Tag Archives: Colonel Conolly

1842 January & February.

  1. January.

CHRISTENING OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. Even the very restricted particulars of this great and joyous event which we give in our, first page will be read with an intensity of interest by those who have not had an opportunity of seeing more enlarged accounts. The ceremony must have been truly imposing and the feelings of joy to the nation on the occasion is the circumstance of Her Majesty’s selection of the King of Prussia as sponsor to the young Prince. It is delighting to find the worth and rank that surrounded her most gracious Majesty and Prince Albert in the altered style of her Majesty’s government, where the heart and  affections in the security of her Majesty’s person and throne, are so closely identified with the present prevailing principles.

Primitive WESLEYAN METHODIST Tea Party. Friday evening last there was a tea meeting of the members and friends of this society held in the Preaching-house, Main-street. The attendance on this occasion exceeded in number and respectability, we believe those of any former instance. About half past five o’clock the parties at the several tables in the body of the House commenced tea and so throng was every spot that a large number had to move up to the gallery and wait till those below could afford them room. Though there were upwards of 300 present the utmost, order prevailed throughout. A short Hymn was sung at the commencement and another at the conclusion of the tea. On the motion of Mr. Joseph McCormack, senior Preacher of the Enniskillen circuit, Mr. Beatty of the Maguiresbridge circuit was called to the Chair, when the assembly was severally addressed by Mr. J. Heatley of the Cavan circuit, Mr. A. Dawson of the Ballyshannon circuit and Mr. Fitzgerald, Merchant Clones, brother to Mr. Wm. Fitzgerald of this town.

20-1-1842. ARRIVAL OF SIR ARTHUR AND LADY BROOKE AT COLEBROOKE. Friday last the extensive district of country from Maguiresbridge to Colebrooke was a scene of great rejoicing on the arrival of the worthy baronet and his lovely Bride. For many days previous arrangements were in preparation on a scale suitable to pay a just respect to so benevolent and extensive a proprietor. Sir Arthur and Lady Brooke arrived at Virginia hotel on Thursday evening and on Friday an open carriage and four went from Colebrooke to meet them beyond Lisnaskea. Being expected to reach Maguiresbridge about one o’clock, a platform was erected on the commons there, on which the young but very good, band of that town were stationed to play on, while the open space was crowded with the people of the surrounding neighbourhood. About twelve a well mounted cavalcade of the Colebrooke tenantry moved forward from Brookeborough increasing at every step towards the busy scene and crowds of men, women, and children thronged the entire way although the day was rather impropitious from the constant thick fog. About two the bugles stationed on the hills between Maguiresbridge and Brookeborough announced the advance of the cavalcade; passing through the Bridge they were received with deafening shouts and cheers which were most gratefully acknowledged by Sir Arthur and Lady. From thence they proceeded, headed by considerable party of horsemen while several hundreds followed in an orderly line three deep in the rear the bugles continually playing. At Gola, the residence of Major Sterne a magnificent arch was erected.

20-1-1842. The people of Ballyshannon have great reason to thank Colonel Conolly for his kind attention in presenting the memorial of the merchants of this town to the Lords of the Treasury and impressing on their lordships the claims of this place to enjoy the privileges of warehousing of foreign grain, teas, sugars, wines, spirits, tobacco, and other goods paying a high duty.  By referring to the annexed reply to the Memorial our readers will find but these very important privileges have been granted.  We therefore hope soon to see the aforementioned goods freely imported into Ballyshannon by some of the enterprising merchants of this place and Enniskillen.

Constabulary of Donegal.  At a meeting of the magistracy of the county of Donegal held at Lifford on Saturday they decided against the reduction of the constabulary force of the county by a majority of four.  This and the neighbouring markets were plentifully supplied on Wednesday last with the largest and richest fresh herrings we have seen for several years caught at Portnew in Boylagh Bay.

A poor woman named Molly Ginn who has for some years, at intervals, been deranged was founded dead yesterday morning on the public road at Milltown Ballyshannon. It is supposed that in a fit of insanity she wandered from her lodgings and the night being dark and extremely severe, she was unable to make her way back and accordingly foundered.

The town was visited by a terrific storm on the nights of Tuesday and Wednesday last; yet we have not heard of any injury sustained by the inhabitants; on the whole it has been the severest winter for the last 7 years. We trust the spring will set in more favourably.

Miraculous Escape. As William Wilson, Esq., was travelling in his gig from Derry to Carndonagh on professional business, on descending a steep hill within four miles of Carn, he was met by a carman who, driving the wrong side of the road, was the cause of precipitating Mr. Wilson, horse and gig into a dangerous ravine at least 15 feet deep. Although the gig and harness were smashed to pieces Mr. Wilson escaped unhurt.

Last week as Mr. T. Whitford, son of Mr. Whitford, attorney, of St. Columb,(Cornwall) was amusing himself on a shooting excursion about a mile from that town, on getting over a hedge, the gun accidentally went off and he was killed on the spot, his brain having been blown to atoms.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STATESMAN.  Attention has been directed by a friend to an extract from the Fermanagh Reporter inserted in your paper of the 31st of December last which was calculated to mislead the public mind and to make it appear that I read our burial service over a Roman Catholic who died within the pale of the church and that it was on that condition he was admitted into our burial ground.  Such is not the case.

The facts are simply these: on the 23rd of December last an inquest was held on the body of a poor man named Thomas Campbell found dead in the snow about 2 miles from Ballyjamesduff.  The verdict of the jury was that he died of extreme cold.  When brought to the chapel yard to be buried he was refused a grave until the dues of the priests should be paid by those who carried the body; this they were unable and unwilling to do.  Although very poor they had already contributed towards getting a coffin and had left their work to carry the unfortunate stranger to his grave and were therefore indignant that this demand should be so cruelly insisted on.  The body lay on the public road at the chapel gate until evening.  Application was then made to me to allow it to be buried in our church yard and under the circumstances I felt that I could not refuse but as he had (in common with all Roman Catholics) had excommunicated himself and I could not, consistent with our rubric read the burial service over him.  He was buried by torchlight in silence.  When the internment was over I availed myself of the opportunity to address a word in season to the Roman Catholics who were present.  They listened with great attention and afterwards expressed their gratitude for our compliance with their request and the greatest abhorrence of the inhuman treatment they had received from those of their own creed. Two days after this took place two Roman Catholics partly influenced by that occurrence conformed to our church making a total of 12 who have come out from Babylon in this parish during the last year.

Yours etc. etc.

Samuel H Lewis, Perpetual Curate of Ballyjamesduff.

MUNIFICENCE OF HER MAJESTY. We learn that the Queen has been pleased to the forces employed at the capture of the outworks of Canton out of the sum received under the convention, a donation equal to one year’s amount of the Indian allowance known by the name of “Batta.” (Ed. During the British Raj, Batta or Bhatta was a military term, meaning a special allowance made to officers, soldiers, or other public servants in the field.) The shares of Colonels will be £900 each; Lieutenant Colonels £720; of Majors £540; of Captains £216; of Lieutenants £ 144, etc. the officers of the navy sharing according to their relative rank with those of the army. Those who were not present at the operations against Canton, but who were engaged in other operations of the war, such as the taking of Chusan, are to receive six months Batta. (This was part of First Opium War, 1839–42), fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Empire over diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice for foreign nationals in China. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the demand for Chinese goods (particularly silk, porcelain, and tea) in the European market created a trade imbalance because the market for Western goods in China was virtually non-existent; China was largely self-sufficient and Europeans were not allowed access to China’s interior. European silver flowed into China when the Canton System, instituted in the mid-17th century, confined the sea trade to Canton and to the Chinese merchants of the Thirteen Factories. The British East India Company had a matching monopoly of British trade. The British East India Company began to auction opium grown on its plantations in India to independent foreign traders in exchange for silver. The opium was then transported to the Chinese coast and sold to local middlemen who retailed the drug inside China. This reverse flow of silver and the increasing numbers of opium addicts alarmed Chinese officials. In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor, rejecting proposals to legalise and tax opium, appointed viceroy Lin Zexu to solve the problem by abolishing the trade. Lin confiscated around 20,000 chests of opium (approximately 1210 tons or 2.66 million pounds) without offering compensation, blockaded trade, and confined foreign merchants to their quarters. The British government, although not officially denying China’s right to control imports of the drug, objected to this unexpected seizure and used its naval and gunnery power to inflict a quick and decisive defeat, a tactic later referred to as gunboat diplomacy.)

3-2-1842. ACCIDENT.—On Thursday last a young lad about eighteen, named Stinson, from Monea, was conveyed to the county Infirmary in an almost lifeless state, from an injury received on the head while sitting at his father’s fireside, by the falling of a brick from the top of the chimney. We hear the skull is much fractured.

ROBBERY. Friday night Mr. Dogherty, shoe maker, Darling-street, while attending the Methodist Tea meeting, had his house entered through a back window and £9 10s taken from his box. It was rather singular that his watch, which was going and likely to have been heard, was left though hanging almost immediately over the box.

FIRE. Same night one of those infamous cabins in one of our back streets (Abbey-street,) was burned to the ground, some say through the design of some wags.

The carpenter, named Irvine, mentioned in our last, who fell from an office at Rossfad, while in the act of finishing some roofing, died of the injuries received in the fall on Thursday last, in the county infirmary. Dr. Nixon made a post mortem examination on the head, which it appears was fractured in almost every bone. The poor man’s relations have gratefully expressed themselves towards Dr. Nixon for his unremitting attention, both day and night, during his sufferings.

POOR-LAW RETURNING OFFICER. Mr Paul Dane, Clerk of the Enniskillen Poor Law Union, has been appointed returning officer for the election of guardians which is to take place on the 26th of next month.

Ballyshannon Herald. Famine 1848-1850.

1848/49/50. Ballyshannon Herald.
 
January 28th: Report and accounts of the Ballyshannon Destitute Sick Society and the minutes of the Ballyshannon Poor Law Union are printed. On January 22nd there were 550 in the Workhouse plus 150 in the additional Workhouse. There were 50 in the fever shed and 181 had been admitted during the week and 760 discharged. The huge discharged figure included those sent to outdoor labour and those who died. The people on outdoor relief were paid five pence to eight pence each per day, depending upon size of family. The paper this week also carried an advertisement for a dispensary doctor for Pettigo with the offer of a salary of £60 p.a.
 
February 4th: noted the comments of Mr. Allingham, one of the P.L.U. Guardians, who said that it was frightful to see the overwhelming number of applications for relief. At the rate matters were going the Guardians, ratepayers and all would soon be paupers.
 
February 11th carried a report on the Ballyshannon Temporary Fever Hospital for the week ending the previous Saturday. In the hospital were nineteen patients, nine had come in during the week, three had been discharged cured and one had died. Since the previous August 11th when this fever hospital had been set up 157 had been admitted and eleven people had died. (The settling of up this hospital was the work of Dr. Shiel the local Dispensary Doctor and was the forerunner of the Shiel Hospital in Ballyshannon, now a Nursing Home).
 
April 7th:- John Smith was elected dispensary doctor in Pettigo from Monday 28th March. Hundreds had crowded into the town to congratulate him and a celebratory meeting had been held in Hazlett Hamilton’s Hotel, (until recently the Cosy Bar, Pettigo).
 
May 11th carried news of a Repeal Meeting in Ballyshannon in Brown’s Hotel at which very few turned up. A Mister H (the paper’s description) was the only man of property to turn up. No one could be persuaded to take the chair; so a Mr. Crumlish, a tinsmith, (i.e. a gipsy as he would have been known at the time), was carried in from the street to be chairman. The meeting passed over peacefully.
 
1848. May 26th reported that all crops were looking very good and praised the excellent new potatoes from Mr. J. Tredennick of Camlin near Ballyshannon. There is nothing of local note reported in the paper all through the summer and the earlier hopes have gone badly astray as recorded on September 15th. The potatoes are not as bad as the blackened state of the stalks in the field suggest. The rot has got much worse in the past ten days than in months before. Perhaps half can be saved. The Harvest Fair in Ballyshannon was badly disturbed. There were many beatings and there was very little money circulating. All other crops are doing well.
 
The rest of the year passes with no comment on local conditions, although these were certainly bad. The last item of interest in 1848 was fortuitously noted ten minutes before the Library closed for the evening and ended at least a ten year search for concrete data about a tragedy which occurred near Lettercran about 5 miles from Pettigo, lying between Pettigo and Castlederg. It brightened the end of a long day. This is how the newspaper reported the matter on December 8th:
 
“On Friday last, James McGrath of Scraghy mountain had gone to Pettigo with his daughter of fifteen and boy of twelve. Their father had to stay in Pettigo for the night and the children went home on their own across the mountain. A storm came on and the children died of exposure. The boy had his shoes and socks off, possibly to walk more quickly. The children were found the next day with the girl’s heavy flannel petticoat wrapped around the boy’s feet and the girl lying with her arm around the boy’s head. It seemed that the boy was overpowered first and the girl was trying to preserve him at the risk of her own life.”
 
This tragic story survives in the folklore of the Pettigo area, but not quite in the form which the newspaper has the story. Basically the local version goes that the girl, Peggy McGrath was 17 years old and had a boyfriend that the father strongly disapproved of and had forbidden her absolutely to see him or go near his house. One lady’s account published in the Irish Independent May 22nd 1968, has it that the young pair had run away and been brought back. The local story has it that the father and children were in “Gearg Fair,” i.e., Castlederg Fair and that the children in coming home would have had to pass the house of the boyfriend or go across the mountain home and unfortunately took the mountain route. A blizzard arose and they perished and the same local details remain of the girl trying to save her little brother. The above account was (from a Mrs. Rose Haughey, Meenclougher who lived be to be 106 and died April 12th, 1936) printed in the Irish Independent has it that they perished not far from the house of an old, feeble woman who heard their cries as they grew fainter through the night, but who could not help because of her infirmity. Anyhow the unfortunate children are buried in Lettercran Chapel graveyard in a unmarked grave. But the local people can still point out a little grassy hollow in the townland of Carrigaholten, Co. Tyrone, on a heathery hillside where the children died. The strength of detail of this story is remarkable and it has had powerful reinforcement in that a school textbook carried the story under the title “The Tragedy of Termon Mount” — the Termon River flows nearby. Older people remember this story in their school textbooks.
 
1849. Ballyshannon Herald.
 
The scarcity of local news in the Ballyshannon Herald continues into 1849. The death of Colonel Conolly is reported at length in the issue of January 12th and his passing is much regretted. (Indeed he seems to have been a man who did as much as he could to alleviate famine conditions in his area).
 
February 16th tells of a boy caught in the machinery of a Belleek mill and killed instantly and February 22nd has the story of Owen Scullen arrested for stealing two pigs from his employer, Colonel Barton, and trying to sell them in Donegal Fair. March 9th has a brief report that seven were drowned in a fishing boat accident at Mullaghmore, Co. Sligo.
 
April 6th carries the story of the shooting of a boy of sixteen, James Tunney, who was shortly to go to America. With his brother he had gone to céili at the house of William Lynch at Shawnagh, near Laghey. He had stayed on when his brother went home and the paper said that he might have been murdered for his American money. Two Barclays were arrested and the possibility of a Ribbon conspiracy was also mentioned. The next issue of the journal corrected some of its earlier reporting and said that it was the wrong person who was shot. It was the other brother who was going to America and he had been the intended victim of the shooting. The shooting was the result of a row which the Tunneys had won. The boy’s father had awakened in the middle of the night with a vision of his son being killed by the Barclays and a man called McGlinchey standing by. These were later tried and found not guilty as reported in the July 27th issue.
 
Agrarian discontent is reported from the Pettigo area on May 11th. On May 3rd fifteen men carrying pistols and staves arrived at the house of Patrick McCaffrey at Crocknacunny near Pettigo at 10p.m. They fired three shots, one of which wounded McCaffrey and then beat him and his wife up for taking this farm “over another man’s head”. Molly Maguire, he was told, would not allow this crime to go unpunished and if he did not give up the farm they would be back. The intruders said that they had marched from Innishowen and they fired shots over the house before leaving. Patrick and Peter Conaghan and Owen Gallagher, a former tenant of the farm, were tried for this affray and Gallagher was transported for life.
 
May 25th:- Seven people were drowned at Rossnowlagh on Monday last, 21st. These were the four sons of James Tumoney of Drumlongfield and a farm servant, O’Donnell, and two girls, Madden and McGarrigle. They had gone to collect seaweed and dulse and the girls had been met along the way and had gone along for the fun. The boat had been too heavily laden and it sank only fifty yards out, due to inexperience.
 
1849. June 1st and the grim reality of the Famine bursts into the paper again, seemingly despite all the best efforts to keep it out: “The poor in this locality are in the most wretched state of starvation we ever remember them. They have no employment and therefore no
means of procuring food which is plentiful and cheap — but what is that to them when they cannot procure a penny? In the year of the blight they had public relief extended to them. Now there is no such thing. They are more like skeletons than living beings. A man last week carried a creel of turf from the Loughside, seven miles (near Garrison to Ballyshannon) for one penny and said that he had not eaten for forty-eight hours. There are innumerable petty thefts especially fowl of all descriptions and even beehives. There are signs of blight”
 
Apart from this unaccustomed outburst of local news there are only four worthwhile notes for the rest of the year. August 10th notes a huge fire in Ballyshannon which began in a barn loft of J. Bonner, a tanner. It began on Sunday last at two o’clock in the afternoon and despite the best exertions nine dwelling houses were burned down. August 31st carries a note of a local visit paid by a famous son of Ballyshannon, Sir Robert Campbell, a director of the East India Company. Sadly we only can use our imagination as the paper records Folliott Barton reducing his rents 25% (Nov. 16th) and Mr. Conolly reducing his rents 25% also (Dec. 14th). as these are the only visible signs of the condition of the locality.
1850. Ballyshannon Herald.
 
The meagre diet of local news carried on yet again in 1850. February 15th reports a violent storm recently which destroyed many beautiful trees at Magheramena and Castle Caldwell. There is scarce any spring work done.
 
March 29th:- Ballyshannon Quay and the whole shoreline is bustling with people buying and harvesting seaweed. Thousand of people here and in surrounding areas use seaweed as a fertilizer. October 11th gives the Poor House Returns for Ballyshannon. Last week there were 272 inmates; four were admitted last week, six discharged, and one died. Total: 297 and of this three were in the fever hospital and 26 in the Workhouse hospital.
 
October 25th gives an account of a partial re-run of the Tunney v. Barclay conflict. Denis Tunney was again going to America and he was in Donegal Town buying sea-stores. He got into a fracas in a pub with about thirty or forty of the Barclay connection. (Tunney seemed to start the row). Patrick Barclay wanted revenge on one of “Tunney’s Pets”. Barclay got four months in jail.
 
Thus ends the combing of the Ballyshannon Herald for the “Famine Years” 1845—1850 — maddeningly obscure or ignorant in many things but throwing very interesting sidelights on the manners, customs and general society of these troubled years. Not a journal to record the affairs of the poor or needy of the time — but then they could not afford the price of the paper.
 
Revised John B. Cunningham 7-5-2007.

The Famine 1847. Ballyshannon Herald.

1847. The issue of January 1st records a classic tale that ought to be filmed for it has all the ingredients of high drama or perhaps more accurately melodrama. On Christmas Eve a schooner lay just inside the Bar at Ballyshannon. The Bar is a high sandy ridge four miles down river from Ballyshannon that constantly threatens to block the exit of the Erne to the sea and the schooner was sheltering here waiting on a favourable wind. The ship was bound for Liverpool later with bacon and lard and had been charted by Mr. Edward Chism of Ballyshannon (Food was constantly being exported from Ireland during the famine). After a time a boat owned by Mr. Wade pulled alongside the vessel and men who claimed that they were from the saltworks at Ballyshannon asked to come aboard to light their pipes. (The real salt workers would have had to row outside the bar (sandbar) of Ballyshannon estuary) to the open sea to get saltwater which was then evaporated at Portnason, Ballyshannon, to get the salt for preserving the fish and meat exports from the area). Several men came on board and then produced guns, overcame the captain and crew and took a large quantity of bacon and lard from the ship. This is the Irish famine equivalent of Bob Cratchet’s Christmas turkey, especially when (as it turned out later that) it was hogsheads of ham and bacon that were on board. Many a starving household must have had an unexpectedly happy Christmas as a result of this piece of local piracy. By Christmas day the police recovered some of the booty buried in the nearby sand dunes and the soldiers were out combing the area. Three were arrested. Scarce a night passes by without a robbery in town or the vicinity, the paper reports.

1847.January 8th. There is great distress in the area. One man died after just being admitted to the Ballyshannon Workhouse. People won’t come in for aid until the last moment. The dead from the famine are not being buried properly in the Abbey graveyard in Ballyshannon as the graveyard has not deep enough soil. A man on his way from Ballyshannon to Donegal heard the sound of lamentation from a house along the way. Going into the house he found a girl of about sixteen dying and her parents trying to keep her warm. He gave money for food, etc., in the tradition of the good Samaritan, but the girl died in a short time.

January 22nd reported that Colonel Conolly and his family were staying at Cliff for the winter in order to give aid to their tenantry and a terrible increase of poverty, sickness and death was recorded by the paper. Unfortunately and damningly for the paper the above words were all they reported. It says volumes for their social attitude and incomprehension of the situation that they could write: “The details are too horrid to be published.” From Fermanagh the paper reports the action of the Rev. Grey Porter, whose principal estate was at Lisbellaw and who had brought in 150 tons of Indian meal at Derry per the ship Peru. He had bought in the grain at £10-10s-6d per ton and was going to sell it to his tenants at cost price which he hoped would be less than £12 per ton. This compared with £24-10-0 for Indian meal or £30 for oaten meal at market prices. Robberies for money, cattle or arms are a nightly occurrence.

On February 19th the Ballyshannon Herald published a very long letter from John Hamilton of St. Ernan’s near Donegal Town. This man was estate agent for the Conolly Estate around Ballyshannon and possibly for the Leslie Estate of Pettigo and other estates as well. In his own way he seems a man sensitive to the situation and practical for the future, although badly lacking in short term solutions. He seeks to combat apathy and fatalism in the tenantry which is admirable, if the person has the energy to look some distance ahead, but useless if starvation is a matter of days away.

John Hamilton begins by asking everyone to work hard in order to hold on to their tenancies. “Stir yourself and be doing. Drain a rood of ground and dig it eighteen inches deep and you will be paid for it if it done right and get many years to repay this money” (not a generous bargain and in the same vein) “seed will be provided and can be paid for later. Sow corn and not potatoes in rows nine inches apart and the seed two inches apart. This requires two stone of seed and repays 200 stone if the !and is well dug or well ploughed and is dry”. Tenants will be allowed to burn as much as they like and he (John Hamilton) will say nothing for this season (burning the dried sods of the land gave a short term fertility but was ultimately ruinous and absolutely forbidden normally). Tenants were urged to burn as much as they liked on black land i.e., bog land and to cart it to other ground to grow turnips. Sow “pease” (sic) and barley and field and garden beans (and mangle wozzels. Come to him for help. Uncommon work is required and he will not help anyone who holds land but will not work it. He, Hamilton, works hard himself and expects others to do likewise.

In the same issue Colonel Conolly has imported 500 tons of rice and one ton has been sent to the Bundoran schools and two to the Ballyshannon Relief Committee. The columns were illuminated by a row between the Vicar of Drumholm Mr. M. G. Fenwick and a local land agent. Alexander Hamilton, on the question of who should be allowed to get a place on the Relief Works. Should a man who has paid his rent get on the Relief? — if he is able to pay his rent does he need relief work? (as long as you managed the rent you could do what you liked afterwards and if you hadn’t the rent you could work until you could pay the rent — either way the rent was sacrosanct and Catch 22 was born long before Joseph Heller).

From now until April the Famine cannot squeeze into the Ballyshannon Herald and on March 12th we are informed that Fermanagh is improving and that petty thefts and slaughter of cattle had completely ceased, according to the Erne Packet. The reporting of the Donegal Assizes on March 12th at Lifford hints at what the newspaper doesn’t report. Bartley Loughlin, a former bailiff to Mr. H. Coane of Waterloo Cottage, Higginstown, Ballyshannon was alleged to have sent a threatening letter to Mrs. H. Coane saying that their family would be blown up with gunpowder for their oppression of the tenantry. Laughlin had been bailiff for Coane for fifteen years and his handwriting was familiar to his former master. In his capacity as bailiff Laughlin had been ordered to serve notice to quit on thirty tenants and ordered to distrain those persons who had not paid — as far as the landlord was concerned it would not be hard to seize fodder in lieu of rent. For inability or unwillingness to carry this out Bartley Loughlin was sacked. Councillor Doherty defended the ex-­bailiff and demolished the case by asking if Laughlin’s handwriting was so well known to Coane then why would he be so stupid as to write the letter in his own hand? A not-guilty verdict was returned. In the next case a John Donald got seven years’ transportation for stealing sheep from Michael Ward, but a woman, Rebecca Brack, (Brock?) was found not guilty of exposing a child to die at Finner, near Ballyshannon.

1847.In an echo of the Christmas Eve piracy in the Erne Estuary, James Currie, was accused of receiving a ham knowing it to be stolen. The ship’s name is now given as The Confidence and its Master as Joseph Davidson. The ship had been boarded by two boat’s crews and nine bales of bacon and hogsheads of ham had been stolen. Sub-Constable Davis arrested Currie walking through Ballyshannon on Christmas day carrying a ham. Currie said that he had found it in a hole in the ground among the sand dunes. He was found guilty with a recommendation for mercy and got nine months hard labour.

At Fermanagh Assizes at this time Daniel Nealy was convicted of stealing valuable property, plate, etc., from J. C. Bloomfield at Castle Caldwell. He was sentenced to seven years’ transportation. For a similar crime in the same area, the breaking into the house of Launcelot Corcoran near Castle Caldwell on the previous December 27th the following were tried:- James Mulrean, Maurice Connor, Peter Gallagher, Francis Gallagher, Maurice Lannon, William Lannon, George W. O’Connor and Edward Muldoon. All were found guilty and sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation except the last four, who got seven years’ transportation.

The March 26th issue details a brutal occurrence in the Pettigo area which happened on March 23rd. George Allingham with one Patterson and “the notorious Melanefy, the bailiff” came to the house of John McCrea of Clonaweel. Their purpose seemed to be to execute on order upon the person of John McCrea who wasn’t present. Only his two sons were there and after some persuasion they managed to get the three intruders out of the house. They seemed rather inebriated and threatened the sons and finally Melanefy fired at young Edward McCrea “wounding him dreadfully” in the head. Melanefy has run off and the countryside is now in pursuit!

By 2nd April, 1847 things have got so bad in the area as to force its attention upon this blinkered newspaper. It reports that the poor house is crowded to excess and fever and dysentery are spreading alarmingly. “Deaths are frightfully numerous. A fever hospital is urgently needed and its building would give employment to the poor.”

  1. April 23rd:- Captain Fortescue has arrived to take charge of the Commissariat Department, i.e., to give out food for the starving. A vessel with breadstuffs for this town and Enniskillen is waiting for a fair wind to get into port. It is hoped that she will get in today as the people discharged from the workhouse are in great distress. There is plenty of food coming in from America, but it is still at famine prices. Captain Lang is to superintend the public charities. Arrangements are in hand to setup a public soup kitchen to the plan of Mr. Sayer (but the paper notes with unaccustomed concern). “We fear it will not answer the purpose.”

Between Garrison, Derrygonnelly and Holywell many hundreds of acres wilt be left without crops because of the utter poverty of the people. Farmers and graziers cattle are being stolen nightly.

April 30th: There is a great fever sweeping Fermanagh especially in the country districts and arising largely from those who have left (or been sent out) of the workhouse and had now gone home and infected their friends who had generously but fatally taken them in.

  1. May 7th: Reports the hanging of Samuel Crumrner at Lifford. He was hanged for the murder of his father. His wife had also been sentenced for the same crime, but the sentence was commuted to transportation for life. It was the first hanging in Donegal for fourteen or fifteen years and about a thousand people came to watch. On the scaffold Crummer said (the name was not printed) swore his life away for small money in these times. He was a big man of 6’-2” and he said goodbye to his wife and children from the scaffold, although they were not present, before he was launched into eternity.

The steamship Albert under Commander Geary arrived in Ballyshannon with breadstuffs. It also towed in two ships which had been waiting outside the Bar for a favourable wind. The Albert is 147ft long, 42 feet wide, can carry 600 tons and has a capacity of 200 horse power. Many people have been shown over this ship.

On May 14th it is reported that the deaths around Clones, Co. Monaghan, are “inconceivably great”. In Enniskillen the poor and starving rushed the Board of Guardians meeting and all had to be admitted. Colonel Conolly has given his tenants eight tons of rice this week free plus free turnip seed. John and William Tredennick (local landowners between Ballyshannon and Belleek) are reducing their rents by 40% to 50%.

1847.May 21st reports the melancholy death of Captain Drake of the 92nd Regiment and a young local man, Henry Lipsett of Ballyshannon, who were drowned when their sailing boat was upset in the estuary.

Hundreds of the poor are being provided for by the Johnstons of Magheramena Castle near Belleek and their rents are reduced also.

There is great fever in Fermanagh and the well known Dr. Collum has recently succumbed. “God knows who will be next sacrificed on the altar of pestilence and death”. This last item is reprinted taken from the pages of the Erne Packet.

  1. May 28th: reports great fever in the locality of Ballyshannon and all classes were affected. People are warned not to feed beggars at their own door, especially strange ones. Heaps of manure must be removed from thoroughfares, lanes and alleyways as otherwise the Committee of the Ballyshannon Board of Guardians will cause them to be removed and prosecute the offenders. This is signed by M. Davis J.P., chairman.

In the June 11th issue the fever has greatly moderated and not a single death has been reported last week. There is a huge plague of snails affecting crops and people are advised to gather them as they are very suitable for feeding pigs.

June 18th: issue contains a very indignant letter protesting about a pauper with fever lying on Ballyshannon Bridge since Sunday last. The Board of Health should have put him in a lodging house and had a doctor visit him. Only one death has been reported in the past three weeks and that was of Matthew Donohue, an inoffensive, industrious man who kept a public house in Main St., Ballyshannon. There are very good prospects for the harvest. Enniskillen jail is said to be the most crowded in the kingdom.

At the Donegal Petty sessions reported on June 25th a little boy pleaded guilty to stealing a few ship’s biscuits from Messrs Bradshaw of Donegal Town. He was given six months’ jail. He cried as he was led away. Mary Ward got two months jail for stealing two hens.

Sept. 17th: reports that no rot can be seen in the potatoes and that a great fever rages about Enniskillen. The news from Fermanagh continues in the Oct 1st newspaper as it reports on the dissolution of Lowtherstown (Irvinestown) Poor Law Union. The immediate cause was the raising of the salary of the R.C. Chaplain to the Workhouse. In the row that followed the Protestant Chaplain’s salary was raised. Further rows caused the dismissal of the master of the workhouse and finally the Board of Guardians themselves were dismissed! This is the newspaper version of the dissolution of Lowtherstown P.L.U., but in fact there were much more grievous reasons why this

Union was taken over by a Government appointed Commissioner. The Guardians failed to levy anywhere near sufficient funds to support the poor and starving of the locality, thus causing the effects of the Famine to be even worse than need have been and the Workhouse which they were in charge of was very badly run. An inspector who visited Lowtherstown Workhouse wrote that he found people half naked dying in their own vomit and excrement, lying on the floor. He said that Lowtherstown was the worst workhouse that he ever visited. (See Parliamentary Papers: Irish Famine).

October 15th: reported the dissolution of Ballyshannon P.L.U. Commissioners and the appointment of a new government inspector. November 19th sees a letter saying that the people of the country are living on turnips and nothing else. The Gentlemen of the country must unite to stave off famine as they did last year.

The final note of 1847 reports the death of Mr. William Hassard of Garden Hill near Belcoo in Fermanagh. He was shot in the leg and died later. Suspicion pointed to one Creagh, (probably a Mc Grath from the Irish rendering of the name Mc Creigh) but there was insufficient evidence. Creagh’s father had been jailed by Hassard for non-payment of arrears of rent and had died in jail. (This is the type of indirect evidence of the Famine and its effects which makes one wish that this paper had made any decent attempt to write about the momentous events it was living through).

The Famine 1846. Ballyshannon Herald.

1846 January 2nd 1846:— Mr. W.H. Brown was in Ballyshannon on Wednesday last, having made all arrangements for a bill in Parliament to improve Ballyshannon Harbour and provide a rail link to Belleek. This was announced at a big dinner given in Mr. Brown’s honour by the local merchants and traders. In an affray with Molly Maguires at Ballinacarrig, Co. Leitrim, two are reported dead.

January 9th:— Two brothers, Fitzpatrick, in Enniskillen Jail on suspicion of shooting Mr. Barton J.P. One of them, James Fitzpatrick, was now dead of fever in jail and the other still protesting their innocence. They had always been thought to be loyal Protestants, according to the paper, and they were claiming that they just happened to be on the road at the time of the shooting.

January 16th:— The rival railway companies were in contention and Mr. Brown, the promoter of the Ballyshannon and Lough Erne Railway and Steamboat Company, was being disowned by the Marquis of Ely and Dr. John Shiel of Ballyshannon, who declared that they only supported the Dublin and Enniskillen Railway Co. From Belleek came the melancholy story of a man called McLaughlin, a long time servant of Mr. Christy Johnston of Belleek. (This paper has a fine disregard for Christian names and invariably they miss those of the “lower orders”.) McLaughlin had been discharged by Johnston for dishonesty, said the paper, and been re-employed and sent to the local mill in Belleek with oats to be ground. He was ordered to stay overnight for the security of the oats. During the night Johnston caught McLaughlin carrying away a sack of grain and arrested him and the police conveyed him to Enniskillen. When the prisoner arrived in Enniskillen he excused himself (presumably to go to the toilet) and his handcuffs were removed and the poor man promptly jumped into the lake and was drowned. This item was followed up the next week with a letter signed by Porteus Johnston and his brothers, Christopher and James. (I believe these to be the Johnstons who owned the Hotel Carlton in Belleek — which was already in existence.) They wrote of the suicide of Terence McLaughlin, their servant, and objected to the previous newspaper report (raising interesting speculations as well). Their letter says that Terence McLaughlin had been their servant for eight years and was always honest and they don’t believe that he could have been stealing a 28 stone bag of oats when he was only eight stone in weight himself. They say that they had taken him back after he had been accused of stealing oats and he was working as usual when he was arrested on a warrant issued against him without summons or hearing. McLaughlin had resided less than two miles from Belleek and Christy Johnston had warned the Keenans not to proceed against McLaughlin in law. Thus the letter enigmatically ended. In relation to the Barton shooting two men called Burnside and a man, Irvine, and his wife were in jail in connection with the crime.

The January 30th issue refers to the expected arrival soon of the first ever steamship in Ballyshannon and that there will be public demonstrations to mark this event and the issue of 27th February 1846 commemorates this. The steamer Unity recently visited Ballyshannon, it said, with a cargo of barley for the local distillery and on its second visit brought pigs to Messrs O’Brien of the town, saving an entire week driving the pigs and the consequent injury to the animals. It is hoped to have steamers from Liverpool shortly.

  1. It is March 6th before the famine is mentioned and only to say that people were flocking to a certain priest in Co. Cavan to fill bottles of water at a holy well in order to sprinkle their potatoes to stop rot.

On April 3rd recipes appear in the paper for using with Indian corn (maize imported as a substitute for the potato and detested by the Irish). April 17th announces the first emigrant ship of the season leaving Sligo. It is the ship Drumahair, owned by Mr. Kernaghan (Enniskillen) and from its name obviously a local vessel.

Horse racing was recently held at Magheramena, the home of the Johnston family near Belleek. (Magheramena Castle was not yet built). A large crowd attended and “spolleen, poiteen, jug of the joke and lemonade were much in demand.” There was a dinner afterwards for invited guests. A horserace was also reported on Tullan (or Finner) Strand near Bundoran.

It is now getting round the summer bathing scene at Bundoran and the latest arrivals at Gallagher’s Hotel, Bundoran, on last Saturday (before 22nd May) were the Dowager Marchioness of Ely, Lord Henry Loftus, Lady Anne and Lady Catherine Loftus and the Rev. Loftus Reed and Miss Reed.

On May 28th a big disturbance is reported in Enniskillen because of a “forestaller” who was buying loads of potatoes to take them to Co. Monaghan. (A forestaller was a type of profiteer who bought up potatoes). The people objected to the potatoes being sold out of the area and potato sacks were slashed. This account was being carried from an article in the Erne Packet (Enniskillen paper), and that newspaper was in sympathy with the “anti-forestallers.”

19th of June reports the death of Charles French, second mate of the American Brig Camilla which was anchored in Ballyshannon Harbour at “the Pool”. He jumped out of the ship for a swim and was drowned and later interred in Ballyshannon. July 3rd saw a report of a near drowning when one Henry Connolly drove his horse and cart into the sea at Bundoran to refresh the horse and quench his thirst. A wave swept all away, except that with a struggle Connolly saved himself. His horse and cart are described as his only possessions.

July 24th reports the trial of those accused of the attempted murder of Folliott W. Barton, the Pettigo J.P. Accused of the shooting was Robert Burnside and accused of harbouring him were James and Margaret Irvine. Barton had been coming on horseback from his relations’ house, Barton’s of the Waterfront, also near Pettigo, through the village to his own home at Clonelly on the Kesh side of Pettigo. After coming through Pettigo Barton had been shot at Crummer’s Gate at Aghalaan. He was wounded in the right breast but rode on to the house of John Chute, a mile and a half from his residence. A James Armstrong gave evidence of seeing Burnside with a gun and following him to Irvine’s house and listening at a window while Burnside told of the shooting. Despite this impressive-sounding evidence the jury retired and brought in a not guilty verdict after one and a half hours.

As we shall see later there is obviously much misery and hunger abroad in the land but escaping the notice of the class for which the Ballyshannon Herald is produced. August 14th chronicles the arrival of Colonel Conolly, M.P. and his suite at Cliff House near Belleek and that Lord and Lady Longford are soon due to arrive. (Conolly was the principal landowner in the Belleek/Ballyshannon/Bundoran area). This social chit-chat continues with the readers of August 21st being told that Coburn’s Hotel, Ballyshannon, was doing very well this season and that Bundoran and Donegal Town were packed with visitors. But there were many outrages reported and many people were being beaten up and robbed especially on the road between Ballyshannon and Donegal.

The 92nd Highlanders were moving out from Ballyshannon and Belleek and causing much regret since the area would be deprived of the amateur theater which they had set up. They were replaced by detachments of the 26th Cameronians. An incident in Ballymagroarty near Ballyshannon is reported, in which a man, Johnston Corduct, had vitriol thrown in his face by a woman called Gallagher who had since fled the country. He had seduced her, but would not marry her, even though she had given him thirty shillings. He had spent this on other girls.

August 28th hears the first complaints of “a very scarce season” and many disturbances in the locality. Employees of Messrs Bradshaw and Co. of Donegal were beaten up near Pettigo after delivering coal to Barton’s of the Waterfoot Estate. Their assailants rushed out of the bog with blackened faces.

James Credan, a local merchant, advertises the landing of timber, etc. at Ballyshannon from the Charlotte of Warmouth, Nova Scotia, and from the Margaret. A few passengers can be accommodated on the Charlotte to St. John’s, when it sails on September 10th. September 4th catalogues more outrages and men beaten up on the Pettigo-Laghey road. One man, Jenkins, only saved his life by leaving his horse and cart and running away.

It has taken a long, long time for the reality of the poor and starving to force its way into the columns of this local paper, but by late 1846, even a paper with as much sensory handicap as this one has to acknowledge the existence of the famine. September 11th reports for two and a half columns on a meeting in Donegal courthouse on the subject of the relief of the poor. Loans and grants are craved from the Government to employ the poor of the Baronies of Tyrhugh and Bannagh and Boylagh. All these baronies report great distress of the poor. The paper carries an advertisement for the Ballyshannon Destitute Sick Society which is going to make its own local contribution to help alleviate the situation. By September 25th the paper, which has carried little or no reports of a situation which has obviously been building up for a long time, suddenly discovers “the poor in this town and vicinity are in a wretched state of destitution.” “Potatoes are too dear at 6d or 3d per stone and not a plateful sound”. Indian meal is now one shilling five pence a peck. “How are they to live?” “People are not able to raise enough money from working as the price of food is so high.” A family (obviously not an ordinary family) bought a ton of Indian meal in Sligo last week for £12 and could now make £5 profit on it if they wished. A poor, honest tradesman with 12 children is applying for aid. No one in his house has eaten for forty eight hours. “Something must be done.”

Sir Thomas Hort is reducing his rents in Magheraboy (West Fermanagh) after a personal visit to the area. This issue ends with a report of a pathetic procession of the poor through the streets of Ballyshannon — following a man carrying a loaf speared on a pole.

October 2nd carries the news of a presentment of £20,000 for the Barony of Tyrhugh to be spent on roads to give work for the poor. On the road from Ballyshannon to Bundoran £1,000 is to be spent, £800 on the road from Belleek to Ballyshannon, £500 to be spent on the streets of Ballyshannon and on leveling the Fair Green, £100 to be spent on the new road from Pettigo to Ballintra and £100 on the old road between the same places and there is an extensive list of further schemes in the paper.

  1. October 30th carries the story of the breaking into the Abbey Mill and two tons of meal being stolen from the owners, Donaldson and Connolly, two hard working, struggling men. The stolen meal was conveyed by boats across the Erne estuary and no one has been caught. Ballyshannon Committee for the relief of the poor of the town and vicinity have raised a large sum to purchase wheaten meal and will soon be able to sell it at a reduced price. Sir James Stewart, Bart., is now visiting with the Col. Connolly at Cliff and the Colonel is to reduce his rents on his Donegal Estate by 25%.
  1. November 13th publishes a further list of subscribers to the Ballyshannon Poor Relief Committee and the list is headed by Colonel Connolly with £600 (a very substantial sum in 1846). The Committee’s meal store in College Lane is now open from November 13th and each subscriber of money to the fund will be able to give tickets to the needy for reduced price meal in proportion to the sum they subscribed. Every subscriber of £1 will be able to give three tickets for a half stone of whole meal each twice a week. Each lender of £18 to the fund will be able to give three tickets as above and so on in proportion for each £6 lent.

November 27th gives news of the arrival of the ship Colonist at Richebucto, New Brunswick, on November 17th. Under its Captain Charles Dorning the Colonist had sailed from Ballyshannon and endured terrible storms, but all the ship’s passengers from Ballyshannon and Killybegs were landed in good health. An attack was reported on a local man called Stephenson, a farmer who had formerly belonged to the Donegal Regiment. His gun and his money were demanded, but with his servant, McCann, (all these unchristened people) they drove off their attackers and one man was stabbed by McCann with a pitchfork. This man has since died and been privately buried. Colonel Conolly’s rents are now reduced by 50% for those paying less than £5 p.a., reduced by 40% for those paying under £10 p.a., 25% for those whose rent is less than £15 and reduced by 20% for those paying over £15.

December 18th reports that Edward Allingham has had five bullocks killed and carried away during the night. (This seems a common crime to surround, kill and dismember an animal and carry it away). A pig had been stolen from a poor man in Belleek (a more serious crime, since the pig usually paid the rent for the Irish poor). Some meal had been stolen from the store of the local Poor Relief Committee and the town was full of “strange mendicants” (Beggars). It is impossible to feed them all”. A bleak outlook as we leave 1846 but as the next delightful tale has it for some people, the year had a brighter ending.