Narin and Downstrands

By Francis Shovlin

Frank Shovlin is a retired bank official aged seventy-one and was born on March 10, 1941. He has no background in writing and lives in Donegal Town, Ireland, with his wife, Collette. Their five children are grown up; three live in Ireland, one in UK, and one in the USA. His time is spent gardening and playing bridge and golf.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Oct 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466963214

Francis Shovlin

Frank Shovlin is a retired bank official aged seventy-one and was born on March 10, 1941. He has no background in writing and lives in Donegal Town, Ireland, with his wife, Collette. Their five children are grown up; three live in Ireland, one in UK, and one in the USA. His time is spent gardening and playing bridge and golf.

Book preview

NARIN

and

DOWNSTRANDS

Francis Shovlin

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© Copyright 2012 Francis Shovlin.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

isbn: 978-1-4669-6320-7 (sc)

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Contents

Introduction

Narin 1821-1911 (2009)

Narin & Portnoo in other Days (1992)

Roots (1993)

Letter to America (1995)

The Canon Boyce Cup (1995)

Narin in Griffith’s Valuation 1857 (1996)

The A.O.H. (1997)

Social & Personal… . Downstrands (1997)

Narin in the 1901 Census (1998)

Ardara Walking Festival (1999)

I Remember Sandfield (1999)

A Walk from Kilclooney to Narin (2000)

The Day of the Helicopters (2000)

The Bog (2001)

The Hay (2005)

The Potatoes (2006)

Narin in 1953 (2003)

To Slieve a Thuaidh (2004)

To The Warren (2004)

Dancing in Kilclooney (2007)

Peter and Rosie (2007)

Schools’ Manuscripts Collection 1937/38, Kilclooney N.S. (2008)

Schools’ Manuscripts Collection (1937/38) Clogher N.S. (2009)

1911 Census in Narin (2009)

Death and Funeral of Mr Thomas Craig, Kilclooney (2011)

A Letter From Narin 1913 (2011)

Introduction

This book is a collection of essays which I wrote for Dearcadh over the past twenty years together with a longer essay which I wrote for a local history course in Kilcar in 2008/9. My Kilcar essay appears first as it serves as an introduction to my earlier work. The other essays appear here in the order in which they were written starting with ‘Narin & Portnoo In Other Days’ which was first printed in Dearcadh at Christmas 1992. I wrote this article from information supplied by my father and I published it in his name.

Dearcadh is an annual magazine published by a committee in Ardara which incorporates an earlier magazine entitled The Ardara View first published in 1983; without it I would never have written the series of articles you will find in this book. Since I began to write Eddie O’Donnell has been the main organiser of Dearcadh and to him I owe a great debt of gratitude.

My longer essay entitled ‘Narin 1820-1911’ may appear a little out of place among my Dearcadh articles because it had to be written in a more academic format as a project for a course. However, it relies on much of the same material as my Dearcadh articles and you will note a lot of duplication for which I apologise. There are also instances where in later essays I have updated information which I published in earlier essays. I have included beside the titles of my essays, in brackets, the year in which they were first published so that you may be less confused.

Dr. Frank Sweeney conducted the course in Kilcar under the auspices of NUI Maynooth and he opened my eyes to sources of local history which I never knew existed. I wish to thank Dr. Sweeney and all of my fellow students for their help.

I am also indebted to my son Frank who proofread and formatted the essays and also made some very good suggestions. Last but not least I wish to thank my wife, Collette, who has had to put up with my efforts for the last twenty years. She can spell, which is a skill I never acquired, and that was a big help in the years before I discovered Microsoft Spellchecker. She now also knows more than she ever wished to know about Narin and Downstrands.

Narin 1821-1911 (2009)

Introduction

My view of local history is coloured by two very opposite views of the world. My father was born and raised in Sandfield, a townland about three miles north of Ardara, Co. Donegal and he later moved two miles, further north, to Narin on the west coast of Donegal where he lived from 1940 to 2004. His world began and ended in the parishes of Ardara, Glenties and Lettermacaward. He could tell stories all day and all night about the life and times of the three parishes. You will probably see that influence in my work. On the other hand I am influenced by a comment made by Brian Friel, the dramatist and playwright, in his introduction to The Last Of The Name published by Blackstaff Press in 1986. The book comprises the reminiscences of Charles McGlinchy, who lived between 1861 and 1954, as written down over a number of years by Patrick Kavanagh, principal teacher in Gaddyduff National School in the village of Clonmany. It is a book that gives a wonderful insight into life in Inishowen. However, Friel pointed out that during McGlinchey’s lifetime important things were happening like ‘Home Rule and the land wars, the rise and fall of Parnell, the Rising in 1916, two world wars and the atomic bomb. Yet, McGlinchey does not mention even one of these events’.¹ What impressed me most was that it is recorded in the book that McGlinchey travelled away from Clonmany on two occasions and one of them was to go to the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin in 1932. Friel commented that McGlinchey refers to that occasion not as a spiritual pilgrimage but as an illustration of how long a raked fire will keep lit: ‘I raked the fire myself one Saturday morning in 1932 and went to the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin and didn’t get back till Monday evening. The fire was living in the rakings all the time’.²

I intend to write about the history of the townland of Narin and the surrounding townlands. I consider it a topic that might add a little to my understanding of my roots. I do not expect my work to add very much to historiography but perhaps, one day, someone may find it a useful reference for research.

Narin is a small townland in the parish of Ardara in County Donegal. It is a seaside townland on the southern shore of Gweebara Bay and it looks north towards Aranmore Island that is about ten miles away. One third of the land is reasonably good, in between the rocks, by the sea, and the other two thirds is a steep hill of rough grazing that runs parallel to the sea.

I am drawn to this subject because I was born there but have not lived there for the past fifty years. I was lucky that my father was very interested in local affairs. In my childhood, although I did not know it then, I was very much influenced by an old neighbour, Peter McLoone, who will appear later in the context of the Census of 1901 and 1911.

The primary sources I intend to use are:

1. A survey conducted by The Rev. John Barrett, rector of Inniskeel, for the North West Farming Society as published in The Ordnance Survey Memoirs. The date of the survey is not given but Liam Briody, author of Glenties and Inniskeel³, suggests that it was compiled in 1821. In the report the Rev. Barrett wrote: ‘I have resided constantly in the Parish for the last 19 years’, and according to other records the Rev. Barrett was rector in Inniskeel from 1802. I consider this to be a very accurate survey notwithstanding that Rev Barrett might not have been all that well disposed towards many of his neighbours who were refusing to pay tithes to him. In the Outrage Papers for 1836, J.C. Roden, Chief Constable wrote:

About 15 June 1836 Charles Kennedy of Common was serving processes for tithes due to the Rev John Barrett. Kennedy was met at Maas by twenty or thirty men and women who beat and abused him and made to destroy the originals of those he had served and all those that he had not then served and told him that he should be killed for undertaking any such business. He states the offenders are unknown to him but I am of a different opinion. Kennedy declines giving any other information as he states through fear of his life this occurred in Maas. Kennedy kept it a secret from the police until called on and induced to speak the truth concerning the occurrence. (John C Rodden, Chief Constable, 2nd Class, to Dublin Castle. 7/48’⁴).

In The State of the Country Papers 1823 Rev Barrett, Narin wrote:

I long since took the policy of suggesting to you the great utility of a small body of police being stationed through this county more particularly in the remote districts. In consequence of there being no power to enforce the execution of warrants at magistrates and the decrees of the resident barrister and more waste paper; a heavy accumulation of rent and tithes has been the consequence. They must be paid at some period and thus the higher and lower order will be equally injured. The lower order around me openly declare their determination not to pay tithes or rents. Three cows were most brutally mutilated last week in this parish for tenanting land for which the farmer never paid rent. The military has been withdrawn from Glenties. I am aware that magistrates are the usual channel through which to solicit aid from government but there is but one resident in this parish and he is 80 years old.⁵

2. My next source is The Devon Commission⁶ and in particular the interview conducted with John O’Donnell of Letterilly, Glenties who would have been well—known to Rev. Barrett but who was from a different political and religious background. The people interviewed in Donegal for The Devon Commission were from widely differing backgrounds but it is clear that O’Donnell, while he was a large farmer himself, was not afraid to put the case for the small farmer.

The interviews for The Devon Commission were conducted in 1844 and the famine hit Narin in 1845. The Famine is well documented at national level but I have used only Pat Conaghan’s book The Great Famine in South-West Donegal 1845-1850⁷ which gives an insight into local conditions. While I have no local statistics of deaths it is clear that the Famine had a very big effect on the population.

3. My next source is Griffith’s Valuation⁸ because this is the first occasion I had to meet the people of Narin and to get a picture of where they lived.

4. Then there was the baseline report produced by The Congested Districts Board for the Glenties area in 1892. This document gives an extensive insight into life in Narin.

5. 1901 Census of Population gives an insight into modern times. I was lucky to have had my father still alive when I first made a study of the census of 1901 and that made it possible to put some flesh on the people.

6. For the 1911 Census I have had help from Dan McCole, an old resident of Narin whose father and grandfather are detailed in that census.

I will also draw on secondary sources, History of the Parish of Ardara by P.J.McGill⁹ and In Conall’s Footsteps by his son Lochlann McGill.¹⁰ I have also been influenced by Liam Briody’s Glenties and Inniskeel¹¹ and by Dearcadh, the annual magazine of the parish of Ardara. I will set out the essay by way of an introduction and three chapters followed by a conclusion.

Chapter 1. Narin before the Famine will give a description of where Narin is situated in County Donegal. It will discuss Inniskeel Island which can be accessed from Narin across a dry strand at low tide and is an early Christian site. It will also discuss the signs of pre-Christian settlement in the Narin area. There will be reference to Narin in the Plantation of Ulster but the main topic will be a survey carried out by the Church of Ireland rector of Inniskeel in 1821 for The North West Farming Society. Reference will also be made to an interview given by John O’Donnell of Letterilly, near Narin, to The Devon Commission 1844.

Chapter 2. Narin in the post-Famine decades

There will be a discussion of The Great Famine in Narin with reference to Pat Conaghan’s book The Great Famine in South-West Donegal 1845-1850. There will be a study of population trends post famine. I will examine Griffith’s Valuation and what it tells us of Narin in 1857 and I will look at the building of the first modern Catholic Church in Kilclooney in 1865.

Chapter 3. Narin at the turn of the century

There will be a short study of the Home Rule movement leading to ‘killing Home Rule with kindness’. This will lead on to the Congested Districts Board and their Baseline study which gave wide-ranging insights into life in Narin at the end of the nineteenth century. This is followed by a look at Narin in the light of the Census of Population 1901 and 1911.

Chapter 4. Conclusion

My main conclusion will be that the censuses of 1901 and 1911 show Narin as a relatively comfortable society while Rundale still exists and where there is no great evidence of external income.

Chapter 1

Narin before the Famine

Narin is a small townland of 495 Acres on the southern edge of Gweebara Bay, in the Barony of Boylagh, Civil Parish of Inniskeel, now in the Catholic Parish of Ardara, Co. Donegal. Narin is surrounded by the townlands of Lackagh, Drumboghill, Kilclooney Beg, Summy, Clogher and Cashelgoland. I do not know when the spelling ‘Narin’ was adopted but in the 19th century it was always known as ‘Naran’. The widely accepted Irish name for Narin is An Fhearthain and the popular translation of that word is ‘rain’ which often falls in Narin. There have been numerous spellings of the placename in English and the origin of the name of the townland is not clear. Lochlann McGill consulted with Donall Mac Giolla Espaigh, an expert in placenames in the Ordnance Survey in Dublin who in the course of a lengthy report wrote:

Fearthainn is the more common word for rain in Donegal Irish, but baisteach does occur. In origin, however, fearthainn is the verbal noun of the verb fearaim which had a broad spectrum of meaning in the early language: grant, supply, provide, give forth, pour, do, perform. The placename, An Fearthainn, therefore, probably did not mean rain at all, but could have any of the attested, or indeed unattested, meanings of the verb fearaim. The name could as equally mean a grant (of land), or a gushing forth as in a stream.¹²

Local tradition believes that Narin was land which belonged to the monastery on the Island of Inniskeel, which is an island of 80 acres, north of Narin, that can be accessed on dry strand when tides are suitable. The history of Narin could not be written without reference to Inishkeel Island. It is from this island that the civil parish received its name and the two churches on the island were the centre of Christianity in this part of Co. Donegal from 700AD or earlier. Space does not permit me to deal in detail with the island but the reader should refer to Lochlann McGill’s book, In Conall’s Footsteps that devotes four chapters to the subject.

On the beach at Narin, opposite Iniskeel Island, there is a stone known to my generation as the ‘Riding Rock’ but which appears on the 1847-50 Ordinance Survey map as ‘Maghernakilla Standing Stone’. It is now covered by sand but it was clearly visible after the big storm in 1988. Lochlann Mc Gill thinks that it may have been a standing stone on dry land that was eroded by the sea and the stone sank into the wet sand.¹³ Close to this stone, on dry land, is the site of the Church of Ireland church of St. James from which this part of Narin takes the name, ‘Churchtown’. In his book Raphoe Clergy and Parishes, Canon J.B.Leslie comments:

The new church of St James, was consecrated on July 25th 1724. The parish plate consisted of a communion plate bearing the date 1724 as well as a chalice, flagon and paten of silver, the gift of Sir Henry Caldwell to ye Church of Iniskeel, September 1st 1724.¹⁴

There is no sign of this building in 2009 but there is still an old graveyard there where in times past people were buried when, due to tidal conditions, they could not be buried in the graveyard on Iniskeel Island. There was another such graveyard in the adjoining townland of Castlegoland.

The surrounding area, known to many as Downstrands, has widespread evidence of an ancient population. There is a spectacular dolmen in Kilclooney dated about 3000BC. There are good examples of Megalithic Tombs in Kilclooney and Lackaweer. There are remains of a crannóg on The Pound Lough and on an island in Loughadoon there is a stone fort second only to Grianan Aileach and dating back to 700AD. Alistair Rowan, in his book The buildings of north-west Ulster when writing about buildings of early Christian origin wrote:

Of buildings in this period little or nothing remains visible except for two remarkable STONE FORTS: the Grianan of Aileach and Doon Fort. Both are splendid monuments, splendid in scale, in situation, and in evocative power, and they lift Ulster Architecture to an un-accustomed level of importance. Eminently primitive in appearance, both consist of a great circular cashel built of dry stone walls with a single entrance, with mural passages and stairs within the enclosure that give access to the wall heads.¹⁵

Paddy McGill, the first person to write extensively about local history in this area described the fort:

Loughadoon Fort in the townland of Drumboghill (O.S. 64) near Portnoo, is one of the most interesting stone forts, not only in the parish of Ardara, but in all Ireland. Built on a lake island which it covers, it is oval in shape and encloses a grassy space about 150 feet by 100 feet. The enclosing wall is 15 feet high by 12 feet thick at the base, and contains a triangular creep passage at ground level, all the way around, in the middle of the wall. The outside face is built with a batter, resulting in a narrowing as the wall rises. On the inside of the wall it has a terrace, and is provided with a stone stairway which gives access to the terrace and to the platform at the top. The structure is composed of the local slaty stone and is dry built. The best known of such forts are Grianan Aileach in Co.Donegal (77 feet across), Dun Aengus in the Arran Islands, Staigue Fort (88 feet) in Kerry, Ballykinfarraige, and others in Co.Clare—all situated on the west coast.¹⁶

There is no indication of who built the fort but it has all the signs of being a refuge against enemies. It