Anderson and Hugh O'bonneh. in the :fuhness of time it !\Vas to have a police barrack. Stranorlar consoled itself for the-transfer by saying Ballybofey needed .it most. And that 1was somehow true, for Ballybofey always had a live militant nationalism. On at least two occasions Stranorlar had an Orange procession march through it; but Ballybofey gave it such a reception that the experiment ..wasn't repeated. If you hadn't a crowd to protest you 1a1ways had .Barney Ward iand my good ffi.end Mary Anne McAteer. And inevitab1y Ballybofey had its Nationalist demonstrations1 Stranorlor had not. Once or twice a year Ballyqofey had a visit from Drumkeen band with its green sashes and challenging banner '"Give us our Parliament - or else ! " As a mark of n\a tional dut~ it serenaded the poliee barrack three times with "T•he Peeler and the Goat." Sergeant Brooks one of the most ·efficient and independent of the R.I.C., I ever knew, did nothing-but waited his turn. lt came iat the end of the evening: Drumkeen, being the tougher Drumkeen of 50 years ago, 1got drunk, beg'an to fight, and it ended up at next Court day, when the Sergeant got 'his 01wn back. I can't leave Ballybofey without recording many happy memories of the friendly families. of Mrs. Hannigan and Mrs. McGlinchey. But as my mission is, I undertstand to give this evening my reminiscences of both villages, and as I am tied to time, I must condense into 30 minutes what would 'ea1sily drift into hours. I must, now that I have indi:cated Ballybofey in broader lines, speak of my natal Stranorlar. And, starting midstream, my first reminiscence i·s a strang\e one. It was, when momentarily absent from th1~ school, looking at a mass of steel being rai,sed on a derrick in the construction of the suspension bridge nearby. I heard somE:thing 1crash ; I :sa1w some people jumping into tl:e water, and ·wlth the callo.usnes.s of a lad •cf 8, went over to see two men extracted from under the mass cf iron-one being dead. I remember a statement being taken from me though naturally I didn't .appear at the inquest. Stranorlar sch~ml recalls many happy schooldays under Patrick Feeney, the one teiacl:er I worshipped in my boyish way and he was fr.e best of all my teachers. Across from the ·sch100l ·yard was the tower of the Jfinn Vialley station clolck. I remember how I iofte:1 looked at its hand reaching 3-and it 1\vas in keeping, now that we ;have crossed the Rhine, and come intc· a more conservative people, thr1t it should and still have Lord Lifford's ccat of (trms beneath it. rrhe same tradition was kept when a few yards onwards we saw the Hayes's Crest on the avenue :gate.s. Gojng up the street one passed Anthony Meehan's, a typical English inn keeper, thouQ1c Irish of the Iri.~'.h ; then the houses of Joe Farren 1and John Malee, both old soldier pensioners-beyond thern that of 1:\Ionsignor James McMenarnin who christened me. He was 1genial. tactful, beloved and ref~pected by everybody, and was to be succeeded by Monsignor MrCly.nn, probably the handsomest drnrchmnn in Ireland. wJ~o modelled hhnself, like most: Irish priests tra'ined in Paris under the Empire, on the famous French 312
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