ford nn the f>eel, -its tribub\y, we have a story about st. f•atrick. The pla'Ce is .Murlog. \Vhen St. Patrick was attempting to cros0 the Deel at Murlog the axles of his chariot arc broken again and agalin. "Be ye not amazed at this thing", said the saint, "Ior yonder land from this stream thither (Le. Tirconnell) does not .need that I should bless it. For a boy shall be born and his name wiU be Columbkille". After this the ford was l\ong 1Called the Ford of the Chariot-Ath-an... Oarbaid. St. Eunan is said to have built a bridge over the river which Patrick had difficulty in crossing and that place becam·~ known as Droichcad Adamr.1ain, now Ballindrait. Another story told of a rnrd on the Finn concerr.s tne ~~vere:.t head of Sir Cahir O'Doherty. Sandy Ramsey was ia Scots planter settled near Kilmacrennan on fand given him by Rory O'Donnell, the Queen's O'Donnell. Ramsey's endosure was attacked in his absence by :~ir Cahir O'Doherty. His cattle were driven off, his wife and 1children slaughtered, bis pleasant homestead by the Lennon left a hdap of smoking ruins. This certainly was enough to rouse any man's ire. Sandy knew that five hundred marks were th2 reward offered by the Lord Deputy for Sir Cahir's head. He w.aited day by day in ambush but ready with his flint lock nsar the roc:k of Dun. His patience 1and his vengeful desires were r~1warded. The ball passed through Sir Cabir's forehead and he lay lifeless. Hi3 followers, panic stricken, thinking there was .an ambush, fle:l,. desehing the lifeless body of their leader. 'Ilhe Scotchman soon severed the head from the body, and 1wrapping it in his plaid set off for Dublin. That night 1at one of the fords of the Finn he took shelter in a cabin inhabited by one Terence Gallagher. The Scotchmaa sleipt sound. Ter.fnce was up at bre1ak of day. He saw blood oozing ·through the plaid that ~c.Lved as his guest's pillow. He suspected that all was not right; so gently slitting the tartan plaid h~ saw the hair and head of a man. Drawil"g it out slowly and gently he recognised features well kno\WTI to evE.'.1ry man in Tireonnell. They were Sir Cahir's. Terence knew the money value of that he2d and, iWithout scruple, start·ed fc~r Dublin to obtain the reward offered by the Government there. He was well across Tyrone by the time Sandy Ramsey awoke. Strabane · ·and Lifford owe their existence largely if not exclusively to the ford at the junction of the .~fourne 1and the Finn, a ford long since replaced by a bridge at present the subject of some discussion betweEn the County Councils of Tyrone and Donegal. It may at this ·point be ,of interest to reoall the desc(:'iption of Lifford as given in Do)W'era's Narration dated 1600. "The Liffer which hath some 80 htouses set in a green plain 1upon the rivttr side and compassed with an old ditch with three small bulwarks in form of a triangle . .Jt is seated in the richest soil bf all ·the 'North, the country about it champaign, .and another green (whereon S(trabane did stand) opposite ·aga'instJt~ large and of a fair prospect". Prcsumub1y Lifford wias cho!';;Cll as a county town because of 306
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