the C.D.'R. (rail) and G.N.1R. (road line8). The post office transacts all postal bu::;iuess and there are three Banks. It has a large number of well-stocked shops, lighted by-electricity and has a good water supply and sewerage system. There is splen· did hotel accommOdation. A knitting factory was established in 1900 and this has been replaced by a shirt factory which gives employment to a large number of girls. There is a weekly market and a monthly fair. A sea port town, cargoes of coal are frequently discharged in . the harbour. The sea is safe for bathing and boating. Sport and Amusemen:s- Angling faci~ities are first~lass the principal waters being Lough Eske and the River Eske both of which are preserved. Fishing for sea trout is _good. The rivers Ballintra and Stream hQld sea trout and salmon after a flood. There is an extensive moor1and for shooting, 4'. mGes from the town (grouse and occasionally pheasant). Good wild duck shooting may he had ·(free) on Lough Eske. There is a pro_gressive Gaelic football c1.ub and a "f:apper" horse racinE? meeting is held annuallv. The Four Masters' Social Club Rooms. recently erected, eater for all kinds of indoor recreation. There is also a cinema and dances and concerts are held frequently. Churches There are four churches. The Four Masters' Memorial Church of St. Patrick (Catholic). thP. Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church and the Methodist Church. The first named is a heautiful edifice which was opened on l 7th March 1935, to replace the century.old Church of St. Patrick, Historical Associations and Antiqu\jes The dismantled Abbey of the Franciscans, founded in 1474 by Nua:a, wife of Red Hugh O'Donnell, lies a quarter of a mile south of the town. Within its walls were written the famous Annals of the Four Masters. Then there is the old castle ruins on the sit~ of which was once the O''Donnell castle which, history has it, was set on. fire at the time it was vacated by Red Hugh O'iDonnell. It was subsequently re-built by Sir Basil Brook in 1609. In the Diamond is a memorial erected to the memory of the Four Masters. Here also is a F1~ench ancb')r, a ~ink' with '08 .and outside the house of Mr. John McGowan, Tirconaill St., is a massive chain, a relic of the same pe!"iod as it belonged to the French frigate which anchored in Donegal Bay during that time. Aodh Ruadh O'Donnell, Lord of Tircon~!ll, was buried in the church in the Franciscan Abbey, and his wife, Lady Finuala O'Donnell, it is stated spent her long widowhood in a litCe house specially built at her request in the shadow of the Monastery, she having laid aside the rich attire of a princess for the lowly habit of St. Francis. THE TWIN TOWNS The passer-by might well be forgiven for casting a cold eye on the twin-towns of Ballybofey and S'tran:orlar, (lying 18 miles from Do.!'legal town) cradled in the valley of the Finn, ringed on 1the south and west by the Cru:acha Gonna, and lying barely 1above the level of the sea, but a closer acquaintance with their warm347.
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