traffic was a welcome boost to the Company’s finances but resulted in trains and their crews being targets for attack(3).
A young Joe Sweeney in Dublin, Holy Thursday 1916. (P. Boner collection)
In West Donegal, the local Volunteer Force, under the command of Joe Sweeney, a veteran of the Easter Monday occupation of the General Post Office in 1916, was playing its part in the Nationalist campaign. Their ability to engage, however, was somewhat limited by the availability at short notice of Volunteers and the loss of numbers through seasonal migration. Things improved in January1921 with the arrival of the No. 1 Flying Column, a full-time active service unit of experienced Volunteers, recently founded in Derry, with the aim of supporting local Volunteers. They were under the command of Peadar O’Donnell, a native of Meenmore, who had returned to Derry after a period of active service in County Monaghan (4). One of their first engagements was to participate in the attack on a suspected troop train near Kincasslagh Road Station on the 12th January 1921.
The Railway Perspective(5)
In his office at Pennyburn, mid-afternoon on the 11th January 1921, Henry Hunt, General Manager of the Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway (LLSR) received an envelope marked “Very Secret and Urgent”. Inside was a letter from the Commanding Officer of the Londonderry Brigade, requesting a special train be arranged for the following morning, early, to transport two officers and 25 other ranks from Derry, collecting a further two officers and 25 other ranks from Letterkenny, then to proceed to Burtonport. Orders had been issued for the Derry group to be at the Lough Swilly Station at 03.00 hours, and for the Letterkenny party to be present at their Station at 04.00 hours. The train would only be required to convey the troops one way, return expected by the ordinary train, probably on the evening of the 13th.
L&BER Tank Engine No 2B, the engine on the military special, prepares a passenger train at Derry for the far North West just as on the morning of 12th January 1921. (Courtesy Donegal Railway Heritage Centre)
Hunt then immediately arranged for notification to be sent to stations along the way, advising of times of the Special and the requirement for staff to be on duty and the requirement for all lamp signals etc to be lit for the passage of the train. Acknowledging receipt of the Officer’s request, and advising arrangements had been put in place, Mr Hunt also highlighted a problem that the short notice presented in that, given the curfew situation in place, there was insufficient time for a permit to be obtained for the Derry stationmaster and train guard, who would need to leave their homes at 2 am, so a military escort was necessary for safe conduct to the station.
The Guard’s Log details the passage of the train the following morning, 12th January 1921.
Down the line, at Kincasslagh Road Station, as stationmaster Paddy Gallagher was getting out of bed in preparation for the special train, he heard knocking at his door, followed by shouts to “open the door at once”. He lit his hand lamp, prior to opening door, but was told to put it out. On opening the door, he was confronted by two masked men in overcoats, asking when his first train was due in? When he replied at 8.30 am, from Burtonport, they said they were aware of another train due to reach Burtonport about 7 o’clock, but he insisted he only knew of the train from Burtonport at 8.30 am.
Kincasslagh Road Station, opened 1913. Many attacks on trains occurred in the vicinity of this station during the War of Independence. (Harold Eadie Collection)
His visitors then departed and he returned to his house, keeping a look out from the upstairs window for the 3 am special. At 7.10 am he went out and opened the gates for the train. Soon after, at around 7.30 am, Ganger McGarvey called in to say he had encountered a number of men positioned on both sides of a nearby cutting and that the line was blocked with large stones. They took McGarvey’s hand lamp off him. At this, Gallagher went to the office and called up Crolly Station but could get no answer. He then called Gweedore to attempt to have the train stopped there but was informed the train had already left.
On coming out of the office, he heard the noise of the train and could see the smoke of the engine coming up the cutting but could do nothing but stand and look on. On hearing the firing of shots, he took shelter. He then heard footsteps and saw a masked man running up the platform towards him. He was ordered into the office, whereupon the man cut the telegraph wires, then ordered out again and told to lock the door and put out his light before the man disappeared(6).
The attack on the train was described by train guard, Robert Carson:
“The first thing I noticed wrong was shots being fired at the train and immediately the van in which I was travelling was lifted up off the rails by a large stone but alighted on the rails again, the cross bar and brake blocks been (sic) damaged. At this stage, the engine was derailed by another large stone and train was brought to a standstill. Bombs were thrown at the train and bullets penetrated the woodwork of the van and windows of carriages. One bomb thrown at the van passed through both windows which were open and exploded outside. The engine was also badly damaged. I could see in the darkness the forms of a great number of men moving about among the rocks by the side of the railway line” (7).
At 8.00 am, Stationmaster Murray, at Gweedore,informed Henry Hunt that telegraph wires were cut on the Burtonport side and that the Special had not yet reached Burtonport. When asked if he knew of its whereabouts, he replied that he believed it to be still about Kincasslagh, to which Hunt instructed him to urgently employ any means to obtain information.
At 9.15 am, Burtonport Stationmaster John Gallagher informed Hunt that the 3 am train had not arrived and confirmed telegraph wires had been cut. An update at 10.45 brought the news that the train had been held up at the 71 milepost(8), the engine was disabled and telegraph wires were cut. The line, however, was in order and the men were safe. A somewhat different account, though, was given by train driver Bob Turner, who had made his way to Burtonport. Confirming the train had been ambushed between Crolly and Kincasslagh, he stated the bogie had been derailed and motion had been broken by big stones on the line, but also stated the line was spread.
Uncertainties surrounding the derailed train had caused the 8.20 am train from Burtonport to be delayed and it was subsequently cancelled. John Gallagher then sent the engine of this train out to bring the Special train in to Burtonport. However, Ganger Conaghan soon informed him that rails had been removed on the Burtonport side of Kincasslagh Road and the engine was held up there, awaiting repair to the line. According to Dungloe Road Stationmaster Charlie John McBride, this damage to the line must have been carried out after 7.30 am. as the milesman, who had walked that length of the line, reached Dungloe Road before 8 am and reported nothing amiss. An officer and attachment of men then arrived at the station and took out tools, together with milesmen and other staff, to repair the line(9).
Following the necessary repairs, the damaged train reached Burtonport at 2.35 pm. John Gallagher reported bullet holes in the woodwork and windows of carriages. The brake blocks and cross bars of the carriages were bent and, on a brief inspection of the damage to the engine, he suggested it was not advisable to send No. 2B out in its present condition.
Trains beyond Gweedore were suspended with immediate effect, and the service was reduced until further notice, to two trains daily – at 7.30 am and 4.0 pm from Derry and at 9.0 am and 3.0 pm from Gweedore. The service changes impacted on staff, with the porters at Burtonport, Dungloe Road and Crolly and the milesmen for the Gweedore to Burtonport section being dispensed with and Burtonport based Guards, Sweeney and Boyle and brakesman Rogers being transferred to Gweedore(10).
The Volunteers Perspective:
The sequence of events from the Volunteers perspective draws on Joe Sweeney’s account of events (Capuchin Annual, 1970), a brief account of his report to Volunteer Headquarters (An T-Óglach, 15th March 1921) and witness statements of some of the men involved in the attack, given to the Bureau of Military History, Ireland (BMH) in the early 1950s. There are some discrepancies in accounts, likely due to the passage of years between the event and the collection of statements.
Sweeney’s Hotel, Burtonport, home and base of Joe Sweeney during the campaign. (HC Casserley)
On the afternoon of the 11th January 1921, Joe Sweeney, Officer-in-Command of the West Donegal Brigade of the Volunteer movement was approached by John Duddy, Lough Swilly Railway guard, and informed of a special fish train that was to leave Derry in the early hours of the following morning, to arrive in Burtonport at 7.0 am. This information was later confirmed by Burtonport based railway guard Neil Boyle. Suspicions were raised, as there was no fishing in Burtonport at the time, and it was presumed likely to be a troop train, related to the visit to the area, and the brief detention, of a suspected intelligence officer, some days previously(11).
Peadar O’Donnell, right front, while on active service in Monaghan 1920, prior to his return to Derry. (J Sharkey Collection)
Late in the evening, Joe Sweeney told Patrick Breslin (Adjutant, No. 1 Donegal Brigade) to alert Peadar O’Donnell, leader of the No. 1 Flying Column, to assemble all available men from both the Flying Column and the local 1st Battalion (Dungloe Companies) at Dungloe for 2.0 am (12). The late notice meant the Volunteers were slow to gather and by 5.0 am, with 35 armed men gathered they made a forced march to Kincasslagh Road Railway Station (Meenbanad), where they were later joined by Phil Boyle, leader of the Meenacross Company, with a number of men(14).
According to Sweeney’s report to Headquarters – “the station building, a short distance away, was taken possession of and a green light displayed”(15). He also alleges – “I asked the stationmaster, Anthony (sic) Gallagher to try and find out on the telegraph if there were military on board the train, but as soon as he tried to make contact with Letterkenny, the whole system was earthed”(16).
In the darkness, they selected a cutting, just over ½ a mile on the Crolly side of the station, known locally as Paddy Ghráinne’s Cutting. They had a dilemma as to how to halt the train – they remained uncertain as to whether British forces were aboard and, if this was not the case, lifting the rails could result in the death or serious injury of the train crew and would only anger the local people. Instead, large boulders were rolled onto the line to halt the train’s progress. With difficulty, due to the darkness, men were placed on either side of the cutting in a staggered fashion to try to prevent the possibility of those on one side of the cutting shooting those on the other! A man was sent up the line towards the oncoming train with instructions to throw a grenade if he saw military on board.
Soon the train could be heard approaching, its whistle blowing to alert the station. The explosion of a grenade was heard and as the train came into view, heavy fire was directed at it from both sides of the cutting. The engine collided with the rocks, but its momentum carried it for some distance beyond where the Volunteers were lined up. Joe Sweeney had positioned himself somewhat ahead of where he thought the engine would stop but instead found it directly opposite him and a Lewis Gun, mounted in the cab, firing at him.
The confusion caused by the failure of the train to halt at the desired location allowed the military to escape from the carriages, take up position along the railway line and return fire. Joe Sweeney had instructed Peadar O’Donnell to end engagement if he saw that they were outnumbered and soon the whistle signalling retreat was sounded.
Paddy Ghráinne’s Cutting: Location in relation to Kincasslagh Road Station. From the osi.ie c. 1906 map: http://map.geohive.ie/mapviewer.html with some overlay on more modern version.
The military later marched to Burtonport, using advance, rear guards and flank guards, where they occupied the old R.I.C. barracks, and remained there for a few days. Among the officers was the suspect man who had been held and questioned by the Volunteers in Dungloe, before being released. This officer, with some others, commandeered cars and went to the hotel in Dungloe, where he had been previously captured, allowed himself to be blindfolded, as he was when taken prisoner, and from memory, guided the cars to the house where he had been detained, which his party then examined but nothing was found(18).
The following are extracts from the witness statements of some of the Volunteers involved showing differences from Joe Sweeney’s account: –
According to Phil Boyle: – “We were not long in position when scouts signalled the approach of the train. The train crashed into the stones and was partly derailed. We opened up on the carriages which were carrying British military. Our fire was directed downwards on the train. Fire was kept up for about 20 minutes when we got orders to withdraw. We suffered no loss. It was reported that up to fifty of the British were wounded”(19).
Patrick (Kit) O’Donnell (Lieutenant, Dungloe Company) stated: –“When the train came into the ambush, No. 1 section opened fire. It continued on until opposite my section, where it stopped, and we then opened up on the carriages, firing down the embankment at point blank range. I was using a rifle; most of the others had rifles. Some of our men threw Mills bombs. Parts of the carriages began to fly in splinters. There was a machine gun mounted on the engine, but they got no chance to use it. The soldiers in the carriages made no attempt to fight. We kept up fire on the train for about 20 minutes and then withdrew. I will say that the whole of our party did not exceed 22 men”(20).
Patrick Breslin (Adjutant, West Donegal Brigade) gave the following account: “The train came along at a fast pace, blowing its whistle to warn the Crossing Keeper, and the engine struck the blocks with a loud bang. The crash was terrific. Fire was opened immediately on hearing the sound of bursting hand grenades and was simultaneous from both sides of the line. The crack of rifle fire and bursting of hand grenades was deafening. I discharged 5 rounds rapidly into the first carriage and paused slightly to observe the effect. I observed soldiers opening carriage doors and trying to crawl out. I fired a further five rounds at the nearest targets.
It was now morning twilight and still a bit dark. Visibility was bad, even at such close range, and it was difficult to ascertain the effect of our fire. The train had cut through the block, left the rails, but still remained upright. … I got a glimpse of a straggling line of khaki-clad figures running along the railway line. With other members of my section, I kept firing for some time longer, and Joe O’Donnell, who had passed by, asked me did I hear a signal whistle to retreat. I told him I did not, but when I had a look around, I found that the four of us were all that were left on the Dungloe side of the line. Patrick O’Donnell then told me that he had heard the signal to retreat”(21).
John O’Gorman (Quarter Master, No. 2 Flying Column, 1st Brigade, 1st Northern Division) said: “The line was blocked with rocks and the engine ran into the obstruction. Some of the train lay over against the cutting. I had a Lee Enfield and I was firing down into the train. Bombs were thrown but there was no reply from the troops on the train. There was a machine gun mounted on the engine, but they made no effort to use it while we were firing. After 15 or 20 minutes firing, a whistle sounded. That was the signal for us to cease fire, so we retired. It was reported that there were 50 British soldiers wounded. We suffered no losses”(22).
While Seamus McCann (No 1 Flying Column) reported: “We had not long to wait until the train arrived. As soon as it came to our position, all our men armed with bombs used them, endeavouring to put them into the carriages. Then fire was opened with rifles and shotguns. The exchange of fire lasted for some time, the military replying to our fire from the engine tender of the train. This fire forced our men to withdraw and the train succeeded in passing through the cutting”(23).
Paddy Ghráinne’s Cutting today. The course of the Railway line is still visible. (From Google Streetview)
Newspapers and Rumours:
Just what occurred during the ambush is coloured by rumours that circulated after the event and by the newspapers, for whom “considerable difficulty has been experienced in getting authentic details of the ambush of the troop train on Wednesday near Kincasslagh Road Station”, as communication with West Donegal was virtually cut off, reports instead largely relying on travellers arriving in Derry from the region.
In contrast to Joe Sweeney’s and the Volunteer accounts of late notice and a hurry to the scene, press reports claimed it was carefully planned and that obstacles had been placed at three separate points on the line with plans to blow up the bridge at Crolly included(25). It was also subsequently stated that Minnie Ward, the captain of Loughanure Cumman na mBan, brought guns from an arms dump near her home to the Volunteers at Meenbanad on the night in question(26).
As to what occurred when the train struck the boulders on the line, press reports consistently simply say the engine was derailed while the Volunteer accounts above vary between “partly derailed”, “off the rails but upright”, “lying over against the cutting” and “passing through the cutting after the assailants withdrew”! Joe Sweeney’s report to Headquarters stated “the tender was derailed” but the engine concerned, No. 2B, was a tank engine, with no tender. These discrepancies are undoubtedly a consequence of the darkness of the scene and errors of recall.
Joe Sweeney had positioned himself some distance ahead of where he thought the engine would stop but it “ploughed through the stone barricade and came to rest some yards past me”(27). Newspaper reports suggest it may have carried on for up to 160 yards and this put the attackers at a disadvantage, as they had to change position and, instead of firing down on the train from the top of the embankments, were now behind rocks and below the train(28). As soon as the train appeared, it was fired on from both sides of the cutting and, as soon as the military could locate the source of the firing, they responded, their own rifle fire supplemented by a Lewis gun in the cab of the engine(29). As the firing progressed, soldiers began to appear from the carriages and take up position along the line. Recognising the disadvantage of their altered position and the numbers of troops involved, the order to withdraw was given.
Newspaper announcement of closure of the Burtonport line following repeated attacks February 1921
It was claimed in a number of press reports that the attacking party may have numbered one hundred(30). This seems most unlikely given the small numbers of Volunteers available at short notice. Joe Sweeney’s report to Headquarters described the operation as “exceedingly risky as we were half the enemy strength(31)” and , as the military on the train consisted of fifty soldiers and four officers(32), this is somewhat in keeping with Patrick O’Donnell’s estimate of no more than twenty-two men, though at odds with Patrick Breslin’s count of 35 men(33).
Reports of casualties varied and appear biased on both sides. The initial communique from Military Headquarters in Dublin Castle stated that the train had reached its destination without injury to its occupants and the Northern newspapers in general endorsed this view. Joe Sweeney admitted that because of the darkness and the arrival of a relief train it was difficult to assess the number of any military casualties. Some of the Volunteers commented on reports circulating that fifty soldiers had been wounded(34) with perhaps some fatalities(35). One unsubstantiated report claimed blood was seen flowing from the carriages (36) while Patrick Breslin, in his witness statement said the carriages were blood stained(37).
This, though, is in contradiction to Burtonport Stationmaster Gallagher’s report of the arrival of the train with bullet holes in the woodwork and windows but no reference to blood. Also, there are no reports of medical help being brought to the scene and, as the train eventually reached Burtonport at approx. 3 pm, some eight hours after the attack, any wounded soldiers would not have been left without medical support for so long.
Patrick O’Donnell, in his witness statement, told of a sequel to the ambush when, in 1922, as a captain in the National Army, stationed in Buncrana, he was in a pub one night when a one-armed, smart-looking young man with “a military cut”, came in. On enquiring in the bar as to who the stranger was and how he had lost his arm, a local man, that the young man had stayed with, said he had told him he lost his arm in the train which was ambushed at Kincasslagh Road Station. He had also said that there were about 50 British soldiers shot in the train, which was in keeping with some of the rumours that had circulated on the Nationalist side(38).
Northern newspapers persistently printed rumours or reports of casualties and fatalities on the Volunteers side, but these were unverified. The Belfast Newsletter and the LondonderrySentinel, both referring to reports and rumours “persistently circulated in the district”, claimed that five of the attackers had been killed, the latter stating that the five were reported to have been buried in a bog(39). The Derry Journal, however, quoting “a report published in Unionist newspapers” that five dead rebels had been buried in a bog, suggested that this was simply sensation-mongering(40). All the Volunteer accounts claim they sustained no casualties.
Aftermath:
On the afternoon of the 13th January, Henry Hunt received a letter, marked “Secret”, from Brigade Headquarters, Derry, requesting a train be arranged to convey 8 officers and 160 “Other Ranks”, together with 10 tons of baggage and 50 bicycles, from Derry to Burtonport on the 14th. Troops would arrive at the station at 07.00 hours, for departure at 07.30 hours. There was also a request for a pilot engine to run ahead of the train and it was stated that it might be necessary to retain the train between Gweedore and Burtonport for the use of the troops for a few days.
Derry 1920: Members of the Dorsetshire Regiment patrol the streets. (Derry Journal, 8th April 2016)
This train appears to have proceeded without incident. The Londonderry Sentinel on the 15th January reported that a very large party of troops had arrived by train the previous day and were “displaying great activity in the district” and also that “many people, mainly males, hurried to the coast and took boats to the islands”.
Patrick Breslin also talked of their arrival: – “Following the attack on the troop train, British forces in great strength were drafted into the Rosses, but beyond the arrest of some sympathisers on the civil side, we had no losses(41)”.
Meanwhile, on the 13th January, Hunt sent RB Newall, Engineer, and William Napier, Locomotive Superintendent, to the area to assess the damage to the locomotive and rolling stock involved in the ambush and to obtain an accurate description of the scene of the attack, ahead of preparing a claim for damages. Arriving in Gweedore by train, they proceeded towards the scene of the attack by gangers’ bogie, being the only means of transport available, as the military had requisitioned all motor vehicles. They were brought to a halt shortly before the scene, where a pair of rails with attendant sleepers had been removed and thrown over the embankment, which at that point was about 18ft high. The line at either end had also been slewed, the effect of which would have been to precipitate any train over the bank. Boulders, large enough to derail any engine, had also been placed in the cutting on the Burtonport side and telegraph wires had been cut in a number of places. They returned to Gweedore as men accompanying them were unwilling to proceed, warnings having been received to stay away from the attack site, but also to inform Gweedore of damage to the line. They then returned to Derry. For repairs to the track, Newall recommended that men should be brought in from Derry to do the work, for fear of reprisals, and, for safety’s sake, as the position is very exposed, they should be well guarded by military, both while working and on the journey to and from the place(42).
Burtonport Station: Typical view of a train about to depart for Derry. (Courtesy Donegal Railway Heritage Centre)
On Saturday, the 15th January, Napier and Newall returned on the 10 am train to arrange for the return of the engines and the other stock marooned at Burtonport to Gweedore and Derry. On arrival at Gweedore station, shortly after 2 pm, they were required to wire Burtonport to advise of the purpose of their visit and request permission from the military to proceed. The necessary approval eventually arrived, and they proceeded by light engine, reaching Burtonport at 4.30 pm, to be informed that the Commanding Officer, Major Dyer, wished to speak to them. After a brief inspection of the damaged engine, they were escorted to meet the Major.
He informed them that two engines and two trains were required for military use the next day, but the rest of the stock could be moved at any time. He impressed upon them that this use of the trains by the military on the following day must be kept absolutely secret but did not inform them where the trains would be going. By the end of the interview, darkness had descended, making it impossible to leave Burtonport that evening.
Newall and Napier spent the evening making arrangements for moving the stock and on arrival at the station at 9.0 am the following morning, all engines were in steam in accordance with instructions. A careful examination of the damaged engine and carriages was first made to ensure they were in a fit condition to be worked to Derry.
Major Dyer reached the Station at about 9.30am with a large body of troops and informed Napier that a party was to travel to Kincasslagh Road Station and another to Letterkenny, while the remainder would continue to Derry, accompanying three prisoners who had been detained in Burtonport following a military round-up in the aftermath of the train attack. These were named(43) as John E. Boyle, County Councillor and former magistrate and prominent Dungloe trader, Michael Forker, Glenahilt trader and Joseph McBride, shop assistant of Burtonport(44).
One engine, five carriages and two wagons were to remain at Burtonport at the disposal of the military. Arrangements were made for the removed stock and the troop train to travel simultaneously. A pilot engine, with a single carriage which contained the prisoners and a military guard, set off in advance, followed by a train of goods wagons, then the troop train and finally, an engine hauling the damaged engine, No. 2B. The speed was controlled so as to allow abrupt halt should the need arise and, with the help of no Sunday traffic on the line, they reached Derry without incident(45).
As a sequel to the events, the Railway Company submitted a claim for malicious damages for £1,500, made up of damage to engine and rolling stock (£500), damage to permanent way (£400) and loss of traffic and additional wages (£600). The train crew received a small reward for their co-operation in running the special train – Henry Hunt received a cheque for £5 from Military headquarters for distribution as he saw fit, and this was duly done as: – Driver Turner £2.10s; Guard Carson £1.10s and Fireman Crawford £1.
[1] For a full account of events in Donegal during the War of Independence see Ó Duibhir L, The Donegal Awakening: Donegal and the War of Independence, Mercier Press, Cork 2009. ISBN 978 1 85635 632 9.
[3] For details of attacks on the railway see TheLough Swilly Railway. Patterson EM. Colourpoint (Revised Edition 2017); That Old Sinner. The Letterkenny & Burtonport Extension Railway. Sweeney F. Irish History Press (2006).
[5] Based on Lough Swilly Railway file of communications, Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) D2683/3/B/317
[6] PJ Gallagher report to Henry Hunt, 12th January 1921 (PRONI D2683/3/B/317)
[7] R Carson report to Henry Hunt, 12th January 1921 (PRONI D2683/3/B/317)
[8] Posts marking mileage from Derry were placed every ¼ mile along the Extension. These could then pinpoint the location of any issue on the line – in this case, just over ½ mile from Kincasslagh Road station.
[9] CJ McBride report to Henry Hunt, 12th January 1921 (PRONI D2683/3/B/317)
[10] Instruction by telegraph from Henry Hunt 13th January 1921 (PRONI D2683/3/B/317)
[11] Ó Duibhir L, The Donegal Awakening:Donegal and the War of Independence, Mercier Press, Cork 2009. ISBN 978 1 85635 632 9. p206
[12] Patrick Breslin’s Witness Statement (BMH WS 1448, 27th June 1956) states instructions were for 3.0 am.
[13] Major-General Joseph A Sweeney. Donegal and the War of Independence. Capuchin Annual, 1970, p436
[14] Phil Boyle states (BMH WS 1328, 19th December 1955) he received a dispatch from Peadar O’Donnell at 1.0 am and had to get men out of bed. He then ran them nearly all the way to reach Kincasslagh Road at 5.0 am.
[17] Unlike the other evacuated RIC barracks in West Donegal, that at Burtonport was spared due to special local pleading and so was available to the British Army when they reached Burtonport.
[18] Capuchin Annual, 1970, p436.
[19] Phil Boyle’s Witness Statement (BMH WS 1328, 19th December 1955). The suggested number of soldiers wounded is most unlikely given that there were only 54 military personnel on board and Joe Sweeney’s account of them marching to Burtonport “using advance, rear guards and flank guards”.
[20] Patrick (Kit) O’Donnell’s Witness Statement (BMH WS 1327, 18th December 1955). Reference to the “22 men” is at odds with Patrick Breslin’s statement that they “succeeded in getting 35 armed men together”. His statement that the machine gun mounted on the engine was not used is at odds with other accounts.
[21] Patrick Breslin’s Witness Statement (BMH WS 1448, 27th June 1956)
[22] John O’Gorman’s Witness Statement (BMH WS 1332, 22nd December 1955)
[25] Derry Journal 14th and 17th January1921; Belfast Newsletter 17th January 1921.
[26] This claim was made in 1943 in her application for a Military pension, in relation to her involvement in the War of Independence – http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/detail.aspx – and is difficult to verify as, although she had “handwritten references” to support her claim, none of the witness statements mention her involvement on the night.
[27] Capuchin Annual, 1970, p436
[28] Derry Journal 17th January 1921
[29] Patrick O’Donnell’s Witness Statement is at odds with other accounts when he states the military did not respond.
[30] Derry People Jan 15th, 1921; Freeman’s Journal 13th January 1921; Irish Independent 13th January 1921
[31] An t-Óglach, 15th March 1921, p.4
[32] As stated in initial request from Commanding Officer of the Londonderry Brigade to Henry Hunt, 11th January 1921. Lough Swilly Railway file of communications, PRONI D2683/3/B/317
[33] The discrepancy between the two men may be a result of inclusion of the ten or so Flying Column members who joined the local Volunteers.
[34] See for example Witness Statements of Phil Boyle and John O’Gorman.
[36] O’Duibhir, L. The Donegal Awakening: Donegal & the War of Independence, Mercier Press, Cork 2009. p210
[37] Whether this is what he witnessed or is influenced by subsequent rumour is difficult to determine – he also stated that “visibility was bad, even at such close range, and it was difficult to determine the effect of our fire”.
[38] It has not been possible to find any report or comment to verify this story, made in a statement 33 years after the alleged encounter.
[39] Londonderry Sentinel 15th January 1921; Belfast Newsletter 17th January 1921
[40] Derry Journal 17th January 1921
[41] Patrick Breslin’s Witness Statement (BMH WS 1448, 27th June 1956)
[42] RB Newall report to Henry Hunt, 14th January 1921 (PRONI D2683/3/B/317)
[43] Londonderry Sentinel 27th January 1921
[44] John E. Boyle was first detained without charge in Derry then later transferred to Ballykinlar Internment Camp in Co. Down where he remained until August 1921, the Derry Journal of 10th August announcing he had been released unconditionally the previous day. No reports of the subsequent fate of his two fellow prisoners could be traced.
[45] William Napier report to Henry Hunt, 17th January 1921 (PRONI D2683/3/B/317); Larne Times 22nd January 1921.
Darkest Discoveries Donegal 
Recent Comments