Donegal Annual / Bliainiris Thír Chonaill, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1951)

Bishop .bupauloup. Then there was Johnny lJiver, a ~carpe1iter "who never raised a son as good a workman as himself," and Charlie :McCr·eady, the bailit: !WI.hose uncle had fougiht at Waterloo. And next in series was the house of Hugh iMc:Ginty, who as a young man 1with his 1wife had spent years in France iat railway construiction, and who often boasted he had taken 1a holiday, with the other Irishmen to go to Chalons and give .Marshal McMraho.n an Irish cheer the day he Wias made duke of Magenta by Napoleon. He helped my father to gather, in one day, £38 f;or the Irish ambulance to France in 1870. Opposite the house in which I 1was bo1--n, it was once the hotel, Hved Charlie McKane, whose bluntness hid many :of the kindlier points 'Wihiioh all rl:is \J)eople, whom I knew well in KiUygordon, gave him. Down Chapel Lane lived Charles Kennedy, the mason, ·who built the schools, a bandicraftsman, like whom there were few, wthose 1wife helped to nurse us all when illness came, and who left a family honourable, .and intelHgent that I am proud to claim alrr.ost as foster brothers ; along the Main Street 'lived James M\axwell, a good craHsman, who had ,an .inces1sant feud !against Sergeant Brooks. He WIB.S lame, and when he had a ferw drinks, he boasted to strangers that it was tihe result of a wound he had got in the Crimea. People, who knew him, unkindly remarked that, when he had taken more than his usual dose of gin, :he generally got it at vVa terloo ! Going up the street there was the Queen's Arms Hotel, the stanchion of wihi:ch, without the Aiims, still remains. It belonged to Andrew Miller, brother-in-law of Frances Browne, fhe Blind Poetess of Donegal and it was to come into the hands of ·vVil1iam Kee, one of the few who had iCrosised the Finn. But Ballybofey never gave a finer neighbour nor a more generous friend to the poor than \Vi.Hie Kee. Opposite him lived James Bcyle, a famous Attorney, born in Dungloe, brilliant, b!"2i.ny, best d€:scribed by his colleague William 'Vilson as 1hoving more brains iin his boots than the others 1had in their heads. I can't omit the 111ame of James Coyle, one of the most industrious strai1g:htforrwa:rd men Stranorlar ever had, .nor that of Tom Deery, a quiet dreamer, a gr0~t author:ty on history and - the Scripture, ;vvho succeeded the Gunnings, who represented the re;s:ult of successful trading for fge.nera1tions. · There were the private houJses of the Coohranes and MacCbuFeys, and that of George i~kLaughlin, clerk of the union for many years, :whose books nerver shewed a mistake or 1a blot, and whose helpful kindness officially and otherwiise I have good reason to remember when I started practilre over 30 years ago. Dr. Joh111stfon's Corner introduces a name that nei1ther I .nor many others will ever for1get. He ulshered me into the world. He was m1y go:od friend, neighbour and helpful 1colleague for over 20 yE1ars ; and an indefati.gable worker in his Profession for almost 60 years of strenuous service. And his darner leads us to a detour dlo•wn Meetinghouse Lnne (they •.w12re ali lanes, not streets, 50 years a1f~o) rwherc ,James 1\kMcnamin (Whom I Slaw injured at the bridge ~ocident I mentioned) lived for long full years after ; to the 313

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQxNzU3