THE DONEGAL ANNUAL. ©Le @ounl'I 9Jonegaf {}Cislorical doci4!l'I. JRIS CUMANN SEANCAIS DUN NA nGALL (FOUNDED AT LIFFORD ON 20th DECEMBER, Hl46). * • * * • * THE PRESIDENT, REV. J. H BEWGLASS, THE MANSE, BALLINDRAIT.
PRINCIPAL CONTE·NTS -----... EDITORIAL .................................................................. 286. LIST OF 1MEM1BERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290. MUSI·C IN DONEGAL ............................... .................... 293. HISTORIC FORDS OF DONEGAL ;................................... 303. MEMORIES OF THE TWIN 'l'OWNS ................................. 309. CO. DONEGAL FAMILY IN GERMANY ........................... 316. THE HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE OF RAPROE. ............... 319. CRANNOGS OF TIRCONAILL ................... .......... .......... 325. A DONEGAL NATURALIST OF THE 17th CENTURY ......... 329. IN FOREIGN FIELDS ........ ... . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .... . . . .. . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 331. B·OOK REV1IEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333. APPROAJCH T O D O N E G A L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336. A TOU!R ROUND THF. COUNTY ....................................... 33g_ .CLERGY AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS ...... .... ........... 360. (J.ARDA S I O C H A N A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364. 1PIGOTS DIRECTORY 1S:24 . . . .. . . . . . . . ... . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 366.
PREFACE 1 D~negal is a maratime county, bounded Oil the North by the .AJLantic, -0n the East a.~d S:-m1th by Lough Foyle 1and Counties Derry,_ Tyrone, Fermanagh ·and Leitrim, and on the West by the A'~la:ntic. I·ts greaitest length, North-Ea.sit 1and South-West, is 85 m.Jes a.~.a greatest breadth, South-East, 41 miles. It comprises an area of 1,201,408 1.Sf1atue acres, ar.ld the coast is indented by numerous bays, of which the principal are Lough iSwilly, Lough Foyle, Mulroy, Sheephaven, Teelin, Killybegs, Inver and Donegal Chief of Jthe nume1Jous islands lying off its coast are Innistrahul, North Arr.an and Tory. Much of 'the COUil1ty i,s mountainous w.iith large tracts 'Of bog but there are great s'tetiches of fertile ;agricurtural land, most important of which is, perhaps, lthat in th'; Raphoe district known as the Lagga.~. Lakes ;and rivers are nUJmetous but small. The subsoil is chiefly .graniJte, micas11ate and hmes't.one. The iclimalte is moist. :Aot·atoes, oats .and flax are the chief er-ops. The population has g.rown from 218,334 in 1871 to 2-20,346 i.n .1951. Agriculture and fishing . are principal sources of employmen1t but there are many small, ligttt industries. The manufacture of tweed (especially in !the Wes'tern Glaeltacht area) and woollen goods, shirts and collars etc., · gives much employmen't. There are Urba.n District Councils at Buncrania. Bundoran -and Letterkenny, To:wn Commissione.rs at Ballyshannon and a Harbour Board wt Kill!ybegs. The County contains the Raphoe Diocese ;and parts tof 'those of Derry qnd Clogher consisting of 51 pari!shes. The towns and la,rger !Villages (in alphabetical order iand wi•th approximate population figures, where 1available, give~ in parenthisi;s) are Ardara (44:2), Ballintra, Ballindr1ait, iBallybofey (736), Ballyshannoa (2,2:23), Bunb€g, Buncra,:n!a, (2,'295), Bundoran (1,3512), Buiitonport, Carndonagh (660), · Cardck, Carrigans, Carrigart, Oastlefi.n, Clonmany, Convoy, 1Creeslough, Culdaff, Don-=gal (1,315), Dunfann1ghy, : Dunglloe ·(593), Dunkineely, Falcarragh, Glencolumbkille, Glenties (360), 1Gortah0;rk, Greencastle, Giweedore, Inver, KHcar, Killybegs (631), Killytgordcn, Kilmacrennan, Laghey, Letterke.niny (2,649); Lifford,, IM:alin, Manorcunninghiam, Milford, 1Mountcharles (313); M·oville (937)1; Narin and Portnoo, Ne1wtawncunningham., Petitigo, (350); Portsalon, Hamelton (9'24); Raphoe, Rathmullian (402); St. Johnston and Stranorlar ( 462). ·Politically the county is divided into two consitituencies, which together send seiven deputies to Dail Eireann. CR.epresenti.ng the \Vest ·donstituerncy are Deputies Corunac Breslin, iBunbeg, (Leas CE'3.n Comhairle), Joseph Brennan, tDunkineely (Fia.nna Fail) ; 1and P. O'Donnell, ~olidtor, Dungloe (Fine Gael). The East is represenJted by Deputies D. Mad\1enamin, B.L., Glenfin (Fine Gail); Neil Og Bl:aney, Rossnakill (Fianr::a Fail); .w. W. Sheldon, Raphoe (Ind.),; and Liam Cunningham, Bur't (Fianna Fail). Mr. Michael Og MacFad<len, for many years a Fine Gael deputy, is now a Senator.
EDITORIAL ''THE PAST IS PROLOGUE ,, MEM.BEtRS ·and fri~nds. of t~e Count~ Don~gal Historical . Society will, •we hope, ·fmd in this, the first, issue of The Doneg·al Annua;l a wide variety of inter·esting articles, notes, and features in keeping with the aims and objects of our Society. For t1his reason we feel justified in maintaining continuity wit:1 our previous publications. The Donegal Annual, 1951, is therEf ore the first number of volume two of the Journal of the County Donegal Historical Society. , The decic:.;ion to 1cater for a wide.r range of readers w2cs taken by your Ex,ecutivs Committee after 1careful consideration of the vicissitudes ·which attended our first four publications. We were for2ed to conclude that, unless drastic changes were made, printing costs, attenuat.ed s·ales, .and precarious member.ship, would create a situation where our Journal would cease to be an Annual and bec.Jme a sporadic publication. An analysis of these, unfavourable conditions showed ti\at it is _ in~iperative for us to ·emphasise that no blame can be attached to our printer,s and publishers. \Vould th'at we could as readily exonerate uther factors in the book triade? \Ve have, therefore, no hesitation in calling attention to ihe arbitrary manner in \\thich Journals, su;ch as ours, ar.e ignored, even to the extent of non-.a~knowledgment of reviEJw copie.s, by certain Literary Eciitor.s and Editors of the metropolitan and loc'al press. Our treatm~nt by a nation wide rnonopolistirc book distribution firm wns even worse and has caused us to t1ake a very ;poor i\Tiew of the fact th!at literature relating to . the county i1s absent from the windows and icount2r3 of its book.stalls throughout Donegal. (Tourist and Devebpmer.t Ass1ociations please note !) . 1\Vith obstacles such as these the wonder is that ·we were <>.blre to <Hspos·~ of so many of our Journo.ls. Fo.r this we must th•ank the hard working agents of "The Derry Journal," and "The Don~gal Demor;rat,' ; and also the Editors of "lrish Historical Studies" whos2 reviews '.and notices brnug1ht us orders from as far away as New Zealand. ln fairness to all corncerned we, too, 1must confess to faults and flaw:s. Healthy self-icriticism ha·s made it evident th1at the preservation and difl\1sion of our County's hist9ry could not be realised 286
by catering !:>oJdy fur a cute.de ; however urU!:>tic it~ motivd. lt reve'aled that the science of history and archaeology, for its own sake, even in relation to County Donegal, could be best serived in the Jour.nai of the R\oyal Siocie~y ·Of AintiqUjaries, lris'h Historical Studies and TJhe Sword of the Military History Society of Ireland. A 1situdy of public opinion throughout the ·county revealed that eX!eessive zeal, on our part, for the preservation of relics and records of th8 pre-histori(c and historic 1pa.st ·w.ould not serve our wider ajms and objects unless 1we established tangible links of continuity with the historic present and future. Our first four issues made no attempt b prieser1Ve these topics of to-day ~which may make the history of to-morrow. In this misconcept of time, in relation to history, we were not alone .since 'a very large ,section of the masses in County Donegal are under the impression that, as a communrt:iy, they dropped out ·of 1the main current of Irish history with the Flight of 1the Earls ·and passed i.n~ .o a vacuum .after the Battle of Sc:arrifhollis. This. is refleoted in the writings of most of our Gaelic and Anglo Irish ,authors and journalists. (ShouLd we have said projected from instead of renected in ?) . .AJs matter.s stand it is our bounden duty to ~epa.ir (before it is too Iafe) a par,t, at leaist, of tJhe ya1wning g:2p between seventeenth century and '~wentieth icentury Counfy Donegal. As we are not reactionade1s we do not -advocate the ms~oration of such things as tribalism, which would be a1s futile ns the attempts, being made, Ito resus!cit'ate roy,alist Tara inside the wralls ·Of Viking and Anglo-' Norman Dublin while much more powerful forces are transforming the once sedate, cultured, Anglo Irish c4apital int:a a 1Shambles where economic expediency out~weighs every other aspect of life. Far be it from us to aidtd to a potpouri which has left our people with a muddled sense of Nationalism. Our work on the gap is not concerned with goverrno.rs and forms of g,overnment but with the ,governed .an1 we deprecate Vhe dis1appearance of iancient territorial loyalties through 'the flighti from the land since with each disappearance the stabilising influence of a 1priceless accumulation of family lore passes into oblivion. It would be ~perpetuation ,of our national weakness~self dece1p.Uon-w.ere we to leontinue to read cause and effect of this very g,rave social problem in terms of religious, political or economic ms. The first great exodus be.gan in the generation associ'.ated . with the chang,e over frcm Iri.sh to Er,.glish ; with its consequent break in tradition and its lack of suitable local history books to r1ep1ktce it. The so-called Great Famine and the I.~and vVar were coincidental-a fact not -appreciated by those who do not know that .famine and agrarian 1strife 1were two endemic diseases of eighteenth ·and early nineteenth century rural Ireland. Our strongest argument in support of this da'im will be obvious to any perison familiar 1with the root cnw·es of the P.rosbyteri'an mass emi;grations of 1ihe .eighteenth century which occured iat a time when an ever increasing Ccltir· Catholh·· population (suffering even gre2.ter social disabilitie1s) clnng steadfastly to the soil. ThA 287
an~wcr is that the trnnrmunity Ef-msc of the Celtic Catholics was then ,~o deep routed that it kopt them on the land long after le~:) istable comm uni ties had yielded to the pressure of religious, politic al 'and economic laiws. Jt is our dut1y, therefor,e, to reihabilitate and .recultivate community sense and territorial loyalty in rural Ireland. We a.re fully aware Jof the many factors which weigh against it. \:Ve reali1se that the Cinema, the Radio and the Newspaper· have an ·unisteadying infliuence on our rural population t1hrough their glorification of material pleasure and e1conomic advancement. iNeither have we ignored the complex projected by f as;l:ionable Anglo Iri1sh novelists whose distorted and exaggerated concepts of va1rochialism and parir,h pump politics have destroyed many an embryo parish oouncil. On our side, however, we still have the strong spiritual armR· ment of a Christia,n Ireland (Catholic, Protestant, and Presbyterian). a3ut our ability to foster sentiments needful to the stability, nay, to the continued existen1ce, of rural Ireland, depends ·upon the· goodwill and the co-operation of our clergy, our public authorities, our teachers, and our :people. Syimpathy without eo-opera tion is nJJt enougih. One example of thi1s should be sufficient. The ptactical appliicaiti·on of the Acts for 11be P!rer•3rvation of Na:~ional ancl Local Monuments (1870-1931) shows that ultimately these laws. depend on 1their acceptance by the common 1man. Doe Castle, a national monument, was raped within living memory by .a countryside whi1ch 1had forgotten that its great keep was the froster home of ·Red Hugh O'Donnell and the landing pl!ace of the great Owen Roe O'Neill. This unnecessary act of vandalism would not have taken place if the cler1g1y, teacher.s .and people of that locality had retained or replanted their .voots in the historic .soil of Ireland. If we 1can offer some extenuating circumstances for the treiatment of our secular relics of the past we can find no explanation for the 1appalling neglect of ·our graveyards, and their attendant religious ruins. 'Their lichen covered tombstones of c1ostly marbles ;and polished granites, set in a breeding ground for noxious weeds and rank grasses, ha·ve given, one foreign tourist, at least, the impr.es1sion that we are la race of neo....Christianised barbarians. This pa.rtioular visitor, .an American, had to use jungle t1a:ctics when visiting Killodonnell Abbey, Templedouglas and Bally MacSweeney last summer ; and his trip to County Donegal was .the finale to an exthausUve tour of the European .homel!ands of his all!cestors ! Tlhese included .Belgium and Bavaria-countries , which pay an especial attention to familiy burial !Places on All Souls" Day. W·e were unable to enlighten this oandid gentleman as to where responsibility for this neglect lay; but ~we were able to tell hiim t1hat there was a Noxious Weeds' Act somewhere in our leg1al code and that there 1wiere salaried caretakers in charge of some Irish buri1al .grounds. It iiS very gratifying to place on record that· the Donegal County Council is fully aware of the part it can play in the 288
rchabiliLuUuu of ,local loyalties and it may be said tihai nowhere is · this more evident than in the Council Chamber ,at Lifford. The Council h2s already re-est~blished a Sub-Cornmittte under the National 1:\fonument.s' Act of 1931 and if tangible results do not flow the fault wUI not lie on the Councillors. \Ve take this opportunity of thanking thEm for the small but adequate token grant 1which tr.ey passed to the Sub-Committee and we can assure them that no member of the Donegal Historical Society, on their Sub-Commiiifvee, has .any wish 1o add to the incidence of local taxation bEyond the amoiunt granted, namely £60. The greatest benefit which shouJtd flow f:!:om the Sub-CommiUee is tha't of our having represenh1'tion on a statutory body which can treat, on terms of equality and recognition, with government dEipartments, 1.such ·as Board of Works, and with government sponsored organisations, such as t:he now Tou:ist Companies. Already we can claim some credit for making the Druid Stone Circle at .Beltany a natio.~al monument and we are, at present, e:.--:.gaged upon a comprehensive 1surv€y of the historical and -archaeological remains of the County. \Ve should like to pay tribute to the cordial relations which exist betvveen our SociE.ty and the County Libr1arie13' Committee. This is refleckd in the many ,ex::iibitions whkh we arranged together t1:,rough:out the County and the "Donegal collections of books, rr:arx:srcriptiS and maps," to which cor.stant .additions are being made by purchase a~l.d donation. This ·good work wa:s begun by Mr. Macintyre and the enthusiasm of !his succe1ss:or, Mr. O,Connor, hc:1s now made the County L~braries !a very vital factor in the ~ultural lif.e of the County. We should be guilty of ,a grave discourtesy were we to overlook the part played by the Cou:ity Ma:iager in the developmen~ of the Donegal Historical Society. Frnm its inception he has taken the k.eenest interest in every aspect of its activities and found time, in t1he n;icst of his many onerous duties, to take office, as PrEs.:dent o:f the SO!ciety, 1when the fruits of his w1de and solidly founded adJmini!strative ability were m·ost neede:l. Our Society is. deeply indebted fo Mr. MacLochlainn. We also take this opportunity of acknowledging our very best thanks to the Council of trhe Royal Sdciety .of Antiqutaries, Ireland, for allowing us fo print reproductions of the food v-Efssels "Lound at Bunnymain. Our gratitude is al1so extended to authors of the many papers ipuhlished in this, and previovts publications of our Society. If 1the Doire.gal Annual mee,t1s 1w~ith your a9proval the:1 a large share of thanks must go to (Mr. Cecil King of Ballytshannon, who has cOJme to om aid as Honorary Business Manager of the Annual. Throug1h hi(s g-enerosi ty we w.ere 1able to .complete the first .v.olume of our publications. Through his intelligent •co-operation the fh1st ni:n:il::er of our s-cc0r.d volt.:me is now in your hands. And finally may we be permitted to commend to our readers the 1a dvertiseiments which appear in our p!ages. J. C. T. MacDONAGI-L Hon. Editor. 289
LIST OF MEMBER.$ Office-Holders and Executive Committee PRESIDE.NT 1951 Rev. J. H. B2wgbss, The ~Ianse, Ba1lbdrait. VICE-PRESIDENTS : Very Rev. Hugh Ca_non Boy:e, P.P., Rathmullcn; Rev. Dr. Furey, Mra.O:!J.evitt Instit·1te, Glenties; Very Rev. P. MacLaingsigh, P.P., Aghyaran, Cast!ederg;; Capt. Eamon O'Boyle, Marlborough Road Dublin. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE : Rev. R. H. Bowglass, R~:iv. Pa~rick Gallagher, Dr. S. P. Kerrigan, Cecil Kin.g, A1~drew Lowry, J. C. T. IMacDonagh, S. D. MacLochlainn. Liam Mac.Men:smin, J. J. O'Co;nnor. This Committee meets •at 3.30 p.m. on the first Sa1turday of each quarter. January, April. July, September, and a.~y 1mcmber of the Society who wishes to attend their meeting in the County House, Lifford, will be welcom· ·ed by the Committee. Joint Hon. !Secretaries : Liam :\lac Menamin, B.A., N.T.~ Labadish, Manorhamiltct:i; J. J. O'Connor, County Librarian, Lifford; J. C. T. MacDonagh, Highfield House, Strar:orlar, (Hon. Treasurer and Hon. ~ditor); Ce:eil Kir-g, "Donegal De.mocr2 t," Ballyshz.nr:on, (Hon. Busine:s Ma n:ig 2r). PAS'T PRESIDENTS OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1947 Mr. Andrew Lowry, Agrey, Ballindrait, Lifford. 1948. Very Rev. T. Molloy, D.D., St. Peters, Dungloe. 1949. Capt. J. S. Hamil' on, D.L., Brownhall, B:illintra. lf)50. i\Ir. S. D. MacLochlainn, Con~·~ty M~ma"er, Lifford. 2~0
MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY "t"EAR 1951 A<larns, G.13., Hon. Sec., Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, Belfast. Adams, W. G., Fahan House, Fahan. Anderson, Mrs., Volt House, Raphoe. Atkinson, l\IiSS€S, cavangarden, Ballyshannon. Bastible, Dr., County M.0.H., Co. Dublin. Bennett, Miss E. M., Fort Hotel, Greencastle. Bewglass, Rev. J. H., The Manse, Ballindrai t. Bewglass, Mrs., do. Bonar, D., B.D.S., Dung:oe Bonar, Rev. H., S.T.L., St. Eunan's College, Letterkenny Boyce, Very Rev. C. Ca.non, P.P., Ardara. Boyle, Very Rev. H. Canon, Rathmullin. Boyle, Dr. J., Ardara. Boyle, M., Philadelphia, U.S.A. Bradley, Mrs. :~VlichaeL do., do. Brady, F., B. Agric. See., Lifford. Bustard, Mrs. A., The Villa, C~ones, Co. Monaghan. Campbell, A. A., F.R.:S.A.T,, Belfast. Cannon, P., LL.B., Herbert Park, Dublin. Central Catholic Library, Dublin. Chambers, Rev. A., C.C., Annagry, Dungloe. Cleary, P.. N.T., Broadpath, Convoy. Cochrane, Mrs. L., Lifford. Cochrane, W. T. C.. Edenmore, Stranorlar. Cochrane, Mrs., do., do. County Library, Lifford, £2 2s Cradock, J .. M ... Welchtown. Crossan, D. J., Hihernian Bank House. Ba11yhofey. eunningham. ~Hsses, Killymard House, Done.gal. Dallaghan_, P., Dall!as, Bank of ilreland House, Bal1ybofey. Doh2rty·. Rev. T., C.C, Convoy. Dolwrty, W. J., Ballinaglack, Strn.1101·lar. Dunlenvy, F., Camas _House, Ballybofey. Emerson, L., 'Technlcul School, Ballyshannon. · Faughnan, Jas., Ardara. Fee~y, Michael, M.P.S.I., Ardara. Feeney, Mrs. John, Philadelphia. Fury, Rev. Dr., McDevitt Institute, Glen ties. Gailey, F. L., solicitor, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim. Gn llagher, Doalty, Foster House, Raphoe. Ga~lagher, Francis,. Technical Schools, Stranorlar. Gallagher, Patrick, "'The Co-op.," nungloe. Gal:agher, Very Hev. T. P., BallyJJof.ey. Gallagher, W. G., Grianan, Castlefin. Gallen, Patrick, Clonmany. Goodall, Dr., The Glen, Ramelton. Goodall, Mrs. N. M., do. Gwynn, Rev. A., S. J., Dublin. Hamilton, J. S., D.1L., Brownhall, £1 ls Od. Hamilton, :Jfrs., do. Hannigan, Dr. H., Stock-on-Tees, England. Hannigan, J., B.E., Monaghan. Harvey, J., N.T., Drumkeen. Healy, Cahir, M.P., Enniskillen. Henderson, W. Ross, J.P., N eW1townstewart Herdman, IlVIr.s. J. c.: Sion House, Sion Mills. Herdman, J. P., Gienmore Lodge, Welchtown. Holling€r, Mrs. O.E.G., The Manse, Ballymore. Homan, The Venerable Archdeacon, The Rectory, Raphoe Hynes, P., ~LA., Letterkenny. Jackson, P. A., Laputa, Ballyshannon. Ken, Miss A., Monass, Tamnev. Kerr, The Venerable Archdeacoii, LP.P., Gortah:fJrk. King, Cecil, B:1.llyshannon. ~Lnir1d, Rev. R., The Manse, i\nlstraw. Laird, Miss, do., do. 291
Lawless, ~fn;. 'M:argt.5 Philadelphia, U.S.A. Leo, Hev. BroH1£~r, De La Salle Schools, Ballyshannon. Long, Rev. E., D.C.L., Drumkecn Lowry, Andrew, Argrey~ Ballindrait. Macky, Ross, Parks:one, Dorset, England. Maguire, F.~ Main St., Letterkenn>,-. Magu_ire, P., Cooladawson, KiEygordon. Milli~an. C., '~Lononderry Sentmel," Londonderry. Molloy, Very Rev. Dr. T., Dungloe. :'.\Iorrow, T. A., Solicitor, Raphoe. Mulhern, Thomas, Cranogboy, Ardara. Mullin, Rev. E. J., C.C., Edenin-r fagh, Glenties. Murnll\-. Very Rev. J. J., P.P., Ballintra. M A · E., MP . ac teer. ., .., Derry. MacCathbhaird, Brian, Kilcar. ·~lcCarro~l, Alderman F., Derry. MacDonaigh, J. C. T., Highfield House, Stranor~ ar. MacElhenny, H. P., Glenveigh Castle. MacGill, P. .J., Wood House, Ardara. McGinley, Yery Hev. Dr. Leo, Wa.\-;ne, Penn., U.S. U310.00) McG:inchey, D., Meenbogue, Cloghan. l\lcGlinchey. John, N.T., Killynure House. Convoy. Md-I-ugh, Mrs. P., N.T., Ardara MacLaughlin, R2v. Jas., M.A., Letterkenny.? MacLaughlin, J. F., N.T., The G:ehe. Cloghan. Mac Lochlai.nn. S. D., County Manager, Lifford. Mac Loingsjgh, Ven· Rev. P., Aghyaran, Co. Tyrone. MacLoone, Rev.A., St. Euna.n's College, Letterkenny. MaeManus, Semmus, Florida, U.S.A. McMenamin, Liam, B.A., N.T., Lab.E.dish. McMenamin, James. P.C., Co.C., B€ech House. Ballybofey. · McMen~min. SP:=tn, :\kDevitt Institute, G:enties. McMenamin, W. R., 87, Barrington Drive, Glasgow C. 4. McMullin Rev Ernan B. 8c ' . ' .~ ., ISt. Anthonys, Louvain. McMullin. Very Hev. _l\L, P.P., Carrick art. - ll\1c(\1ullin, Very Hev. P. ·oanon, P.P., Donegal. Mc~u~ty,' J. B., Solicitor, Raphoe. Mc::\wty, R. B., Lifford. McSh,.ane, Rt. Rev. Monsignor, , ..G., P.P., Bu.ncrana. MacRuaire, Brian, Tanatal~on. o:Boyle, .Andrew, Stranorla r. 0 Cochlamn. R. S., Ailsa Lodoe 1Roslare, Co. Wexford. C:> ' O'De:arga, Dr. Jas. University College, Dublin. O'Domhnail, Sean, M.A., Dublin. O'Do.nel, The, Bal!.sbridge, Dublin O'Donel, Aodh, do. O'Donnell, .Jas., N.T., Killycrcan, Ramelton. · O'Donnell, J.ohn, Ardara. Q'Donnell, Niall, Dublin. O'Hanrahan, District Justice, S.! Ballyshannon. O'Kelly, Domnick, B.A., B.Ph., iDownings. O'Neill, Jas., F.R.LC.S., Castle St., Derry. O'Sullivan, D. J., Tory Island. Ovvings, Dr. Donnell, University of Oklahoma, U.S.A. Queen's University Library, Belfast. Rogers, R. S. Ho~lywood, Co. Down. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. Savage, R. T-0ry Island. Slevin, T. M. J., B..E., Ba1lybofcy. Swan, H. P. P. C., M.H.I,A., Buncrana £1-1-0. Sweeney, .Mrs. Edward Phila... delphia. U.S.A. Sweenev, J. Johnston, New York, U.S.A. Ua Raghallaigh, S., Ba11ymun, Co. Dublin. Wagentrieber, Capt., Inchenagh., Lifford. Walker. Mrs. A. M., Summerhill, Ballybofey. Walker, Dr. C. F., Kilcadden, Killygordon. Ward, P. J., Lifford. West, A. M., Ardnamona, Lnch Eske. . White, Mrs. Cr.es1 we~.1, Sa11yhrook, l\fo no rha mi 1 ton. Whitelaw, Mrs. P. Stranorlar. 292
MUSIC IN DONEGAL (BY VERY REV. A. MacLOONE, B. A., B. C. L.) Oh, Native :Jiusic beyiond :comparing, The sweetest far on the ear that :Dalls Thy gentle nu~:nbers ·the heart remembers, Thy .strain:s enchain us in tender thralls. SAMUEL LOVER. A certain lecturer invariably commeneed .an address on music with the words ~ "•Music is the universal language of the human rnce". How very true '! For music is universal n.o't only in the sense that it cian be made the vshicle for communicating our thoughts even to those who do not understand vur language but also beea use music has manifested itself amongst men in ·every corr:.er of the gbhe. Since the dawn of history man has been known to give utterance to his thoughts thr11'."JUgh the imedium of mwsic and song. The ·Psalms ·are really songs and the pages of the Old Testament contain ·numerous references to 1musi.e, both vocal and instrumental. Six hundred years and more before the Christi.an Era the ancient Greeks foregathe1ed at harvest festivals to sing song:s in praise of their god Dionysus, the bountiful giver of food and wine. Nero fiddled while Rome burned. And at home the Druidic sacrifices were ;accompanied by weird incantations well calculated tio drown the cries of the human ,victims. Thus down through the year.--.;. in every age and clime, the descendants of Adam have given vent to their feelings in term.is of .song. Ireland was no eXJception to the rule. On the .contrary. Music constitutes en integral part iof our tradition:il civilisation. The musical genius of our fbrebears ha!s left us in possession of a unique body of melody, much of which has come down to us from a remote past. T:he question naturally arises. How have our folk-:siongs and folk-1music been transmitted ? vVe should recall that before the coming iof St. Patrick the Druids in Ireland, and of >course, in Donegal had a mo.nopoly of the art of writing and refused to teach it to those 'Who were not of the fold. Hence the unlettered musicians had, perforce, to memorise their musical cbrnpo.sitions. In our ert rly Bardic Schools the poets and harp~rs le::n·r1C'cl their t'C'rnft so thnrout~hly thnt they needed no music~l notatio:i. Although the ·Monastic Schools introduced the art of 293
writing, th~ old Bardic .$chools kept aloof from them iand continued to transmlt their fore by oral methods. It was tonly about the thirteenth century that the Bards, having learned to write, began to commit their compositions to paper. To us it seems extraordinary that oral tradition could have survived so long. Ooleridge has said somewhere that "a fact ionce apprehended by the human mind is retained fo:r ever''. If people forget at times, it is because throngs of events cro;-Ai-d out 1the 1memory. 1 But ·even then the right note of suggestion will bring to the surface thing:s appiarently forg!otten. The Iife of lhe Donegal p€casant in bygone dr.ys \Vias much less ,eomplic:at~:l than nuns ; memory had fewer guests to entertain. \Vith the passage of time, unf.ortunate1y_, 1cir1cumstances arose in t1his country which not only imp2ired the memory, but dried up forever the .spring:s, of imemiory. Persecution first and then the awful famines of 1845 to 1847 did more than anything else to destroy IrE:1and's music ; fior the older people, repositories of the native lore, died in their tens of thousands before 'they bad time to bequeath their literary treasures to the younger .·generations. But for the zealous labours -0f a f€1w faithful recorders in the 18th and 19th centuries im10.st of our Irish music would have been irretrievably l'ost by the famines. And we can nerver be grateful enough to pioneers like Burke, Thumort:h, 1Edward Bunting \and George Petrie who did so much to salvage for posterity the numerous and precious gems of melody which 1we now possesr:s. And in this connedion we must not :f!Orget to pay tribute to one, the anniver- ·sary of 1whose death we have celebrated this year, Thomas Moure, our nationaJ poet, eminent scholar and a lover of his country. However much some people may find fault !With his methods of editing lour triaditional airs, they will agree that n:o man did more t:o make Irish music kno.wn and revered throughout the world. THE BARDIC SCHOOLS. It may not seem to be within the s:cope of this article to refer to the famous Bardic Schools of Ireland; yet I feel that they must be mentioned, because 1although the study of song .and music as such was not strictly within their province, the ::Sards truly laid the foundations on which much of our later music was built. ;And in any case, as we shall see, the Bardic Schools of Do neg.al 1were very famous. It is unlikely that 1we shall ever discover the ongm of these schools. "At what time they were founded We don't know," says Professor Bergin, "for the bardic o~:ier exisled in pre-historic times.'' They were c:lncient 1when St. Patrick came to our shores The sehool itsdf was a miniature university where the student learned not al0ne the intricacies of compo'sing Irish verse but in committing to memory the history of his country and of his cla.n and of perfecting himself in the rules of grammar, syntax 1and ellocution. The .course of studies was long. It took seven years of tr.aining to turn out •a fully-fledged File or Poet. It is interesting to note that the offices · of Ollamh or File and Bard were quite di:itinct. Th~ File it 1was 1who composed the nan (poem). The. ,function ot 1the Bard or Re'it1c.aire (as he was
·called) was t9 recite· the poetys _ coinp1ositions. Ana then the poem~ were ·chanted, not sung. The chant was done to the iaecompaniment of -the Cruitire (Harper) lwho, we presume, either pluycd an aclcompaniment he had already learned or improvi:sed one t:o suit the sentiments expressed in the poem. The File and his retinue attached themselves to the prince of a clan, and such st'Ore did some of these princ.es set 1by the dompo.sitions of 1a famous poet that the sum of £600 is said to have been paid on one !occasion for a single poem. I have already .said that DonEgal ·t.vas famous for its Bards. Few of us perhaps realise that the townland of Lettermaoaward, on one side of the Giweebarra Bridge, derives it:s name from the bestkm:>wn of the Bardic Clans, the !Clan "Mac an Bhaird" (son of the bard). There is a strong traditi:on, too, that there l\Vas a Bardic School in Glencolumcille. The Male 'an ,Bhaird poets attached themselves tb the O'Donnells, princeis of Tirconaill, and the most illustrious among them was Eoghan Ruadh iMac an Bhaird who, · 1according to the Annals of the Four Masters, 1Was "lhe last Chief Ollamh to the O'Donnell in i;::!oetry". :Eoghan acompanied the Earls of Tirconaill and Tireoghain to Rome in 11607. 'Two years 1afterwar.ds he wrote the famous poem beginning with the words, A Bihe1t'~n a fuair Faill, which 1was translated by Clarence l\fang1an ~nd entitled "Oh woman of the piercing 'Wail." .The poem represents Nuala, sister of the O'IDonnells, mourning alone over the graves :of her· two brothers, Rory and Cathbarr, in 1R0irr..e. The Bardic :schools flourished from the 13th to the 17th century. ,But after the battle of Kins1ale and the flight of the Earls the ·main prop of the siehools w.as broken. True it is that the poets continued to write in the bardic metre, and 'some of their finest poems kept appearing untii 165·0 or later. But with s1ch:ools 1and patrons gone the output and quality were bound to decline. ERA OF SONGS-And now began another era, He na n-Amhran or the Era of the Songs. We saw that the Bards ·compJsed poems which were meant to be 1Chanted to an, accompaniment played on tpe harp. Now we come to .a new type of poe'try, the Amhran i0r Song. In the bardic poems each line had a certain number of syllables and was ·constructed after the style of the ancient ciompositions such as the Ode;s of Pindar and Hor!ace ; moreover, the verse had to conform to a very rigid pattern of assonances. In the Amhrain, strict metrical composi1tion was sacrificed and the less exacting method adopted of 'Constructing a line which depended for its rhythm not on fixed metrical standards but on stress of voice or on a fixed number of feet, regardles1s of syUables. The assonance, however, had to be observed. It is in this form that we have the best our our traditional Gaelic son.gs. With regar.d to the compo1sition of these old songs it is interesting to note that the technique employed 1was the reverse of mlodern methods. Whereas, at present, the lyric appears first ,and then the musician composos a melody to suit the words, the lyric..iwriters iof the 17th 295
~nd l;Sth centuries rwrote their Gaelic poems to -·suit an alreltldy existing melody. · Tb.ere j~ scarcc1y a county in Ireland which hrts not within the last 100 years contributed its quota of folklore and traditional music. But with the decay of llrish as a spoken language in so many counties a tremendous amount of oral tradition has perished. It is only naturial that eou:-:·.ties like Donegal, Mayo, Galw~ay, Kerry, Cork and Wat1erford, where Fior-GheaU.acht areas still exist, should yield a greater harvest of ancient music and song. Much has already been <lone to recover old manuscripts and :to wrjte down or record the music of the ·past. Much still 1remains to be done. One disheartening feature connected with Donegal music is our 1ack of manuscripts. TlH~ late Henry Morris, who worked so unselfishly all his life a1s a collector o.f traditional songs, lamented the :fact that in all his travels th!"'ough Donegal he came across only two manuscripts-one, a rather worthless composition, the other, written in Louvain. He accounts for this ·Ly the fact that, in the mQJtter of Irish, Donegal and Nocth U1ster generally and, in fact, Connaught too, became illiterate after the 17th century; while in South Ulster and Munster the literary cultivation of the language survived. The -result is that ·numerous Donegal songs and tunes which mi,ght have lbeen -preserved, had there been scribes to deal with them, must have perish. OU the lips o.f the o:.der rgenerations. It is undoubtedly tiiUe, moreover, 1th:at songs a·s found in MSS are, blrnth as to words 1and music, a fairly faithful reproduction of the original ·composition; whereas the versions transmitted by oral tradition have suffered considerably in the process. That is borne out by the fact that in iDonegal alone we find several versions of a iparticular song with notable variations of words and melody. On the other hand the oral tradition has Points in its favour. The manuscript while preserving the main .features of the original melody may ,be but a poor reproduction of the 'viva vox'. Any listener who has heard traditional songs or music well rendered must realise that the melody is enrichd with musical .phrases, 12'race notes and elusive qualities rthat are almost impossible to reproduce in any known system of musical notation. Hence I do not think 1that we need altoge·ther deplore the fact thalt our Donegal 1MS1S have disapp~ared or that variations of the original songs have cre,pt in. A variant of an air is not necessarily inferior to the protOitype : what matters most is not 'that the air is "correat" but that it is good. Folklorists:-What nonegal lacks in manuscripts it makes up for in its 1wea1th of oral tradition. Collectors of lfolklore, songs and music have \been at work in this county for at least fifty years, yet despite their endeavours there are still ma.ny sources left untapped. In his t1wo well-known books, Celad de Cheoltaibh Uladh and Dhai Che-ad de Cheoltaibh Uladh, Henry iMorris includes about 150 Gaelic songs he four.d in Donegal. From one old lady alone, Eibhlin M1urray who lived near the Doon Well, .he got the words m1d music of 60 songs (he i.nc1udes 40 in his second book) 1and he tells us that, 296
ev~n at that, her repertoire was not 1exhausted. The 1ate Father .L_ Murray also published a icoI:·edion of Ulster songs in :which he included a number .he discov•ered in Donegal, mainly in JHannafast. ln the early months of ·l~H5 the "Derry Journal'' printed a series or unpublished traditional songs (in Gaelic) submitted iby an anonymous eontriibutor. These came mainly .from the Teelin district. But tlhe most s_y~stema1 tic collec1ion h:as been going on in Donegal over the last fifteen years or so under the aegis of the Coimisiun Bealoideasa Eireann 1(Irish 1F'olklore Commission) Dufblin which is presided over iby Professor Seamus Delargy, a noted expert on .folklore. Fiolklc·re Commission-I am indebted t-0 Mr. Padraig Byrne '(Tee- ~in) of the Folklore Commission f.or his kindness tn sending me an interesting account of the records and activities of that ·body. :The work of the members, I need hardly say, is not confined to Donegal; it ranges ov·2r the whole ·country. Hence the number of officials who are qualified and can be spared to do this high1y specia:is.ed work in a -given region is naturally very small. But the results are most gratifying. kbout 5!0 traditional songs have been ,recorded by Captain Danaher of the Irish Folklore Commission and Seamus Mac Aonghusa, a former staff m·ember. The recordings were made on . 12-inch and lG-inch gramophone discs from 1wea. .. known sing.ers in this county, a few of ·whom exceUed themselves in the Oireachtas competitions f.or traditional singers and in Radio Eirea.nn .bro~ldcasts. The singers in question were Aodh O Duibheannaigh, Rannafast. Seamus 0 h-Ighne, Gl-encolmcille, Conan 0 Domhnaill 1Rannafast; Citi Ni Ghallch-0bhair, Bunbeg; Eibhlin Nie Aoidh, Bealtine; :Mrs. :Mary McGee, Gweedore; Mrs. Sheila Gallagher, do.; /Siobhan 1~i Bhaoi~ Duibhlinn Riabhach. In addition to the songs. over 100 pf.eces of traditional music Played on the vio:in were recorded ~>" the Commission officials already mentioned and by the BJB.C. This co1lection comprises selections of melodies, reels, jigs, hoYnpipes and set-dances played by the most expert of the few traditional violinists now Temaining in the county. There are at least four of these who deserve mention. Two brothers, John and Michael Doherty, are from Glenfin. They excel in the rendering of Irish reels, of iWhich they seem to have an endless store:- ~The Donegal Reel', 'Rakish Paddy'. ·'Jackson's Reel', to quote but a few. Their creative art is evident from the 1variations ;which they introduce into several tunes. variations that seem to be quite original. ras they are not found elsewhere. I Have myself heard ri record of John Doherty's playing of the "Irish vV.asherwoman" and it far surpasses the usual version. of this tune. Frank Cassidy, Tef'- lin, is tihe last remaining brother of a family well-known as tr8,- ditional fic:\dleris. His brother John, lately deceased, was regarded as the 'best fiddler in Co. Done~al. He once manufactured a brass vi~lin which is still in the· possession of his brother, Frank. Outstanding among the numerous airs the Cassidys knew is the very old Irish Lament, "Tighearna Mhuigheo". Finally there is Neil 297
Boyfo of Dung1oe,., Neil needs 110 introduction, for he has played· at concerts, fe~tival.s and feiseanna not only i.n Donegal but in scver:il ~other il'.OuniLies. He has also broadcaS(t more than once from Radio Eireann, and h~ls made numerous records which have been put o'.1 the commercial mark::t and are finding their 1way even to the U.S.A. In addition to the recordings, Seamus ~1acAonghusa collec1ted and committed to ma;nuscript 189 pieces of music, comprising airs, reels, jigs, ho:::-npipes and set-dances, as we11 as the lyrics and melodies of folk-songs. :Furthermore, Sean 0 hEocha~jh, full-time collector for the Commission in Donegal, who is himself a native of T1eelin and who has done yeoman service over the last 16 years or more, succeeded in re.s:cui.ng a big number of lyrtcs which, at one time, ·were sung to various aiirs, many of which are still familiar. These poems were written down Exactly as they existed in 1the mzmories of such renowned seanchaidMhe as Anna Nie a Luain from Na Cruach::i, Gle:ities, Maire Ni Chormaic, Na Brochaighe and a :µumber of others. Apart from the interesi:ing sidelight on music and song in Donegal which these official reicords give, we can ae.. duce from them the amount ~of valuable wo1k that the Folkilore Commissicin is doing 1throughout Ireland. And for anyone interested in OL1.J: national lore I can thi!"1.k: of no more useful wa,y of spend· ing hi·s spar1e time in Dublin than to call at the Folklore Office in 82, St.Stephens Green where he will get a he_arty welcome a.Yid where ev1ery faciliity for pursuing his resea11ch will be accorded him by a staff of 1geni::il ain.:l courteous officials. Tl·.-:.:nes of Songs-And now about the subjeot-matter of Iri·sh folk..,songs. \Vhere did our peG;ple find their themes ? They had s:;Jngs for every age, mood and state of life. Lt is usual to gr9up the song.s under the followii•1g :heads :- 1. Dinta Di:adh1a or Sia.cred Poems.~These were very common in this CJtT1ty. Henry Morris published a considerable numbe.r cf Doneg,al Danta. They ideal wi1th religious themd3 or embody a "long series of ,9rayers. In :o~e, for exam1Ple, the 15 ccnduding verses are devoted ;~o an account of the life of Our Lord. Another treats of the Marriage Feast of Cana. A ·singe.r in Bealtai':r:.~, Gortahork, Nora Ni Ghalkhobhair had a seri1es of se,ven of these poems, each dediaated tJ a seperate day of the week. iProin.sias 0 hlghne, Teelin is 1staid to have composed a D{m on the Crucifixion, as a result of which som~ speci.al ho.:10ur was 1conferred ·On him by the Pope. \2. !. ... ove Songs.-A1ll oveir Ire1E:1nd these are by far the most numerous. Typical of 1the finer tyipe in Donegal are "Thios i dTeach a' Torvaimh", "Brighid Og Ni Mhaille", and "An Cailin Gaedh2alach". Whe'.1 the Irishman fell in love his eloquenre'knew no bour.ds. and the inamorata must have been swrpt off heir feet by torrents of superlatives which find no para1lel even in Hollywood film' advertisements. The •w hifonr.ss of her skin is like the snow on the mo1,:.:it3.ins or the swan on Lough Erne or the lily in full bloom; her tac~ is radiant as the sun and her eyes sparkl1e as the morning dew; her lips and checks a~e like the ·summer rose; her hair r2splenden4:: falls in flowery tresses or pearly ringlets; her voice is sweeter than 298
tthc musk of the ~tring8 ur Uw .s~ng of the cuckoo. Anc.1 u~ie pod. havi1ng said 1all that and much more besides, admits that he has described onl1y a ·sixty-fourth part of her (we presume 100 !Per cent; physical grace and mental chatnm. (Part of ,this description is taken from Henry Morris's resume of the love-song themes). 3. The Goltraighe was the name gi·VEin to the songs of sorrrow. Thes1e 1would include Laments, say, for someone who met ra sudden deat4 by drowning or other aocident. They were very common in Donegal. A Kilcar song entittled "Nora Nie Giolla Che1arr'' is said to have bee~ 1written in 1798, a:nd it ltells of the tra,gic death of Nora Carr who was killed by a boulder which roUed over a cliff on to the Tocks where she wras sitting. Another song, ''Barrai na hArdai" is the tale of a dreadfiul drowning tragedy at Ards about 1790 in which a number ·Of people lost their liv·es. The GoHraighe type ralso includes the famous "keien'' or wailing song 1cha1nted by 1relatives at wakes and funerals. This keening 1can sti11 be heard in districts of Donegal. It has no set form of words but i·s improvised by the mourn€1:rs to suit a 1particular case. . 4. Th.~ Su1antraighe or Lulliaby.~It is said that no oither natio!l is as rich a•s ·ours in this \type of 1music. The lullaby is not so .common in Donegal as it is in other parts or Ireland, but numbers of lulllabies have been found and recorded h 1the county. A famous and (1probably ·ancient) melody, found in Connaught, is sung to the words "1Sectthin, seotho'', the Gaelic 1equiv.al€nt of "Hush". An old tradition says th1a1t this most beautiful ·and hauntitng air was the one used by the Divine Mothe1r to lull her Infant Child to sleep. 5. Fairy Songs and songs rf1lati1ng to preternaitural happenings .are frequer:.tly to be found in Donegal. The fairies we,re thought to be very .acii.ve. Who has not heard -0f the wail of the Banshee (F1airy-woman), seLt to warn someone of an impending calamity? The :fairies 1went so fair 1ais to abduct people. An incident of the kind is relwted in a .song called "Bhain iSe1achran-Sidhe da.mh me i dtus na hOiche" whkh was recorded in G~aiseach Be·ag, Glenfiinn. 6. Danta. Tir-Ghtiadha or iP,atriotic Songs were naturally numerous. The local example that mast readily comes to min::I is our famous 1rallying song "O'Da~nell Abu". In 1a ilect.ure given in Letterkenny during Ci1vic Week by Mr. Eamon 0 Gallchobhair, the 1r.oted Dublin musilrian, he drew special attention to 1a Dc1negal marching tune "The iMarch of the O'Dannells" which he rega.rded as one of the finest ·COmposiiJti.ons of i'ts kind. Amhrain ,Molt.a (Songs of Prtaise) were composed about practically everything and anybody ,-peop~-e, places, aniimals, boats, ete. A good e:xiample 1comc\s from Teelin and was recorded by Sean 0 hE>'.)chaidh. It is called "Cuach 's Anna", evidently the names of two boats, 1whose crews of looa1l fisherme.n receive their due meed of praise. Another 1very 1well-known of this kind is "Sean Dun na nGall" which was composed by ·Mr. Boyce of Fanad. It eulogises Donegal in ·no uncertain terms. 8. Songs of local happenings are to be found in abundance. Even up to _very recently this type of co:npositi0in appealed jmmens299
Jy .bo1th to pods and audiences. David Hay of Carrigurt ·wrote. a ballad on the dreadful boating dis as1ter off Aranmore some years ago. Many of us ire-member the incideats leading up to the eve.~t de ... 'scribed in •'Jol:nson's Motoroar". About fourteen years ago there appoared a very popular ·epic -entttled "Sharks Beware,'' which re... corded, i.n stately Iambic Heptameter and with a wealth of imagi·nartive detail, the .shooting of a shark in nungloe Bay by two prominent Dungloe men, Mr. P. Gallagher (Paddy the Cope) and M.r. Ken- .ny J. Brennan. 9. 'rhe Geantraig1he or Music of Joy ,and .Ltaught~~r.-This type cov,ers all kinds of C:1ance tunes, and, as we have seen, Donegal has a :p:-olific store. of these. 10. 'Then there are songs of famine, exile a1!ld emigration. An example of an emi1gr1ation song is "Na Buiachilli i n-Albain", found by H. Morfi.s in the Gweebara district. Even St. Columba wrote verses of kr:ig!ng :"Tht:re is a gr,ay eye that looks back on Erin; it shall .not see during its life the men of Eri:n and their 1wives". 11. Finally the1"'le were song1s of work and play. The "Cailin Deas Cruiidhte!alch na mBo'' is a 1well-!know.n example. It is said that cows became .so .accustomed to /these liilt·s that they .ref.used to give milk unless their fia:vourites songs we.re 1sung !The result was that girls with good voices got higher wages. Don.~gail :poets.-Apart from 1the M"ac an Bhaird Clan of 1Ba.rdic School fame I have not mentioned ma1ny of the Donegal poets by name. The following are lisited in some of the i~1SS ; Eoghan Mor MaoGill, Antoine Mor 0 Doch1artaigh, Co.rmaeMac Seain and Philip Doyle. At 1the momei!lt I cannot trace their district of origin. There a.re others whos~ names are familiar to Dein~-gal people. Conall M1ac Daibhid, tbor,n in Meencargy, di!ed in Glendowan; 120 years ago. One of his 1poerns, "Malaidh Ghleann Domhair:." tells h)w he came to spend his declining years with.his married daughter in Glendowan wheire he felt like an exile. Nabla ;M,a1c 0Daibhid, no relative of Conan. She was a ;native of :Glenfinn and died well over 100 years ago. She married a man oalled GaUagher, and in a ipoc:m enti~tled ''Muir.ntear Ghtallchcbhair agus Ckn.n Daibhidh'' she records a supposed argum~mt. between herself -ind her husband ·as to the relatiive merits of the tw0 families. T·adhg 0 Tiomanaidhe (Timc.!ley, 1680-1750, wa1s also a native of, and lived in, Glenfinn. A song of his, "Grair.ne Fhanad", is said to be in prai.se of his wife who was a .~a1~ive of Fanad. \Pead2r Bre1athnach (Walsh), 1825.,1870, was a tailor who Uved in Meenagoland, betwee.n Finntown and Ballinamore. Peadar wrote quite a ,!lumber of ·songs, one of which was recorded in Gle.nfinn by the Folklore Commission's recording unit. It is called "Sr..ath na Bainrioghna" in whi:ch he pokes fun ·(l't the local women 1who are gr01wing rich ktnitting g.armo~.ts for tre Queen. As the yarn bore a tradema.:~:k .stamp2d with an image of Queen Victoria, the poet made 1t appear that the wool was ·sent clircrt from the Queen. Hence the title, the Queen's Yant Seamus O Doraidhin, BaclhCiin, Kilcar, 1780/"11850. Seamus was 300.
ia fai·mer who kne1w ;no English and had no education. Yet he wrote a number of fine songs, many of which are known in Conuaught where he spent 'Some years. What must have s1truck tthe reader, as it certai.nly stru·ck me, in regard to our heritage of oral tradition, is the extraordinarily retentive memories of our singers and our seanchai:dhthe. They can sing a song ·of many 'verses, or tell a story that goes on for hours, without betrayi1!1g the slightes\t lapse of memory. The modern song consists of t1wo or three verses-·yet, if you ask one of our younger generation to 'SingJthey will :prob~bly tell you that he·can never re- ~all the words of more than 1a few lines of a song. Co..11trasted with this we have the experience of Henry Morris 1who took down 2,00 Hines of songs from a famous singer, Conall Mac Cuini!leagain of Oappagh, Teelin, who wias 1then 80 years of a(ge. And if we require proof of the wealth of native :lore which 1until lately lay hidden i.n our mi.dst, we have the w1ord of Sean 0 hEochaidh of the Folklore Commission that in one distri1C1t of Donegal, Na Cru:1acha, Glentie1s, he has just completed two years, working six days a week, in iwri:tir.lg down ond making gramophone records iaf a wide 1lange of folklore, proverb1s, prayers aind poems. Yet the total population of that arF.:a is represented by only 1:wenty-serven households ! And one fin1al h:.si:.ance whkh must surely be a record. From o~e seanchaidhe a1one, Niall Duff.y, Goritahork, Seian has recorded 750 g~amophone records and 1written dJw.n 1,500,00C words ! It, is not eas·y, within the limits of a short article c.~ music, to do mor1e tl1a~ touch the fringe of the subject. But from all that has been said it should be abundantly clear that we in Donegal have inherited friom our ancestors a vast trc1asure .of music a.nd song. It is to be hoped that the light which I haive tded to sh~d on the matter may serve to 1sUmulate our moide·rJ:. musicians to seek inspiratio:n from the past, and to encom'aige 'those who 1are interested in the folklore of Dcl!legal to complete the splendid work which a .small band of en1thusiasits have be1gun; f:or it is only 1thus that we 'can fulfil an obvious duty, n1a1nely. to 1preserve and transmit to future generations of our kith a;~d kin 1~he he·:-itage of a gloriou~ past. }"c1ot11JOlte: Mr. Eamon O'Gallchobhair, to jwho.m as an ;e:xipert on music I have alreiady .referr•ed, has something very interesting to S·flY on Da!legal traditional musk. His theory is :that music, just like ,speech, custom and manners, is conditioned by environment. And in ·support of t.ha>t contention he instances the rem'arkable re· semlX•ance bettween Donegal and Kerry music. Both counties are faci;~g the Atlantic at the extreme ends of the country ; they are 1movmtainous and noted for their beautiful scenery; they .ar;e still strongholds of the Irish language •and retain to a great extent the trtaditions of an ancient dvi1isation. But just 1as there are differen~es ii"'!"l speech and accent, there ·are differences in the music of both eountie.s; but they are subtle dissimilarities; and for the expert imusicimn these subtleties con:s~itute a source of great pleasure. Mr. O'Qaillchobhair finds {that Ke!\ry mus~c is more multi'.'"
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