JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEG:AL HISTORICAL SOCIETY tempfied to mend their band, with disastrous effect. Now tlhe Siwilly River s1tre00hes from Buncrana. to I.ietterkenny, a distance of some twenty mLles, . and no one c1aimed that the Hoene made this jouriney. Lt wou1d be also rid~cUilous to .sugg·est that the prtsone.rs shioulKl h.a ve been talk.en tb:is amkiward l'IOUite in rowlbOat.s or sailing vessels. consequentlly i.t had to be assumed P.hat the landing of the pritsoners .~ook pLa;ce at Rathmulla.n., ·and that they were thenc·e mavched.fifteen miles to Letterkenny, arrli.viing w.hen Lordi Oavan was having breaklfast! There was then onl:y one hotel in Leittie11Jrenny----Laird's ~and obviously the bre:aatfasit must hav·e been partia~en of in the dini1I11g1room theroof, and ,tJhe discovery o! Tone and his arrest· could then be fitted in, because the.re was no IPilJaice in ,the 10ca.liity styled ''The Oastle." AU. thiS, however, dioes not make sound sense, es1pecia1ly w1hoen there are no a.uthoritaitive documental"!y a.eic1ounts prod1Uced to affor.d the remotest sulbslt:antia.tiJon. Buncrana had Us traditions, too, but lt is r·emar~able that though these axe somewhat meagre they are sitrongly s.u1pported by conclusive conten1!Pora1ry . dooumen:tiary evidence. There is the Buncr;ana giener:al tradition that French priooners were la·nded at the exist.Ang Castle Q:u:ay, a.t the mouth of the Cx1a:na River. 'Dhere is also a par:ti·culiar tradition, haindedi down in the f.amily of Mr. Patriick H. O'[)oherity, now manager of the Lalbour ~change in Buncrana, that ca'V1ailry equijpiment taJken off La Hocihe was afteI1W.rurds. burned on the existing Fis;bling Gl"een, near t'he Oastle Quay. Ln 1938, following UiP these traditions, the preseint wriiter decided to seek out the evidence in contemporary ~1istory. Tihere was litJtle use in relying uipon the known 'hist01rians, for a,lmost all of them acc:e1pted the Detitel'lkenny v&"Slon. Through the kindness of the Ubrarlain. the write;r was granted aioces:s to the files of the "iDerry Journ'al" preserved in the lilbra;ry of Magee Unlversttiy Ool11eige, De;rry. Th1s was nece.s5ary be1camse the early files of that newspiaJPer were die!Sltroy:ed by ft.ire in the "Journal" omce, and the s:ole existing local file for th:e year 1798 is tha,t preserved at Ma:giee College Ubrary. There, ill tihe ''Journal's" issue of Niovemlber 6th, 1798, one may read the foHowLng report:_, "The only lrishmran d:i.scovei''ed amo1ngSi~ th,ie prisoners is the oelebrated Tiheolbald Wolfe Tone, wlho a1bout four years sinc1e wa.s, through the leniency of the Government, permitted to retire to America, and to pro'Vle his g.ratitude for that leni.ency, hie now with the rank. of Aid'jut.:lntGeneral in the French Army, and 111nder the name of 'Smtt' or 'Sillli th' once more rev.Lsits his :rtatdve country, 1:1ortunate.liy a pll"J.soner. On landing he was immedliately recognised by many of his Bar and College a;cquaintainc:es. He did not . aittemp;t ··· concealment, but av;oiWed h1mse1'f a subj1ect of France and prodtuced three commissions for situations whroh he \has held in the French Army. "He is styled in the role d'equip- .ag1e Adjutant-General Theolblald Wolfe Tone dit,Smit (.called Smith), Clounty Ki1d:are, Ireland.· Yeste11iday he was transmitted f.rom this plaice (!Decry) for Dublin under an escort of Dragoom; and in charge of Maj or Thaciker-ey." · In a sulbsequent slJ)ecial issue undeir the date Thursday, Novemlber 13th 1798, the "Derry Journal" (which ·it ough:t fJo be rememll:>ered 'was the~ an organ of the ruling regdme in treland) strute:s: _ , · " .... Having received. accounts , ·that the trial of this areh-:trahtor is over:, thougih the sein,tenic·e has not tranSpdX!ed, we no long1er hesitate in pulblt..-mtni~ sucll c1rcumstancesi respeeiting him as have come to our l~nowl!e.dige. '' [Here fOliOIWs a lengt~ ca11,1serd.e of Tone'.s early c.al'leer in Ireland, his exi.1e into Almerloa, and sulbsequent re,turn to FramcieJ . " Conscious of bein,g detected, t'hfu wretch used no means to ooneieal himself. ON LANiD!lNG Arr IBIJ1NlOR>AIN1A, he was identtfled by numibers., and on bei'n!g bTought to THE OASTIJE, Where the Eall'l of Oavan reSides, hie affected a· consideraible degree of ease; but was obvfousl y agitaite'd 1.n the extreme. ~'Lord C~Vl!ln tolq him he was 'Un .. 130
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