JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY der the necessity of taking me.asuries wiith reg.a.r.d to him· which would be rather di!Slrugrie.e:alble. Tonie said, 'My Lord, you know your duty; I mine.' He then enquired: from a g·entleman present, wlhom he hiaid had tormerJy ikln<l!wn, respecting biis. olid Bar acquaintances, taliked Olf them and lriS:h affairs very freely, as i:f_ he had been ain Irishman ; but afitiel'1W!aaxlis when speaik.ing of tJhe a.etion with S'ir J. B. Warr.en, resumed aJl the mainners aiild :feelings of a Frencihman. · ''AF'TIER RJEMIAlllN[N'G A SIHO\RT TlJMIE AT BUNlCRJANtA., HE WAS CONDUIOTED TO mE GAOL HmE (:Derry) by Lord Clavan's. aide-decamp, Caipt. Chester, wlh.o, whien oommi.tJtin:g him, dire·cted tha.t he shoulld :be put in ilfons. :Against this he remonstrated vi0Le1ntly, insiSting t.hat. beinlg a swbJect of ~ce, and hollding a comm.tssion as General d t:1e F\re:nch Airmy, he s:houldi be treated 1as a prisoner ·of wax. . . . . iBeling indulged with m:atel'lials for writing, he .actiddressed a letter to Lord OaV!an on bhe sulbjoot. . ''On beting ·tlllformed that he mus.t be tr·ea.ted as trai·tors: usually are, i~ ~ divested htmseil:f of an ele1gant Rieipl\llbllican wniflOII"lll, siaying1 tJhat '1 t should IliOt be dtsigraiced,' and w:!:um the irions were ptlllt on his leg, he declared thiSJt to wear such a badge of dtstincition wa:s piieif~alble to l:>emg deooriated With the Stair and Garter." iFlwther proof of Buinicrana's cl!aim to be the place of Tone's landing and arrest is the f·act bhiat he was cOIIlvie~ed to Derry (not via Lifford, as the LettJerlkenny version has it) on his waiy to Dulblin: 'Tione, in. fact, was lod1ged from N1ov:eimlber 3rd .tiLl November 5th, 1798, in De.rry J1ail, which tihen stood in the Diamond. He wr:ote friom the.re a numbeT of eJD·tant' letters, including one to his wife. · The late Alice MilUgan, at the time in 19G8 when the wrilter had a.U 'thts ev1den1ce published, rec:aU1ed in a letter t10 t!he Press how thre·e t-r:ad'l.t1ons of Tone's journey as a prisoner through the sf.reefs of Derry had siurvitvoo to her daiy, viz.:- 1'-1Mrs. John Martin told heT t'hat John Mitc!hcl's mother was lif;ted 1liP rid.e ·f.ettered to the prdson in Derry. 2-!l'he }ate Mxs._ Hegar..ty, of .thre Diamond, Derry <miother of Mrs. MciDeivitt, Waterside) told her that the Hegar~y business place st;ood on t.he site of the prison in whicil Tone was kept. 3.,_._[)r. Sigerson used t;o tell .that Tone rode past the ga11ows, outside B1Slhoip Gate and laug:hed at 1t defiantly. . The best tr.ad1tiOIIl in favour of Buncrana's claim, h!oiWever, is .that putblished in Mr. H. P. Swan's interiesting volume, "Romail/tJic Inislhowen,' from the unlbi'ased pen of Mrs. R. K Bedl~e. whose father and g["aind·father owned and lived i1n BUIIltcl'!ana Casile. This lady, who still owns .the s:::verial fishery of the Orana (Cast.l·e) River, writes as under:- ''The.re are a few peo!Ple .still living who remember oLd BliUy Dohert.y (Whi1tey). Billy w:as giate.ke=p~r at BUI11Crrana Oas.tie. He r.ememb2,red as a boy standling on 'Boner's Bra.e· in Bu.nc:rana when, on 3rd November, 1798, he saw some hundreds of F.rencll prj.S!onens of war being marcthed pi3Jst thJr:ough the main street on their way to Derry ·Jadl. The.y were marched tlwo albireast under armed guard. Among them was WoJ.fe Tone, the famous leader of the United Lrts:hmen. Tone, acoordli.ng to ·Bi.lilJy, looked neither to the right hand nor :to the left, but keipt his eyes 'fixed oo the g:round.' W!hen tJbe heiad of the procession wai:: at 'Qassidy's School' (now MeClolgan's StlOJ:'les) the tail was leaVing the Castle River. IBUly Dolhexty died albout the year 1884, aig.ed 103 years." . [Jetlterlkennry need not feel ?,ggrived a.t tihe loss of lt.s connection with tht• arrest of 'nme ; it has other and prouder assootations WltJh hisrtory. The dangPr of relyiirligi too hea.Vily on liradition, wlhiich ofiten descends to mere le1gend, is pa1paibly eVident her.e. For that reason, the writer ls rather sceptical ef tha account of Tone's betrayaJ by his former Triintty College ([)uil:Tlin.) fellowstu.dent, Hill.. TheTe ls no.thting in Buncra1na's traditions to sustain thls, and t'here is cert:a:lnly nothing in written history to prove lt. in the arms of a nurse or relative !British 1nitelli1gence agients had !::onwhen a small child to see Wolf.e Tone veyed to tJhetr ma~ters the neiw:s inat '1. 31
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