‘Dedication’ by Patrick MacGill | The Navvy Poet

16/01/2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

‘Dedication’ by Patrick MacGill –The Navvy Poet I speak with a proud tongue of the people who were And the people who are, The worthy of Ardara, the Rosses and Inishkeel, My kindred– The people of the hills and the dark-haired passes My neighbours on the lift of the brae, In the lap of the […]

Boyeeghter Bay | Murder Hole Beach

05/12/2022.Reading time 1 minute.

One of Ireland’s most beautiful and pristine bays is on the Rosguill Peninsula – Boyeeghter Bay. At high tide you will find two sandy beaches, which grow together to one big beach when the tide is out. The roaring Atlantic Ocean has gnawed bizarre cuts and a cave into the cliff faces along the bay. […]

Grianán of Aileach | Co Donegal

04/12/2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

Situated on a hilltop 800 feet above sea level, the Grianan of Aileach is a reconstructed stone fort that was originally built on an earthen rath (Co Donegal). The origins of the Grianan of Aileach are dated back to 1700 B.C. It is linked to the Tuatha de Danann who invaded Ireland before the Celts […]

#OTD in 1935 – Nineteen Donegal islanders are drowned when their yawl founders.

09/11/2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

At 5.30pm on Saturday the 9 of November 1935, a yawl left Burtonport harbour, for Arranmore Island. In order to avoid being kept at sea too long in the dark, in the heavy swell, it was apparently decided to take a short course between rocks which the sea is studded for a large area between […]

St. Patrick’s Purgatory | Donegal

04/11/2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

On a small island in the middle of Lough Derg (Lake of the Cave), there’s said to be a portal to the gates of Hell. St. Patrick’s involvement with this grisly gateway, and the monastery built above it, dates from the fifth century, when Christ showed St. Patrick a cave, sometimes referred to as a […]

#OTD in Irish History | 3 November:

03/11/2022.Reading time 10 minutes.

In the Liturgical calendar, today is the Feast day of Maél Máedoc Úa Morgair, St Malachy of Armagh. 1380 – Edmund Mortimer, 6th Earl of Ulster, holds a parliament at Dublin, which confirms the Statutes of Kilkenny. 1692 – The only session of the exclusively Protestant Irish parliament of William III and Mary ends on […]

Inishowen, Co Donegal

01/11/2022.Reading time 1 minute.

Pushing out into the Atlantic, Inishowen is the largest peninsula on the island of Ireland. Shaped by the Ice Age and carved by the endless crash of the ocean, the landscape here is one of stony green hills and jagged coastal rocks. It is flanked by Lough Foyle on the east, Lough Swilly on the west and the Atlantic […]

#OTD in 1939 – The horror of a war declared just days previously comes to Galway. German U-boat 30 torpedoed the SS Athenia 250 miles north-west of the Donegal coast resulting in the deaths of 112 of over 1,400 passengers and crew.

03/09/2022.Reading time 8 minutes.

The Athenia was bound for Quebec carrying civilians fleeing the situation in Europe. It was the first ship to be sunk in the war. Survivors were picked up by the Norwegian freighter Knute Nelson and brought to Galway. Under the command of Captain James Cook, the SS Athenia had begun her voyage in Glasgow on 1 September, […]

#OTD in 1803 – James Napper Tandy, Irish patriot, dies in exile in France.

24/08/2022.Reading time 4 minutes.

James Napper Tandy was born in the Cornmarket area of Dublin in 1740; one of three children born to James Tandy, an iron works merchant, and Maria Bella Jenkins. Tandy received his education at the Quaker boarding school in Ballitore, Kildare, amongst its alumni Edmund Burke, a champion of Catholic emancipation and a supporter of […]

#OTD in 1608 – Preparations commence for the plantation of six Ulster counties (Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone).

19/07/2022.Reading time 5 minutes.

The Plantation of Ulster was presented to James I as a joint “British”, or English and Scottish, venture to ‘pacify’ and ‘civilise’ Ulster, with at least half the settlers to be Scots. James had been King of Scots before he also became King of England and needed to reward his subjects in Scotland with land […]

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Tag: Donegal

‘Dedication’ by Patrick MacGill | The Navvy Poet

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Boyeeghter Bay | Murder Hole Beach

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Grianán of Aileach | Co Donegal

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#OTD in 1935 – Nineteen Donegal islanders are drowned when their yawl founders.

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St. Patrick’s Purgatory | Donegal

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#OTD in Irish History | 3 November:

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Inishowen, Co Donegal

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#OTD in 1939 – The horror of a war declared just days previously comes to Galway. German U-boat 30 torpedoed the SS Athenia 250 miles north-west of the Donegal coast resulting in the deaths of 112 of over 1,400 passengers and crew.

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#OTD in 1803 – James Napper Tandy, Irish patriot, dies in exile in France.

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#OTD in 1608 – Preparations commence for the plantation of six Ulster counties (Armagh, Cavan, Coleraine, Donegal, Fermanagh and Tyrone).

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