Tw:o histur.ionl inddenbJ will help us tu ttppreciate the imporct tance of the Ford at Ballyshannion, the route from the South and South East into the O'Donnell country. The Four Masters unde:r A.D. 1419 .give the follawing :- ''While O'Donnell and ·his forces remained in Tyrone, Brian O'Oonnor and the inhabitants ot lower Connaught with many of the English at the bidding of O'Neill marched with a great army into Tir-Hugh,, destrioyed the whole country from Ath-. na-nGall to Ath Seannaigh, including its grass, corn and buildings and burned the enclosure ot O'Donnell's fortified residence". This sample of the .scorched earth policy iin its very simplicity of st.1tement emphasises the importance of fords. The maraude~s having apparently forced their way across the ford at Ballyshannon did not ve.nture aemss the Eske. The second incident is given as follows in Lewis's Topographical .Dictionary : "In 1597 the neighbourhood of Ballyshannon was the scene of the most important military operations of that period. An English fore~ consisting of twenty-two regiments of infantry and ten of ict:ivalry under the comma:rd of Sir Conyers Clifford, 1crossed the Erne by 1a ford, although vigorousy opposed by O'Donnell's troops and succeeded in establishing their headquarters at the Monastery of Assaroe. Here they received heavy ordnance from Oa1way by sea, and laid c.lose siege to the Castle of Ballyshannon, but met with an uneXJpe~tedly strong resistance and many of their best :officers and men were killed or wounded. After continuing the siege for five days the English were compelled to make a precipitate retreat, closely pursued by O'Donnell and his allies, and being unable to cross the Erne at the ford by which they advanced, they tried another that was seldom attempted where many were k1lled or drowned, and thus rone of the first ·expeditions into this long independent territory te:nmina t ed disastrously". Perhaps someone from the Ballyshannon area will indicate more clearly where this second ford is situated, or was situated, for I presume it is now submerged in the fhts•~ ,or fower of ·the two great dams .that give 1power to the hydro-electric plant of the Electricity Supply Board. The first of the above incidents refers to Ath na-nGall, the ford of the foreigners on the river Eske. The original Castle seems to have been on the north side of fae stream or perhaps of the estuary opposite the Monastery. There wa$ evidently sufficent opposition at this ford in 1419 to deter the.raiders from attempting to cross it. ·\Vhen we eome to the Finn we go pll:mp into legend, for at a ·305
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