JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY RAMBLES by ' "'\'~ • llll HUGH DEERY DRUMHOLM BALLINTRA DiRUM!HO!LM p,ARJ:SH, in which This was "A History of the ~arish of the village of Balllntra is Drumholm," which appeared in May, situated, contains 35,907 acres 3 roods 1903, from the ·press of the late P. A. and 6 perches, of which 669 acres 3 Mooney, editor and proprietor of the roods and 12 perches are under water. Dionegal ·Independent with offices at the Its greatest length f:r;om the seashore at Mall, IBallyshannon. ·. Rossnowlagh to "Kelly's Bridge" at the This local history pamphh~t ls now Tyrone border is approximately 17 miles very scarce and is much sought after, and its greatest breadth from a bridge especially by people from the parish near Mahon's Lough to a bridge about overseas. Mr; !Kearney was a native a quarter' of a mile north of Laghey of Clar, near Loch Eske, and h~ married village on the main road to Derry is a Drumholm lady, ·hence his interest about seven miles. in a district where he lived for upwards Most authorities agree that Drum- of forty years. On retiring from teaching holm takes its name from "Drim," a he returned to the scenes of his boyhood ridge or hilltop and "Tuama," a tumulus where he died about fifteen years ago. or burial ground. ' ~ son, also named Thomas, ~migrated Ballintra, situated nearly mid-way to British Columbia and died tllere some between the towns of 'Donegal and four or five years ago. He wrote a conBallyshannon, has many historic asso- siderable :amount of verse, .much of ciations. Its position in a deep valley which treated on the. neighbourhood through which a river flows gives it its where he was born, and some on the Irish name of Baile-an-tSratha, the Columbian scene around !Kamloops, town of the srath or holm. where he lived and wnrked. Here was Until the beginning of the present printed and published a selection of his century no complete history of the poems entitled "Odds and Ends of parish existed, and what little the Verse." It is a well-turned-out v:olume, common people · knew of it ftom St. with illustration of some scenes in Patrick's day down was based mainly mi Drumholm and of the country around tradition. Few people of the district !Kamloops. The present writer is happy had an opportunity of dipptng lnt::> to possess a ·presentation copy from the O'Donovan's translation of the Annals of author, as well as s,ome supplementary the Four Masters, or any other work ve.rses published later. which might casually refer to Drumholm Of the early history of iBaUintra as a conttibution to a larger canvass. we know nothing, nor of who first began In 1879 a notable History of Bally- .·.to build here along the river holm. The shannon appeared in Hugh Alllngham's late William Bulfln, the genial author of Ballyshannon, /Past and Present,* in Rambles in iEirinn, has a dig at it when which some reference was made to the he refers to it as a place which you neighbouring parish of Drumholm; but cannot enter without going down a hill, it lay with .a. worthy schoolmaster-the nor get out of it without climbing, late Mr. Thomas Kearney~to give a which, by the way, is only partly true. history confined mainly to the district There is only one road where we have and embracing much material which to rnake a slight ascent when entering had not hitherto appeared in print. the village, and this is past the old Methodist Church which dates from 1792, and was replaced by the present · ---~--·-- - -- • Reprinted by "The• D<Yneg:a;l Democr:at," ;5allyshannon. in 193'7. . 99
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