.JOURNAL oF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HrSTORIOAi. socrn'i.·Y:. 23 ·--· ---- --····~----·---· - - · ··---- · ··---- ·- --- - - - James Murphy's book "The Shan Van Vocht" we have an excellent tale of the defeat of the French and · the capture of :Wolfe Tone. Victor O'Donovan Power's "Tracked" reminds me of happy days when I devoured "Ireland's Own" with an avidness I can never recapture in any other magazine. I shall not pause to elaborate upon the poetry of Innishowen which ranges from O'Donavan's translation of the tenth century saga of ·MacLaughlin, Prince of Aileac, and the poetry of De Vere, Gavan-Duffy, T. D. ~ullivan, Edward Walsh, [)r. Sigerson, Rose Cavanagh, Dr. Kees O'Doherty, Canon O'H:anlon, the Rev. 'I1homas Graham, down to the latest Bard of Innishowen. I am now on my homeward journey, and must pass through the Lagganthat stronghold of staunch and sturdy Yeoman stock which has contributed so much to the Anglo-Irish Literature of County Donegal. First on my list is John !Hood, who was born at Moyle, near Newtowncunningham, in 172-0. He was the inventor of many surveying instruments which still bear his name, and like his grandson, Samuel Hood, who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1826, was the author of a Treatise on Land Surveying. Manorcunningham reminds me of Mrs. Rentoul Esler and her true to life, if somewhat idyllic, novel, "A Maid of the Manse." It is a very readable story of PresibyteTian 1clericaI life in co. Donegal during the early part of the last century. Mrs. Esler was the daughter of the Reverend Alexander Rentoul of Manorcunningham, who was a Doctor of Medicine as well as a Doctor of Divinity. I could enumerate a long string of his daughter's once popular novels, without encroaching on the list of her contributions to "T!he CDrnhill," "Chambers" and other magazines. Mrs. Esler is not alone as a product of the Manse, for a short distance away, at Burt, the Reverend Dr. Josias Lesli.e Porter was born in 1823. He was educated by the Reverend Mr. Craig of Raphoe, and spent a goodly portion of his early life as a missionary to the Jews in Syria, and returned to Ireland to become a Professor of Biblical Studies, a Moderator of his Church, and t.he President of Queen's University, Belfast, with a long list of scientific and biographical Works to his credit. Equally interesting is his kinsman, the Reverend James Porter, who was born in Ballindrait, and was hanged in front of his Meeting House at Grey Abbey for his participation in the Rebellion of 1798. Porter, like another Ballindrait gentleman, the 1President of our Historical Society, possessed a museum which was then unrivalled in Ulster. He first entered literature with his political writings in favour of Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform, and many of these works were contributed to the "Northern Star." His most famous songs were published in 1823 under the title of "Billy Bluff" and "Squire Firebrand." This rare work is preserved in the Library of !Magee College, Derry, and some more of his songs may be found in a volume of '98 poems entitled "Paddy's Resource." A recently published guide to straibanc described Miss Jane Porter as a native of Ballindrait.* If this is true then we can also claim her famous father, Sir Robert Kerr Porter, artist, diplomat and surgeon to Inniskillen Dragoons. and her equally famous sister, Anna Maria Porter, the novelist and poetess. Ballindrait is intimately associated with the Reverend A. G. Lecky's "Presbyterianism ih The Laggan," and its companion volume "In the days of the Laggan Presbytery." Local eolour is also obtained from the work of another Presbyterian minister, f,or the Laggan fills many pages in Rev. Dr. Killeen's "Reminiscences of a Long Life." From Lifford We have the Reverend W. M. Edwards's "Rectors of Clonleigh since the Reformation," which was reprint.ed from his parish magazine of 18M. The little village of Castleftn has already a poetess and a novelist on my li~t-Rebecca Scott and T'. O'Flanagan. Miss Scott has published two volumes of poems, but I have only laid my hands on her "Echoes of Tyrconnell" ('Derry 1880). This is a very tastefully produced volume of unsophisticated poetry, reeking of Victorian smugness-and yet I was amazed to find in it a beautiful little ballad on the tragic cloudburst which caused such havoc, some 7-0 years ago, in the Chapel of Gweedore. O'Flanagan used the penname 'fSamoth" for his novel "Strabane and Lifford," with its sub-title "The Consequences of a Refusal." His other novel "Ned McGoll and His Foster Brother" was printed and published at the office of the "The Derry Journal" in 1871. It purported to be a tale founded on facts, and some few years ago when Father Walter Hegarty was collecting the folk-lore of · Castleifin he found that the fictitious portions of this +Authoress of once Jamou& novels, "The Scottish Chieftains" and "Thaddeus of Warsaw."
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