JOURNAL QF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY WOLFE TONE AND DONEGAL By SEAMUS BRADY (N this ye•a·r of commemora-ti:on of the r€ibellion of 1798, Donegal's association has bs•en reca.Ued in t.he "Battle of the S1w1lilly" (.a.s it has be2n termed), and as a r•esult of Which TheOlbald w.olfe Tone, the most celebrat2d figurie in the ri.sing, was 1'and·2id f,rom the French warshiip L:i HG·che a::; a · piri~.oner and b:ti0U1ght ·eventually to trial and death in DubJin. It might be weJl a;t the ou1tset to say that the sea bia;ttJe on Octciher 12th, 1793, be·t•ween A;d:miral B ::m 1pi1;rt'.s F·re:r...~ih sq ua:dron and the British un~ts under Sir· J:oTI.n B. Wan·en was not fought in Lough Swilly but in the Noi.':ili At1anJ,~c Ocean p.:r:ope-r and nearer to Tory faland than ~he mouth of the Lough. 'I'ihe captured Hoc:he was brought in.to Lough Swmy aif'ter the battle (this vessel, refitted, s.ubs·equentliy fought undJer ,Nelson rut Trafallg.ar as "The Done\giaJ"). A•fter thr·ee weeks of ~ough weather the surviving prisoners from La Roche were brou:ght a.shor·J. Among tihem was 'Done. 'I!he a1c;tUJaJ da;te of his landing is estalhliished by Slir Geo"ge Fitz1gerald Hill, who in a lette1r to Edward Cooke, the Und1er-8eeretar.y a;t DUib.1in Castle, wrote as fo1low:s.:- ''Bunicr.an:a, "November 3, "l~ o'clock. "My Dear Cooke, ''Such has 'been the s.tormy weat'he·r thB.it ror tiwio days no boat has 'been ashore from La Ho.c!he. Thds morning some hiundred,s O!f the prisoner1s are Jus1t landed. Thie firrs.t man whio sltepiped out of the boat, habited as: an offieer, was TheolbaJd Woil.:f€ Tone. He recog1nised me and addres.s·ed me witlh as much sangfroid as you mtght expeict from his chiara.cter. . . . "Y:ours, etc., Geor1ge Fitzg.era1d Hill. "P'.S.-TIOINE~ IS SENT OtF¥ TO DER:RY lJNDEiR S'l'RONIG EsCIOIR.T.'' NOIW the most interes.tinig element ~n this final episode in Tone's 1if e is, Ior Dons1g1a,1 hi5.1te>ria.ns, the 1.'lival claims of Buncraina and L s:tJterkienmy to he toh.J zoca·ze orf .tJhe r:oma:ntie story wthilch :bias grown around his aTrest. · Tih1e troutb.}e begins with tradition, aliwa.Yis a good scent, ibut never ooncJusive eViidence. Both towns claim tio h:av:e .their own tr.aidit:iions associated w.i'th Tone. The Letterkenny versdion is the more mmantic. 'Dhere is the va:gue evidlenlc·e rw:hicih a local newsip1a1per, crl!ticising my arfac1e in 1938, pu:blishied of a centenarfan inhaiOHm.nit of the town, named William Stew.a~t, who claimed to have wa.tcihed the bat'tle in Lough S1wiU1y. Mr. Stewa.rt's a1ccount went on to descrilbe Tone'·s landing a:t Rathmullan, hds di.SICiOVery by HiJll at hrea;~f!ast in Laird's Hotel, in Le:tterkenny, and his suhsieq:uent tTams.fer via Lifford as a prioone:r iin irons, en 11ou:te to Dublin. T.his v·ersion was a1e1ce1pted by certain writers of the history of the periad. Tone's son, William, in his biogra(plhy of his fa:th!er, repeats i!t. So dtOelS Sir Jon~h Barrington. Neither, of course, Wlelle eye-wi11lneses; WiUila:m Tbne wa.s a •c1hLld in A1meric1a at the time. JJt wou1d a.pipear t:ha.t once Lietter- ~enny was taken .as the .scene of Tone's atte;st, the sulbsequent nart'ia.tors a;t129
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