The Mystery of the Cross on the Hill In 2016 passengers on an aircraft approaching City of Derry Airport noticed an unusal sight on the Donegal hillside as they approach to land. A 100m tall cross on the hill was visible in the fields near Killea, and nobody knew how...
Donegal Town hiring fair
The day I got there the Diamond was full of people and of carts and cars tilted on their end; I counted over fifty of these vehicles. It was the big hiring fair. Boys and girls engage themselves to employers from the ayth of May to the 2oth of November,...
How Tyrone and Tirconaill (Donegal) got their names.
Tir Eoghan the province of Owen was once a great principality, which stretched its frontier from the west of Lough Erne across Lough Neagh to the shores of the Channel by Belfast. In the days when Irelandhad a fate of her own Tyrone was the country of the O'Neill. Centuries...
Ardara, Co. Donegal in 1893
The town or village or Ardara, or Hill of the Fort, takes its name from a very conspicuous earthen fort which stands on a hill about 200 perches to the north-east of the town. The "Nesbitt Arms Hotel" offers every inducement to tourists or anglers, and the scenery is magnificent....
Burtonport in 1893
The tourist should visit this interesting spot, at which a boat may he chartered for Arran and the other islands. The position of "the Port," as it is locally called, is extremely advantageous for commercial purposes, especially as, through the energy and enterprise of Messrs. Hammond & Herdman, regular steam...
William Sydney Clements (Lord Leitrim) (1806 – 1878)
William Sydney Clements, the 3rd Earl of Leitrim was an Anglo-Irish nobleman and notorious landlord. Born in 1806, he was educated in Sandhurst and served in Portugal for the British Army between 1826 and 1827. In 1831 he was promoted to captain. Following his father's death he was promoted to...
The murder of Lord Leitrim
The third Earl of Leitrim had served in the army, rising to be a colonel, before he succeeded his father in the title. He was a man by no means wholly bad and possessed qualities which might, under happier circumstances, have made him famous absolute courage and a perfectly indomitablc...
A look at Ballyshannon in the 1800s
From A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, by Samuel Lewis (1837) BALLYSHANNON, a sea-port, market, and posttown (formerly a parliamentary borough), partly in the parish of INNISMACSAINT, but chiefly in that of KILBARRON, barony of TYRHUGH, county of DONEGAL, and province of ULSTER, 35 miles (S. W.) from Lifford, and 102...
Rathmullan, Co. Donegal
Rathmullan is a small, picturesque seaside village on the western shores of Lough Swilly in Co. Donegal. In 1607 the Flight of the Earls took place just outside the village in a place called Carolina Bay. This marked the end of the Gaelic chieftain rule in Ireland, a major point...
Mary Anne’s Shop, Rathmullan
Mary Anne Friel lived near Elly, Oughterlin and worked for Mrs. Boyce in Downings. When Mrs. Boyce decided to retire from the knitting business she offered Mary Anne a choice of machines. Mary Anne chose two and brought them to Rathmullan. Being close to her customers was important, so Mary...