Donegal Town

Samuel Lewis

1837

DONEGAL, a sea-port, market and post-town, and parish (formerly an incorporated parliamentary borough), in the barony of TYRHUGH, county of DONEGAL, and province of ULSTER, 24 miles (S. W.) from Lifford, and 113 (N. W.) from Dublin; containing 6260 inhabitants, of which number, 830 are in the town. In 1150 Murtogh O'Loghlen burnt this town and devastated the surrounding country. A castle was built here by the O'Donells about the 12th century; and a monastery for Franciscan friars of the Observantine order was founded in 1474, by Hugh Roe, son of O'Donell, Prince of Tyrconnell, and by his wife, Fiongala, daughter of O'Brien, Prince of Thomond. O'Donell, in 1587, bade defiance to the English government and refused to admit any sheriff into his district. The council at Dublin not having sufficient troops to compel his submission, Sir John Perrot, lord-deputy, proposed either to entrap him or his son. He accomplished his object by sending a ship freighted with Spanish wines to Donegal, the captain of which entertained all who would partake of his liberality. Young O'Donell and two of his companions accepted his invitation, and when intoxicated were made prisoners and conveyed to Dublin as hostages for the chief of Tyrconnell. After remaining a prisoner in the castle for a considerable time, he, in company with several other hostages, effected his escape and returned to Donegal, where he was invested with the chieftaincy of Tyrconnell, and married a daughter of O'Nial, chief of Tyrone.

In 1592, an English force under Captains Willis and Convill took possession of the convent and the surrounding country, but were quickly expelled by the young Hugh Roe O'Donell, with the loss of their baggage. In 1600, O'Nial met O'Donell and the Spanish emissary, Oviedo, here, on the arrival of supplies from Spain at Killybegs, to concert the plan of a rebellion. Shortly after this, the English, taking advantage of O'Donell's absence in Connaught, marched a strong party to Donegal, and took possession of the monastery, which was unsuccessfully assaulted by O'Donell; and the debarkation of the Spaniards at Kinsale, about this time, occasioned him to go to their assistance, leaving the English in undisturbed possession.

In 1631, the annals of Donegal, generally called the "Annals of the Four Masters," were compiled in the convent: the original of the first part of this work is in the Duke of Buckingham's library at Stowe, and of the second in the collection of the Royal Irish Academy; part of these interesting annals have been published by Dr. O'Conor, under the title of "Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores." The castle was taken, in 1651, by the Marquess of Clanricarde, who was, however, soon obliged to surrender it to a superior force. On the 15th of October, 1798, a French frigate of 30 guns anchored close to the town, and two more appeared in the bay; but the militia and inhabitants of the town and neighbourhood showing a determination to resist a landing, they left the harbour.

The town is pleasantly situated at the mouth of the river Esk, and consists of three streets, comprising 150 houses, and a large triangular market-place. The market is held on Saturday; and fairs on the 2nd Friday in each month. Here is a constabulary police station. The harbour is formed by a pool on the east side of the peninsula of Durin, where, at the distance of two miles below the town, small vessels may ride in two or three fathoms of water, about half a cable's length from the shore. There is a good herring fishery in the bay, in summer. The borough was incorporated by a charter of James I., dated Feb. 27th, 1612, in pursuance of the plan of forming a new plantation in Ulster. The corporation consisted of a portreeve, twelve free burgesses, and an unlimited number of freemen; and the charter created a borough court, of which the portreeve was president, but it has long since been disused. From its incorporation till the Union the borough returned two members to the Irish Parliament, and on the abolition of its franchise, £15,000 was paid as compensation to the Earl of Arran and Viscount Dudley. Since that period the corporation has ceased to exist. By a grant to Henry Brook, in 1639, a manor was erected, comprehending the town of Donegal, with a court leet and a court baron, to be held before a seneschal appointed by the patentee, having a civil jurisdiction to the extent of 40s. The manorial court is still held monthly, on Mondays, except during the summer: petty sessions are held every alternate week; and the general quarter sessions for the county are held here in March, June, October, and December, in a small sessions-house. There is a small bridewell.

The parish comprises, according to the Ordnance' survey, 23,260 statute acres, including 503 ¼ in Lough Esk and 214 ¾ in small lakes: 23,089 acres are applotted under the tithe act, besides which there are about 900 acres of bog and a large tract of mountain land, in which is the beautiful lake of Lough Esk, at the upper end of which is the romantic and picturesque place called Ardnamona, the property of G. C. Wray. Esq., and from which the river Esk descends southward to its estuary, in the inmost recess of the bay of Donegal. About a quarter of the cultivated land is arable, the remainder pasture. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Raphoe, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in Colonel Conolly. The tithes amount to £338. 9. 2 ½., of which £107. 13. 10 ¼. is payable to the impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar. The glebe-house was rebuilt by aid of a gift of £100, from the late Board of First Fruits in 1816; and there is a glebe of 38 acres. The church is a handsome structure, built in 1825, by aid of a donation of £100 from John Hamilton, Esq., and a loan of £1300 from the same Board.

The R. C. parish is co-extensive with that of the Established Church, and has a chapel at Donegal and one at Townawilly. There is a meeting-house for Presbyterians in connection with the Synod of Ulster, of the third class, and one connected with the Seceding Synod, of the second class; also two places of worship for Independents and one for Wesleyan Methodists. The parochial school was built on land given by the Earl of Arran. There are also a school on Erasmus Smith's foundation, one supported by Mrs. Hamilton, and nine others aided by different Societies and subscriptions. In these are about 600 children, and there are three Sunday schools. About the close of the last century, Colonel Robertson, son of a clergyman of this town, bequeathed a sum of money, out of the interest of which, £15 per annum was to be paid to each of the parishes in the diocese of Raphoe, for the support of a school-master to instruct children of all religious denominations. This fund has so much increased as to enable the trustees to grant £40 to each parish, for the erection of a school-house, provided an acre of land on a perpetually renewable lease be obtained for a site. There is a dispensary in the town, supported in the customary manner. Manganese is found in the demesne of Lough Esk, the residence of Thomas Brooke, Esq.

Pearls, some of great beauty, have been found on the river Esk. The remains of the monastery are still visible at a short distance from the town: the cloister is composed of small arches supported by coupled pillars on a basement; in one part of it are two narrow passages, one over the other, about four feet wide, ten long, and seven high, which were probably intended as depositories for valuables in times of danger. A considerable part of the castle remains, and forms an interesting feature in the beautiful view of the bay; although it and the other property granted to the patentee, at a rent of 13s. 4d. per annum, have passed into other families, one of his descendants still pays a rent to the crown for it. Within three miles of the town is The Hall, the residence of the Conyngham family. Donegal gives the titles of Marquess and Earl to the Chichester family.

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