Correspondence The O'Donnells Of Glassagh DEAR Sir,-The popular proprietor of Brownhall is inclined to treat with derision the few legends that we still possess about the O'Donnell's of Glassagh. This much, however, has the support of !a vivid and widespre'ad tradition. A man called An Dalach Mor appe:ared in Glassagh some time in the first half of the eighteenth century. According to one 1account he came from Scotland; according to another he came from Spain. This man may have been the celebrated Domnick Roe, although of course there is no certainty ebo\.!t it. Legends have it that An Dalach Mor married the "Daughter of the Earl," but we know not who the Earl was. NO one ever said, as Captain Hamilton implies, that the O'Donnells had set up a sort of independent principality in Glass,agh. The first comer was simply a squatter who built a commodious house which the hoveldwellers on the two sides of the Finn designated An Teach Mor. THE authorities looked upon the Glassagh tribe as being loyal which it surely was and Rory, the grandson of Dalach !Mor became Constable of the Ba:-ony of Boylagh, whatever that meant. Rory gave a signal proof of his loyalty in 1798 when he absented himself from the scene of •the duel in Lifford between his brother-in-law and the 444. British dragoon. He was quite Siafe years •afterwards in presiding at a ·pro-Emancipation meeting in Stranorlar, since both Teel and Wellington favoured the repeal of the Penal Laws. fOR many years the Oatholie clergy he}d their conferences in the Big House of Glass::igh, why they· discontinued dt does not concern us here. LATIN was studied in the Glassagh house and Rory maintained against Bishop Patr.ick Mac Gettigan, whose obstinancy exceeded his own, that the priest at the Millside scallan had no right to begin Mass until the O'Donnell cavalcade had arrived. ACCORDING to very reliable traditions, Rory, like his father befo1·e him, was permitted to carry a sword, acted the swashbuckler, and could :·ep:enish his kegs from the never-ending supplies of continental srr:ugglers. There is a striking resemblance between this family 1and two 1contempo1!ary Kerry tribes; namely. the O'Donoghoe of the Glen and the Magilcuddy of the Reeks. The Glassagh sept Was the most Irish, for when taunted ..with their apparent loY- .alty to Government they always replied that they alone of all the O'Donnells in Ireland had never used the Christian name Niall! NOW although our Brownhall friend despises folk-lore when
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