Tag Archives: Rossnowlagh

1952 to December

5-7-52. Dedication of the new Church and Friary at Rossnowlagh. Leaders of Church and state at the historic ceremony including Mr. De Valera.

19-7-52. Don’t miss Mullaghmore Races next Wednesday at 3 pm. £200 in Stakes. Special buses from Bundoran on the day at intervals of 15 minutes.

19-7-52. Great progress is being made with the building of the new County Council cottages at Frevagh, Cashel.

19-7-52. Mr John Mc Gowan, Cashel House, Devenish has been unwell for some weeks but is recovering. He is one of the most popular businessmen in South Fermanagh.

26-7-52 An award of £3,600 was made to Mrs Agnes Wilson Cameron and her husband Neil Cameron a Customs Officer at Belleek. On March 18th, 1849 Mrs Cameron was permanently disabled by a rock which crashed through the roof of her house. This was the result of an explosion on the river Erne as part of the drainage works. The defendants were Mc Laughlin and Harvey Ltd. of York Road, Belfast.

26-7-52  Eamon De Valera visits Fermanagh. A crowd of about 20,000 gathered to meet him in Newtownbutler.

26-7-52  Fermanagh to play Cavan in the Minor Championship Semi-final next Sunday. Among those playing are C. Maguire, Ederney, S. Mc Manus, Belleek with M. Regan, Belleek substitute.

26-7-52  Miss Alice Mc Teggart of Derryhooly, Derrylin was given a six months suspended sentence for the infanticide of her infant son.

2-8-52. Aer Lingus have made a record profit in the past year of £92,180 up from £14,686 the previous year.

2-8-52.  At Ederney Sports on Sunday 20th Pettigo were defeated by Irvinestown by 4 pts to 3 pts.

2-8-52.  Fermanagh overwhelmed by Cavan in the Ulster Minor semi-final by 5-10 to 1-2. Only Claude Maguire and T. Deveney (Irvinestown) played at all well.

2-8-52.  Mr and Mrs Patrick Keown, Killybig, Garrison celebrated their Golden Jubilee of their wedding on July 18th. They received many congratulations. Mr Keown, a well-known traditional singer made a successful recording in McGovern’s Hotel, Garrison two days later of two old favourites, “The Brown Girl” and “I’ll wear the britches now.” His son, Mr. Francis Keown, the well-known entertainer made a recording of whistling and lilting. Mr. Keown had made a great recovery from near death a short time ago.

2-8-52. The death is reported of Mr. John Albert (Bertie) Siberry of Lakeland, Belcoo formerly of Manorhamilton who was born in Garrison. He was a well-known cattle dealer and much beloved in the countryside. A huge crowd attended his funeral to Manorhamilton so much so that the journey of 13 miles from Belcoo took five hours and many wept openly at the roadside and in the graveyard.

2-8-52. The death of Mr. Michael Feehily, Glen West, Garrison, removes a link with the early days of Sinn Fein. After meeting Sean Mc Dermott who was organising Sinn Fein in North Leitrim he became a well-known public speaker. He crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic five times organising for the movement.

2-8-52.  To mark the anniversary of the Christian Brothers in Australia all members of the Federal Parliament who had been educated by the Brothers planted a tree in the grounds of the new War Memorial College in Canberra. They have 80 houses and 110 colleges in Australia and about 1200 members.

9-8-52 At Scraghy annual sports Pettigo were the winners of a football match.

9-8-52 Belnaleck defeat Garrison in the first round of the Junior Championship by 1-9 to 1-3.

9-8-52 Fermanagh listeners will be listening keenly to the programme, “One Minute Please.” Ace speaker on the programme will be Mr. Jack Sherry of Arney, County Fermanagh timed at 286 words to the minute. He will be accompanied on the Mens’ Team on the programme by those stars of Radio and Television, Kenneth Horne and Philip Harben.

9-8-52  Eddie Gonnigle has been transferred back to Belleek after a spell in the colours of Carrickmore, Co., Tyrone.

9-8-52  Late Dr. P. J. Timoney. It was incorrectly stated in our report last week of the regretted demise of Dr. P. J. Timoney, Dublin (formerly of Enniskillen) that he was a native of Sligo; he was in fact a native of Garrison, Fermanagh. Dr. Timoney was a brother of the late Fr. Timoney, P.P. His widow Mrs Timoney resides in Dublin with her daughter Mary who is employed in the clerical department of Guinness’ Brewery. Another daughter Yvonne, is a medical doctor practicing in Belfast. She was for some time practicing in Omagh.

16-8-52 Annual Parochial Sports in St. Joseph’s Park, Cashel commencing at 2.00. 7-a-side football tournament for a set of medals (open) Teams: – Belcoo, Blacklion, Ballaghmeehan, Belleek, Devenish, Cashel, Glenfarne. Microphone relay on the field.

16-8-52 From midday Friday to midnight Saturday thousands made their way to Drumshambo, County Leitrim to avail of the Franciscan Indulgence of Portiuncola at the local Convent of Perpetual Adoration. Two barefoot nuns kept vigil before the Blessed Sacrament and changed with others every hour to the accompaniment of bells ringing out over the town.

16-8-52  Irvinestown Carnival Week. Reduction in Dancing Prices. Owing to a decrease in our estimated expenses we have pleasure in announcing the following reductions – All 7/6 dances reduced to 5/- and all 5/- dances to 4/-.

16-8-52 Irvinestown defeat Belleek in the semi-final of the Senior Championship 3-2 to 2-3 in one of the best games seen in Fermanagh in years. The deciding factor was the speed of the Irvinestown half backs.

16-8-52  Pettigo Sports (Under the auspices of the GAA, St. Mary’s Club, Pettigo) on Sunday 24th, August, Mc Hugh Park, Pettigo. Junior Championship Football match Pettigo V Donegl. And the Donkey Derby for 1952 plus from 5.00 to 7.00 a 7-a-side football tournament. N.B. Teas served at Field. Prizes exhibited one week before Sports in window of Mrs John Flood, Corner House, Pettigo. Admission to Park adults 2/-, children 1/-.

16-8-52 Plans have been approved to extent the Sewage System at Belleek at a cost of £900.

16-8-52 The death is reported of Mrs. Margaret Maguire, Lattoon, Tullyrossmearn, County Fermanagh, wife of Mr. Fred Maguire. She had spent a number of years of her early life in America.

23-8-52 A motor car, the property of Mr. Joe Maguire, Drumnasrene, Devenish, went on fire and was completely destroyed.

23-8-52  Cavanacross, 2-2, Devenish 0-1 in the Junior Football League with the home side waiting for an hour before Devenish arrived to take the field. Highlight of the game was a spectacular display in goals for Cavanacross by veteran, John McKervey, who received a great ovation on his return after 20 years retirement.

23-8-52 The wedding took place in Devenish of Mr. James Mulrone, Clyhore, Ballyshannon and Mary Kathleen Kerrigan, The Cottage, Devenish. The reception at which over 40 guests were entertained was held in the Melvin Hotel, Devenish.

30-8-52  Cashelnadrea Parochial Sports were held in beautiful weather, Devenish A defeated Belleek in the 7-a-side while Devenish B defeated Cashel. Devenish A won the final and were presented with their medals at the ceilidhe afterwards.

30-8-52   Irvinestown are the new County Champions by a score of 0-6 to 0-3. “I have seldom witnessed such close marking and such ruthless tackling as characterised this game straight through.” “It was a punishing hour’s football, a game of hard knocks, knocks that were given without bitterness and taken without flinching.” “For the winners I thought Billy Charlton, Liam Mc Kinney and Malachy Mahon were the men of the match.

30-8-52  Uncle from New York meets nephew from Australia. Thomas Mills, born 1861, and Edward Mills, born 1875, were the 2nd and 10th respectively, of the 11 children of Edward Mills of Aghnablaney, Letter, County Fermanagh. When Edward was 9 years old his brother Thomas, then in his mid-20s, emigrated to Australia in 1884 and never returned. He was killed in an accident there in 1909. He had, married Margaret Flanagan of Downpatrick. Edward, the 10th child, himself emigrated to New York in 1900. Edward remarked that when he had first went to America it took him 13 days and he had come over on this occasion in 13 hours. His wife, Mary Johnston of Kinlough, County Leitrim, died 3 years ago. He had come over for the wedding of his neice, Eva Mills, a London nurse, to Harry Elliott, a merchant navyman. As Harry’s time of leave was uncertain he had extended his holiday, otherwise he would have missed his Australian nephew. In August of 1952, Francis James Mills, aged 54, son of Thomas came to Ireland and there by accident met up with his uncle Edward, from America, aged 77, on his second visit to Ireland in 52 years, at the old homestead in Aughnablaney. Francis James (Frank,) is now co-owner in Australia with his brothers Hubert, Edward and Thomas of one of the largest furniture removal businesses in Sydney, Australia, founded by his father in 1899. The firm uses 40 vans and has 90 workers and covers everything except Western Australia. He came to Europe to a Furniture Remover’s Conference in Belgium and decided to be the first of his generation to visit the homeland of his parents and there met his sprightly uncle Edward who was out in the fields helping with the harvest. There was a joyful reunion between the Australian, American and Irish branches of the Mills family.

13-9-52 A juvenile was summonsed at Belleek Court for assaulting Michael John Cullen on 27th July at a football match at Cashel. Evidence was given of the defendant striking with an iron bar and causing a three inch cut in Cullen’s head. The juvenile was bound over for one year on his father’s bail of £10. A fine of £3 and costs was imposed on Thomas Maguire, Corramore, Garrison for stealing a piece of bog oak 8 ft long, value 15 shillings, the property of John Keaney, which Keaney had stored in a drain covered by sods. Sergeant Mc Quillan had found the item at Maguire’s house and the defendant said that he thought it was of no value. Keaney said he wanted it for a post.

13-9-52 Mr. T. Campbell, Belleek presided over a meeting of Fermanagh County Board last week. The Irvinestown, St. Molaise team asked for a postponement of the Senior Football Championship match against Roslea as Malachy Mahon, the Irvinestown captain, would not be available on that day. After discussion, and with Rosslea’s consent, the request was granted.

20-9-52  Irvinestown has scored another FIRST with the Carnival Week which was brought to a close on Sunday last. At least 10,000 patrons enjoyed the 8 day festival. This was the first ever Carnival held in Fermanagh and crowns a number of Irvinestown firsts of which a drama festival, inter-county football competition and the provision of a County Gaelic Park were others. The idea of a carnival was mooted a mere five weeks before it was actually held.

27-9-52 At Kesh Court, Martin Maughan, of no fixed abode was fined £5 and ordered to pay £16-17-6 damages for breaking a plate glass window and six glasses in the public-house of Edmund Armstrong, Kesh. For driving a lorry without ue care Francis Murphy was fined 10/- for reversing a lorry out of a gate and colliding with a passing car. He had been driving 12 years without any accident.

27-9-52  Rail services between Belleek and Bundoran on the Great Northern Line are suspended from Monday 22nd September until November 2nd while the bridge over the River Erne, west of Belleek, is repaired. Connecting omnibus and lorry services will operate in the interim.

11-10-52 Enniskillen Catholics to be faced with over £50,000 outlay in schools.

11-10-52 Major Lloyd George, British Food Minister, announced at Newcastle-0n-Tyne on Thursday last that tea is to be derationed and the price control of tea scrapped.

18-10-52 Cavan defeat Meath in the All Ireland Football Final by 0-9 to 0-5 on Sunday last. This is their fifth title.

18-10-52 The beautiful new National School being erected in Pettigo is nearing completion.

18-10-52 The provision of a pump convenient to Cashelnadrea village has supplied a long felt want in the district where clean water is hard to procure. The gratitude of the people of the district and particularly the schoolchildren is extended to Councillor Pat Casey, Devenish, who worked so hard to secure the concession. The work was efficiently carried out by Mr. Patrick Carty, Devenish.

18-10-52 Work on four cottages at Scribbagh, Cashelnadrea, is nearing completion.

25-10-52 At Lisnaskea on Sunday Irvinestown repeated their League final victory over Roslea and so annexed the Senior Championship as well by a score of 2-2 to 1-1. The game was played in Lisnaskea on a greasy muddy pitch in wintry conditions. A crowd of about 500 to 600 attended.

25-10-52 Fermanagh’s first Juvenile title has been won on merit by the Newtownbutler Club, a solid, compact, and lively team that did well to wear down a gallant Enniskillen, St. Michael’s defence which was sadly overworked. This was a splendid game played in the best sporting spirit – a pleasure to watch. Fermanagh’s minor team can recruit plenty of material for the next few seasons from the boys on view on Sunday.

25-10-52 James Eric Carson, Knocknashangan, Garrison was fined £1 with £2-10-0 costs for having drawn his wife’s rations during the time she was in an institution in Armagh. He was also fined 10 shillings for allowing his horse to wander on the road.

25-10-52 Lisnaskea branch of the British Legion unanimously passed a resolution to be put before the Area Council that the award of £15 to men who were prisoners of war under the Japanese, “is a complete and disgraceful insult.”

25-10-52  The finishing touches are being made to St. Joseph’s Hall, Cashelnadrea, which was commenced three years ago. It will be a fitting tribute to Very Rev. E. Canon Coyle, who gave a very large personal contribution to the fund.

25-10-52  The wedding has taken place of William Slevin, Ballinacarrick and Miss Katherine Campbell, of Cashelnadrea, Devenish, in St. Patrick’s Church, Ballyshannon.

1-11-52 Mr John Dolan, Carran West has beaten local records by growing a turnip weighing 10 pounds on his farm.

1-11-52 Seven head of cattle valued at over £210 were recently seized in the Rossinvermore district between Derrygonnelly and Cashel. Customs Officials have taken note of all farm stock along the Leitrim/ Fermanagh border in an all out drive against smuggling.

1-11-52 The wedding has taken place recently of Michael Collins, ESB official, Ballyshannon and Miss Susan Frances Grogan, SRN, WV, only daughter of Mr. Timothy Grogan, Knockaraven, Devenish and Mrs Grogan, Principal of Glen East School.

8-11-52 We are very glad and relieved to learn that TV is coming to the Six Counties within a few months.

15-11-52  Ballyshannon ratepayers of the East and West Ports oppose the construction of the new by-pass which is to cost £69,000.

15-11-52  Mid-Ulster M.P. Mr M. O’Neill, addresses the gathering at an Ederney Ceilidhe in St. Joseph’s Hall. Mr. B. Cunningham, N.T. was fear a toighe and a highlight of the programme was the dancing of Amadio and Giovanni Coyle, Main St. Castlederg, the former being Ulster and Tyrone step-dancing champion.

22-11-52 The committee of Ulster Folklife and Traditions wrote to Fermanagh County Council reforming a committee in Fermanagh to collect folklore and traditions of folklife in the county. Northern Ireland is the last area of the U.K. and Ireland to set up such an organisation.

 

29-11-52 “John Joe” O’Reilly is dead. At the age of 34 Cavan and indeed all the GAA community of Ireland has lost one of their most popular and chivalrous personalities after a short illness. He was one of a group of high-grade footballers who played for Cornafean. His father played for Cavan in 1908 and with his elder brother “Big Tom” he shared in Cavan’s All Ireland triumphs in 1933, 1935 etc. He was a native of Kilmorer, Killeshandra, and helped St. Patrick’s College, Cavan to win three Ulster College’s titles between 1935 and 1937. He helped Cornafean to win SFC titles in 1936, 1938, 1940 and 1943. He has two young children after his marriage to Joan Margaret Fox of Dublin four years ago.

29-11-52 Fermanagh’s share of the pooled Lagan Cup receipts this year amounted to £150.

13-12-52 Obituary, Miss Elizabeth Cullen, Rosculban, Kesh at the age of 28 died as a result of a motor accident on Main St. Kesh.

20-12-52  Representatives from the ESB, Sligo, gave a lecture illustrated by lantern slides in St. Mary’s Hall, Pettigo and St. Patrick’s Hall, Lettercran. In both halls there was a representative attendance and canvassers were appointed to visit homes with a view to having electric light and power brought to the area.

20-12-52 The Lord Bishop of Derry, Rev. D. Farren, warns against, “Evil and contemptable influences” as he attends the Golden Jubilee function of the Ulster Herald series of newspapers. Despite the heaviest snowstorm in the area in two decades the function in the I. N. F Hall in Omagh was packed. “He paid an outstanding tribute to the Catholic Press of his Diocese, and declared it very necessary that Irish Catholics should have a strong virile press to counteract the evil influences of an insidious press that would stop at nothing to destroy National ideals and make little of our Irish people, and it was necessary that Irish Catholics should have their own papers to combat such evil influences.”

20-12-52  Woman caught pilfering in Lisnarick Orange Hall. Mary Henry, of Shaloney, Lisnarick, was charged with stealing 2s-3d from a coat in the hall. Sergeant Hadden of Irvinestown had placed some coins coated with an invisible powder in a lady’s coat pocket in the cloakroom following complaints of money being stolen. At 1.15 in the morning the Sergeant ordered all the doors of the hall closed and asked the men to stand by the wall. All the ladies were gathered in a circle in the middle and a basin of water was then brought around and they were asked to dip their hands into it. The defendant’s hands turned the water blue from the effects of the powder.

 

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.

August – September Fermanagh Herald 1950.

23-9-1950. Fermanagh heavily defeated last Sunday by Tyrone. Two of the chosen team turned up without boots and togs, “and some of the others did not exert themselves unduly at any stage of the game.” Final score Tyrone 3-12 Fermanagh nil.

30-9-1950. Details of the Erne Development Scheme unveiled. It is estimated to cost £750,000.

30-9-1950. Mayo take the All-Ireland Football Title by defeating Louth by 2-5 to 1-6 in a dourly contested game.

7-10-1950. In Irvinestown Lisnaskea recapture the Senior Football title from Belleek by a score of 1-8 to 1-4. Best for Belleek were Kevin Mc Cann, M. McGurn, J. P. Mc Cann, Patsy Rooney, Matt Regan, Brendan Faughnan and John Doogan. Belleek’s new centre forward Brendan Faughnan was so impressive he was afterwards picked to play on the county team. Eddie Mc Caffrey was a surprise selection in goals for Belleek as he normally plays wing half. Admission 1 shilling. Sideline 1 shilling extra.

14-10-1950. Blessing of the foundation stone of new Franciscan Church at Rossnowlagh by Monsignor McGinley PP, Ballyshannon. The friars have been here since 22nd July, 1946. Their first church was a large Nissan hut made up of two ordinary sized Nissan huts.

14-10-1950. Devenish Annual Sports were held in St. Mary’s Park despite the bad weather. In a Minor Match Devenish defeated Derrygonnelly by 5 points to 1 point. Mr. Kevin Mc Cann, Belleek, refereed. The youngest competitor was Master Chivers who is six and the oldest spectator was Mr. John Mc Garrigle.

14-10-1950. Irvinestown Rural District Council is ordering 100 Orlit houses. There is great difficulty in obtaining suitably priced tenders to erect these houses which are factory made at a cost of £823 each. The question is being asked will they stand up to rural conditions with their two to three inch exterior walls and half inch plasterboard wall on the inside.

14-10-1950. Walter Kerr of Carn West, Garrison was fined £10. He had taken 11 cattle to last March 17th Belleek Fair via the concession road but only had 8 when he arrived. He claimed he had sold them on the way to the fair.

21-10-1950.  Devenish Division AOH at their quarterly meeting in Brollagh Hall passed voted of sympathy with Brothers Bernard and William Magee of Knockaraven on the death of their mother and with the relatives of Bernard McGowan of Muggainagrow and the late Bernard Flanagan of Tullymore.

21-10-1950. Dr. E. Grey Turner, at a Conservative meeting at Welling, Kent, said that in his opinion there was a drug cure to Tuberculosis “just around the corner.” “There will be a drug cure within the next ten years,” he said.

21-10-1950. Fermanagh defeated by Donegal in the Dr. Lagan Cup by 12 points to 3 points. Brendan Faughnan at full forward twice went narrowly wide from attempts at goal after being fouled close in. The Fermanagh team was E. Mc Caffrey, Belleek, E. Duffy, Lisnaskea, S. Gunn, Lisnaskea, F McAneney, Gaels, M McGauran, Belleek, J. Cassidy, Teemore, J. Martin, Ballyshannon, F. Maguire, Lisnaskea, M. Regan, Belleek, M. Mahon, Irvinestown, J. Doogan, Belleek, P. Clarke, Teemore, T. Dundass, B. Faughnan, Belleek, K. Shannon, Morans.

21-10-1950. The Late Mrs Austin Stack’s Enniskillen Associations. Una Stack was a daughter of the late Austin Stack

widow of Austin Stack, T.D, Minister of Home Affairs in the First Dail, died at her house, Strand Road, Merrion, Dublin, last week. She was a member of the Ranellagh Branch, Cumann na mBan from shortly after 1918, and later a member of the Executive.

Daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Cassidy, The Graan Enniskillen, she was first married to District , Inspector Patrick Gordon, R.I.C., and after his death joined the American Ambulance working in Paris during the 1911-18 war. The sound of the guns when O’Connell Street was shelled during the 1916-Rising, was her first introduction to the Republican movement. She volunteered to help the wounded, and worked for a fortnight in Baggot Street Hospital. After the executions she joined Cumann na mBan, and, her house became a depot for making and distributing first-aid material and Mr. Oscar Trainor, T.D., Officer Commanding the. Dublin Brigade, used her house for meetings.

She took the Republican side in 1922, and was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail and the North Dublin Union for about nine months.

In 1925 she married Austin Stack, who was by then in poor health owing to hunger strikes and the hardships of the struggle in which he had taken part.

She was interested for many years in the work of the Infant Aid Society, among the co-founders of which was her brother. Dr. Louis Cassidy, Master of the Coombe Hospital.

Older Enniskilleners will remember the Cassidy family, no member of which is now resident in the district, though there are cousins in the O’Dolan family of the same district, and the late Jas. Cassidy, Eden St., Enniskillen was a second cousin. Her father, the late Anthony Cassidy came to Enniskillen in early life, and established a wholesale grocery business in the premises now occupied by McHenry’s of High St., a tobacco factory behind the premises, near the present Telephone Exchange, and the extensive wholesale wine and spirit business in Market Street known as “The Bond Stores.” His business prospered until he became Fermanagh’s leading. businessman. Incidentally, one of his first employees was a man named Sullivan, who later had a jeweller’s shop in Darling Street in the premises of the late Michael Devine, and later still became the first agent of the Prudential Assurance Company in the town. When Mr. Cassidy retired from business he acquired the extensive lands at the Graan, which were later disposed of to the Passionist Fathers.

The late Mrs, Stack left Enniskillen when she was fairly young, but she paid occasional visits to her native place throughout her life, and was always commenting upon the many changes that had taken place, remembering only two prominent business establishments which remained from her early days, Campbell’s, hairdressers, of East Bridge Street, and John Martin’s, of the Diamond. One of her brothers was. killed in a railway accident at Clones station when returning from Dublin.

Mrs., Stack met the late Mons. Tierney and Mr. Cahir Healy, M.P. on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land about twelve years ago, and exchanged many reminiscences of old Enniskillen, in which she maintained a deep interest until the end.

28-10-1950. Minor League Final on Sunday – Devenish V Roslea. Referee Bill Thompson.

28-10-1950. The leg injury sustained by John Doogan in the Lagan Cup game against Donegal has proved more serious than was thought at first and is slow to respond to treatment. It is to be hoped that this popular Belleek player’s recovery will not be long delayed. John first played schoolboy for Drumavanty, a junior team no unhappily no longer in existence. Drumavanty did not win many matches but like the fine sports they were they carried on ear after year until finally emigration left them without a team.

28-10-1950. Ederney fans may recall an occasion when they entertained Drumavanty who at that time had not won a match for almost two years. Ederney were then one of the most powerful Junior teams but their visitors created the sensation of the year by administering a strong beating and ending the home team’s interest in that particular competition.

4-11-1950. Belleek Co-Operative Agricultural and Dairy Society are open to receive turkeys for shipment at their stores, Corry, Belleek. As always highest prices will be paid.

4-11-1950. Dogma of the Assumption proclaimed in Rome by Pope Pius X11.

11-11-1950. Big Belleek Seizure. On Sunday Sergt.  Cordher and Constables. Forde and McAlinden seized a Ford 8 car with 9,300 cigarettes, 15ibs of butter and other articles from John Johnston, New Lodge Road, Belfast. The goods were in the upholstery of the car. Released on bail of £300 and a surety for the same amount. Garrison police seized 3,000 cigarettes on the Kiltyclogher border.

18-11-1950. Death of Mr. Patrick Keown, Gortnalee, Roscor, aged 78. The funeral was to Toura Graveyard.

18-11-1950. Devenish to play Teemore in the Fermanagh Junior Final. Teemore are strongly fancied. W. Thompson (Bill, father of Breege Mc Cusker)) of Irvinestown to referee.

18-11-1950. Crucifix erected in Leitrim County Council chamber in Carrick-on Shannon. A choir sang sacred music at the blessing and erection of the crucifix.

25-11-1950. Figures in the Fermanagh Herald suggest that although the Protestant population of the County amounts to only 44% of the total the vast majority of the jobs under Fermanagh County Council are held by Protestants including all those in highest positions.

28-11-1950. Teemore defeat Devenish to win the Junior League Final in a scrappy game before a small attendance by 1-2 to 1-0. Teemore were handicapped by the absence of their chief marksman Paddy Clarke but Jim Cassidy was on his best form. Danny Magee was Garrison’s best player and scored their only score a goal. J. F. O’Brien was good in Garrison’s defence. Devenish suffered only one defeat up to now when beaten by Enniskillen in Enniskillen. “After the game Devenish officials had many hard things to say about the state of the Enniskillen pitch.” (From Nov. 18th paper)

2-12-1950. Death of 80 year old PP of Magheraculmoney, Rev. P. Mc Carney. He was ordained in 1901 having trained at the Irish College in Paris.

2-12-1950. Ederney started the season in somewhat unimpressive fashion but have improved considerably as their young players have gained experience and confidence. Patsy Cassidy at centre half is the mainstay of the side but it is by no means a one-man affair. The Mc Hugh brothers are very promising young players. Frank Murphy is one of the most stylish players in the county but is not sufficiently forceful to earn the scores which his craft makes possible while Lunny is a robust if somewhat unpolished centre forward.

2-12-1950. Shocking disaster at Omagh Railway Station. The 9.25 train from Derry killing five men, John Cleary, John Cassidy, John McCrory, Dan McCrory and Charles Flanagan.

9-12-1950. Snow fell heavily at the weekend but traffic was not seriously dislocated. Buses were running on time except for one district.

17-12-1950.  Santa Claus arrives in Enniskillen on Monday afternoon with 200 excited children greeting him on his way from the Railway Station. He travelled on a small turf cart and threw balloons to the children. Eighteen lorries and three cars made up an involuntary procession behind Santa.

30-12-1950.  FH Castle Caldwell Tragedy – Miss Brigid Mc Grath, Ballymagaghran, aged 50. Her small grocery shop burned to the ground and her body found in Lough Erne near Castle Caldwell Railway Station. Her body was found by search parties from the RUC Stations at Belleek and Letter. John Mc Caffrey of Tiergannon and Edward McGauran gave evidence of having tea in her house the night before and her appearing quite normal. A neighbour John Mc Goldrick raised the alarm at 6.30 the following morning. Dr. Gerald Clerk, Belleek carried out the autopsy and the jury returned a verdict of death by drowning.