Front cover – Erigal, Co. Donegal, 1939, Paul Henry, Estate of Paul Henry, IVARO, Dublin, 2023, oil on canvas, Collection of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Heritage Gift by the Bank of Ireland from the Bank of Ireland Collection, 2008.
Description
Author
Page
President of County Donegal Historical Society Rev. Raymond Alexander Blair
4
Eithne Coyle and the Struggle for Irish Nationhood
Méadhbha Ní Bhaoill
5
Joseph Murray: Revolutionary, Teacher and Garda
Niamh Brennan
20
Untold – Donegal Women in the Revolutionary Period
Caroline Carr
29
Decade of Centenaries: Fact and Fiction
Helen Meehan
37
A Visit to Donegal in the 1820s
Myra D. Kavanagh
41
The 1400th Anniversary of Adomnán, Naomh Adhamhnán, St Eunan
Brian Lacey
46
Baptist Johnston Barton (3) 1848 – 1914 : the Old Colonel
Col. Declan O’Carroll (Rtd.)
49
Inishtrahull: Isle of Ships
Seán Beattie
58
A Forgotten Paul Henry Connection with Letterkenny
William Roulson
68
Donegal’s Other Kelp and Iodine Works
Peter E. Childs
74
The Rise and Decline of the Donegal Town Spa
Rev Raymond Blair
80
P.T. McGinley, P.T. MacFhionnlaoich, Cú Uladh (1856-1942): Ceannródaí Ildánach na Gaeilge na Luathbhlianta i nDún na nGall
Nollaig MacCongáil
84
Two Intriguing Names of Inishowen and Inse Gall
Aidan O’Hara
96
A Great American Donegal-born Sculptor of the American Capitol
Geoff Cobb
102
Doonan Rock: Inauguration Site of the Uí Chanannáin Dynasty
Seán Browne
106
Sidelights on Fiddling in the Laggan
Martin McGinley
113
Challenge in the Quest for Genetic Surname Signatures: A Cenél Conaill Case Study
The cover of the Annual is a most atmospheric painting by Norman Teeling, “Sackville Street before the Rising.”
This is a special centenary edition of the Donegal Annual to commemorate the main events of 1916 – the Easter Rising and WW1.
From the 20+ articles in this edition (see Contents below) it is appropriate to focus on two in particular. Helen Meehan writes about Patrick Pearse and the MacManus brothers and this is Helen’s 25th consecutive year contributing to the Annual.
Rev. Dr. John Silke has a detailed article about Donegal and 1916. This sadly is believed to be Dr. Silke’s final piece of writing and the Annual includes an obituary in his memory, written by Timothy O’Sullivan.
The first RIC officer to die in the Rising was Constable Charles McGee, a native Irish speaker from the Donegal island of Innisboffin. He is the subject of two articles in the Annual, one by Dr. Méadhbha Ní Bhaoill and the other by Dr. Seosamh Ó Ceallaigh. In a similar vein Seán Boner writes about Private Con Duggan of the Royal Irish Rifles who also died in the Rising.
Seán Beattie, the editor of the Annual, examines early reactions to the Rising in the North-West, while John Cunningham peruses the local press for that year with a selection of interesting snippets. Rev Raymond Blair similarly examines “The Donegal Vindicator” which described the Rising as “an outbreak of criminal folly” and that’s the title he uses for his article.
Emerson Herdman from Sion Mills was in Dublin and photographed the city in the days after the Rising. Seán Boner prints some of these in his article and tells us that the entire collection is in the National Library, including ones he took in the Rosses where the Herdmans also had extensive business interests.
Standing back to reflect on the entire spectrum of commemoration and memory is thoughtfully achieved by Dr. Desmond Murphy, a barrister from Derry. Dr. Sandra Buchanan focuses on the Rising in a wider global context, backed up with an immense amount of bibliography. And the events of WW1 are also in the Annual. Rachel Magowan features Dorothy Young, a Belfast trained nurse who served in war time hospitals in France and who had spent her youthful summers in Culdaff. She later moved to Jersey and named her house Inishowen, evidence surely of the serenity she had found in that beautiful peninsula.
We must never forget the excellent service provided by the Donegal County Archives Centre for a lot of our information and Dr. Niamh Brennan, the Head of Archives, details the 1916 collection held at Lifford, “a small but intriguing collection” is how she describes the 1916 material.
This is not the full extent of the Annual – see the Index on our website for that. It was launched by Prof. Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Emeritus Professor, NUI, Galway.
Full credit to Seán Beattie and his editorial staff in bringing to fruition this milestone publication to remember a significant year in Irish history.
Contents
Description
Author
Page
President Bio
4
Pearse’s Letter to a Donegal Mother
Anthony Begley
5
Easter Rising 1916 – Early Reactions in the North West
Dr. Seán Beattie
11
Easter Rising 1916 – A Global Context
Dr.Sandra Buchanan
23
Military Presence in Donegal in 1916
Richard Doherty
28
Donegal County Archives and 1916
Dr. Niamh Brennan
31
From Culdaff to the Somme
Rachel Magowan
39
Patrick Pearse and the MacManus Brothers
Helen Meehan
43
From Nationalism to Republicanism: Letterkenny and 1916
Kieran Kelly
49
Constable Charles McGee RIC (1892-1916)
Dr. Méadhbha Ni Bhaoill
54
Constable McGee and the Easter Rising
Dr. Seosamh O Ceallaigh
62
Noble Sentiments
Dr. Lochlann McGill
67
Derry and The Easter Rising 1916
Brian Lacey
70
The Fermanagh Press and Donegal 1916
John Cunningham
81
Commemoration and Memory
Dr. Desmond Murphy
85
Donegal and 1916
Rev. Dr. John Silke
88
“An Outbreak of Criminal Folly”: Donegal Vindicator 1916
“I may say that this Society, with its associated Journal and proposed Repository, bids fair to fulfil a hope I have entertained for a long while.”
Andrew Lowry, President, Foreword, Journal of the County Donegal Historical Society, November 1947.
Front cover – Blown Sand , 1797 (From William Hamilton “Memoir of the Climate of Ireland”, in Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1797, Vol. 6, pp 27-55 by permission of the Royal Irish Academy).
Description
Author
Page
The Garda Síochána in Donegal (1922-1923)
Seán Beattie
4
Night of Terror in Mountcharles
Helen Meehan
19
The Border in Finnegans Wake: ‘the sanguine boundary limit’
Donal Manning
23
In Search of Fahan Mura
L. S. McLaughlin
29
Richard Hayward’s Donegal Connection
Paul Clements
39
Painting Life in the Rosses: W. H. Bartlett (1856-1932)
Raymond Blair
45
Bundoran Golf Club: Unique Sporting Inscription
Anthony Begley
49
Dún nanGall: “Fort of the Foreigners”? Archaeological Evidence for Viking Activity in Medieval Donegal
Megan McAuley
54
The Burt Reclamation Scheme
Liam Campbell
64
Girls’ Secondary Schools in Londonderry after 1845
Robert Montgomery
72
Culdaff Letter, 1777
George Mills
76
The Extraction of lodine from Seaweed in Ramelton, Co. Donegal
Peter E. Childs
78
A Donegal-born Covenanter Minister in South Carolina: Rev. Thomas Donnelly
William Roulston
91
The Earliest Books by Donegal Authors
Brian Lacey
94
John Hamilton, Brownhall: Tenants of the Ballydermot Estate 1821-1857
Sam Hanna
100
Aonach Thir Chonaill: Aonach Gaeilge
Nollaig Mac Congáil
111
Edmund Brian Doherty Plaque, Cruit Island
Shannon McGaffin
121
Extraordinary Landlordism in Western Donegal: Valentine Ryan – Landlord, Iniskeel
Tom Plunkett
124
Dunaire Finn agus Dún na nGall
Duane Long
129
The Emergence of Muintir Chanannáin in Early Medieval Donegal
