Worlwide Interest in Ballyshannon

In the past week viewers to Ballyshannon Musings have viewed from the following 12 countries. I hope in some small way it keeps you connected with home or with your own connections to the Ballyshannon area.

Australia

Austria

Canada

France

Germany

Ireland

Italy

Netherlands

Norway

Spain

U.S.A.

United Kingdom

The local history blogs are receiving thousands of hits on Facebook and on the Ballyshannon Musings website ballyshannon-musings.blogspot.com Let anyone you know who would be interested.

Currently a top ten is running of the most popular local history blogs based on the number of hits on Facebook

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Later today No. 6 will be posted on Facebook “A Woman in Ballyshannon and her Amazing Eyewitness Account of the Independence Struggle and the 1918 Spanish Flu". The countdown to the number one blog will continue with no. 5 tomorrow.

Kindest regards

Anthony Begley

20^th April 2020.

Limited edition quality hardback with dust jacket as above available when things return to normal in  A Novel Idea and

Local Hands Ballyshannon and Four Masters Bookshop Donegal Town. Also available for postage from anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

From St. Patrick’s Day to Easter a Look Back in Time in Ballyshannon

During St. Patrick’s Week 2020 I was thinking of how I might share a bit of local history in the Ballyshannon area, in these difficult times . My blogs on Ballyshannon Musings have been going worldwide since 2012 and this time Facebook would be the outlet. I hoped the blogs might entertain, inform and keep you connected with your home area for a few minutes. Perhaps there would be a few people out there interested but the reaction was amazing.

Sharing, liking and reading of the blogs was important as I have never really developed a Facebook profile. When one blog got over 1,000 hits I knew early on, that people were sharing and were interested in their locality. Thanks to those who by sharing meant the blogs reached an audience that could not be reached otherwise. I committed to doing a daily blog from 20^th March to Easter Sunday 12^th April. The blog will continue from tomorrow Thursday 16th April until the May Bank Holiday.

Wednesday 15^th April 2020. Today you will find the dates and titles of the local history blogs I put up on Facebook from Patrick’s Week to Easter. Hope you may have a look back at any that you like, or missed, and most important of all share them with your many friends particularly those away from home. The blog will continue from tomorrow until the May Bank Holiday due to the great interest shown by many of you. 

Thursday 16th  April 2020. New Top Ten and Fun Quiz starting tomorrow Thursday.   I will be posting a new Facebook top ten of the most popular blogs on Ballyshannon Musings based on the hits by all who read, liked and shared the blogs since the 20th March  . 
The 10th  most popular blog will be posted tomorrow with 5 fun quiz questions and  answers can be found in the blog. Have a go. 

Best wishes to all.

Anthony Begley.

Ballyshannon.

15^th April 2020

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From St. Patrick’s Day to Easter a Look Back in Time

·         14^th March 2020. “A Peaceful Verse by a Forgotten Ballyshannon Poet at the Mall Quay.”

·         17^th March 2020. “Memories of St. Patrick’s Well on St. Patrick’s Day 2020.”

·         20^th March 2020.  “6^th January. The Night of the Big Wind in Ballyshannon, Bundoran and Rossnowlagh 1839.”

·         21^st March 2020. “Memories of Early Cinema, Drama, Gaelic Games, Eurovision in the oldest community hall in Ballyshannon.”

·         22^nd March 2020. “10 Rarely Asked Questions about the Ballyshannon Area.”

·         23^rd March 2020. “Ballyshannon a Busy Town 130 Years Ago and Christmas Shopping on the Far Side”

·         23^rd March 2020. “Ballyshannon Hurlers defy a ban on Gaelic Games in Donegal during the Independence Struggle. This new research was published in “The Donegal Democrat.”

·         24^th March 2020. “Customs for May Day in the Ballyshannon Area”

·         25^th March 2020. “Remembering the Greatest Day of the Year in Ballyshannon.”

·         26^th March 2020. “A most Unusual Famine Event in the Harbour at Ballyshannon.”

·         27^th March 2020. “Two Letters sent from the Trenches to Ballyshannon mothers in Erne Street and Sheegus during World War One.”

·         28^th March 2020. “Amazing Memories of the Circus in Ballyshannon way back in 1844.”

·         29^th March 2020. “Plane Crashes in Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Cashelard, Fake News, Cycling to Glenties for a match, Air raid shelters in Munday’s field and an Unfortunate Tailor.”

·         30^th March 2020. “Ten Interesting Things about Helen Allingham and her Ballyshannon Links.”

·         31^st March 2020. “Remembering Ballyshannon born Rory Gallagher at his statue in the Diamond in town.”

·         1^st April 2020. “A Great Find by Fishermen in Ballyshannon in 1916.”

·         2^nd April 2020. “Last Train to Ballyshannon and Rossnowlagh 60 Years Ago.”

·         3^rd April 2020. “Ballyshannon Athlete Competed in Two Controversial Olympic Games.”

·         4^th April 2020. “Ballyshannon Folk Festival Remembering the Early Years and Still Going Strong.”

·         5^th April 2020. “Check out the photos from yesterday’s Folk Festival blog for some household names.”

·         5^th April 2020. “Ballyshannon Horse Race made National News on Falgarragh Race Course.”

·         7^th April 2020. “The Man who Bought Ballyshannon.”

·         8^th April 2020. “The Mystery of Munday’s Field in Ballyshannon.”

·         9^th April 2020. “Kildoney Fishermen’s Famous Victory.”

·         10^th April 2020. “The Man who Loved his Hometown of Ballyshannon.”

·         11^th April 2020. “The Last man to die in a Duel in Ballyshannon and Local Connections.”

·         12^th April 2020. “ A Woman in Ballyshannon in Dublin Easter 1916, The Spanish Flu, Michael Collins and attending the First Dáil.”

Limited edition quality hardback with dust jacket as above available when things return to normal in  A Novel Idea and

Local Hands Ballyshannon and Four Masters Bookshop Donegal Town. Also available for postage from anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

7. The Wild Irish Girl and a Famous Ballyshannon Duel

Beautiful sketch of doorway in Castle Street connected to the duel

 courtesy of Rosemary Downey

Sunday 19th April 2020.  No. 7  in the top ten most popular blogs on Ballyshannon Musings posted on Facebook.
5 Fun Quiz find all answers in the blog below.

1. The Knather was the scene of this famous duel near which house?

2. Check out a beautiful doorway in an existing photograph of Castle Street (in the blog)  and how it is connected to the duel?

3. Where  is the young soldier who died in the duel buried?

4. A Ballyshannon man who lived at Laputa won the Victoria Cross. Who was he?

5. How was Lady Morgan connected to the duel?

Monday 20th April 2020. No. 6 in the top ten most popular blogs as selected by the Facebook viewers  posted on Monday.

Cause of the Duel

The duel centred around one of the most prominent young lady’s of the age, Sydney Owenson ( 1783-1859), a young actress who arrived in Ballyshannon in 1802, with her father Robert, to put on a theatrical performance for the garrison and the local gentry. She was a very attractive young lady and it appears that a local attorney and a young soldier from the Barracks at the bridge had a dispute over Sydney. Presumably they both wished to have her attention but their disagreement was to have serious consequences. Sydney Owensen later became a well-known writer and on her marriage became Lady Morgan.

The Duel at Laputa and McGovern’s Death

Lieutenant McGovern was based in the Barracks (on the left of the photograph)

His body was brought back here after the duel at "Laputa"

Lieutenant McGovern, of the Northumberland Regiment of Infantry and George Henderson, an attorney who lived in Castle Street, challenged each other to a duel which was fixed for the 2nd March 1802 in a field, just next to  the gardens at Laputa. 

The combatants, accompanied by their seconds, observed all the protocols for a duel, a handkerchief was dropped and a shot rang out from Henderson’s pistol which killed Mc Govern. The bystanders took the body of the young soldier back to the Barracks, at the bridge, and he was buried at St. Anne’s Cemetery at Mullaghnashee. Great anger was evident amongst his fellow soldiers and after the funeral Henderson’s house in Castle Street was attacked and the attorney had to flee for his life. He hid for a period on the island of Inis Saimer at the Mall Quay. This affair of honour did not result in a court case and, in due course, Henderson was allowed to return to his home.

Henderson’s House still stands in Castle Street

 Henderson’s house still stands, at the upper end of Castle Hardware, beside a former carriage archway, and has steps up to the front door. For locals it is between Mary McGuinness' A Novel Idea and Bernie Kelly's (McKenna) insurance premises. The building on Castle Street was for generations owned by the Stephens family who were prominent in the commercial life of the town. In recent times it was owned by James Likely and family. The building is a mid-terrace five-bay three storey former townhouse with Doric pedimented doorcase which can be seen in the photograph. There is also an arched carriageway beside the building.This former substantial townhouse was remodelled  with a shopfront on the ground floor around 1890 and the facade was enriched around 1925.

        Henderson who was in the duel lived  in the house the doorway 

of which is beside the red car today.

 Lieutenant McGovern is buried in St. Anne’s

Lieutenant McGovern who died in the duel is buried in St. Anne's 

(on top of the hill).

Mc Govern’s grave can be viewed in front of the doorway to the  church at St. Anne’s. Lieutenant Mc Govern’s gravestone has a curious epitaph which shows the esteem his colleagues had for him:

“Returned to his native land lieth all that was mortal of Lieutenant Taffe McGovern late of the Northumberland Regiment of the Fencible Infantry. He fell in a duel on the 2^nd March 1802, in the 23 year of his age. If the esteem and regard of his brother officers who have erected this stone to his memory could assist his soul in its flight to heaven, its ascent must have been rapid and its reception good”.

Lieutenant McGovern's grave flat white stone opposite 

the door into the church

Lady Morgan the Wild Irish Girl

In 1812 Sydney Owenson married Thomas Charles Morgan, surgeon to the Duke of Abercorn, at Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone,, and when he was knighted she became Lady Morgan. She  became a prolific writer and is remembered as, “The Wild Irish Girl”, a name taken from one of her most famous novels. She became a wealthy lady and died on the 14th April 1859.

What became of “Laputa”?

The duel was fought in a field beside this house called "Laputa"

The field at “Laputa” was subsequently called Mc Govern’s field after the death of the young soldier. This house was later the home of Robert Johnston who won a Victoria Cross for his part in the Boer War in South Africa. Dr. Simon Sheil who left £6,000 for the building of the Sheil Hospital also lived in “Laputa” for a time.

The house at “Laputa” was tossed during the Erne Hydro-Electric scheme and the last family to reside in the house were the Ramages. The house was reachable by the Knather road and was most picturesque overlooking the Erne. It was a split level with the part overlooking the river in the photograph and a two-storey part of the house behind. There were two  avenues to the house, one for staff and labourers etc. and the other for the family and gentry. The last family to live there were the Ramages who would be known to older residents as William Ramage was a solicitor in town and had his premises opposite The Imperial Hotel.

                                     Limited edition quality hardback with dust jacket as above available when things return to normal in                                   A Novel Idea and Local Hands Ballyshannon and Four Masters Bookshop Donegal Town. Also available for postage from anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

The Man who Loved his Hometown of Ballyshannon

10th April 2020. Today's photographic blog remembers a man who loved his hometown of Ballyshannon and put it on the map. Recommended!

11th April 2020 Tomorrow. The Last Duel Fought in Ballyshannon and current links.

Adieu to Belashanny! where I was bred and born;

Go where I may, I’ll think of you, as sure as night and morn.

The kindly spot, the friendly town, where every one is known,

And not a face in all the place but partly seems my own;

There’s not a house or window, there’s not a field or hill,

But, east or west, in foreign lands, I’ll recollect them still.

I leave my warm heart with you, Tho my back I’m forced to turn-

Adieu to Belashanny, and the winding banks of Erne!

      William Allingham wrote this poem  above, about his hometown, and he put Ballyshannon on the map  a century and more ago.  Much of his early work was about his native area and his most famous local emigrant's ballad from which the verse above is taken was "Adieu to Ballyshanny" also called "The Winding Banks of Erne". The poem sums up his love of place as he recalls lots of the places of his youth in the town.

     Let's see the places that were in his emigrant mind and which were also in the memory of all those who left this area. 

                                                   No more on pleasant evenings we’ll  saunter down the Mall, 
                                                   When the trout is rising to the fly, the salmon to the fall.

   

                        

             The music of the waterfall, the mirror of the tide,

              When all the green-hill’d harbour is full from side to side,

               From Portnasun to Bulliebawns, and round the Abbey Bay, 

               From rocky Inis Saimer to Coolnargit sandhills gray

                                                 

Farewell to  you, Kildoney lads, and them that pull  an oar,

A lug -  sail set, or haul a net, from the Point to Mullaghmore

From Killybegs to bold Slieve-League, that ocean-mountain steep,

Six hundred yards in air aloft, six hundred in the deep,

From Dooran to the Fairy Bridge, and round by Tullen strand,

Level and long, and white with waves, where gull and curlew stand;

Head out to sea when on your lee the breakers you discern!-

Adieu to all the billowy coast, and  winding banks of Erne!

The Fairy Bridges in Bundoran by Helen Allingham

                                                Farewell, Coolmore, - Bundoran! And your summer crowds that run

                                                From inland homes to see with joy th’ Atlantic-setting sun;

                                               To breathe the buoyant salted air, and sport among the waves;

                                               To gather shells on sandy beach, and tempt the gloomy caves;

   Farewell to every white cascade from the Harbour to Belleek

T                                                  The thrush will call through Camlin groves the live-long summer day;

                     

                                           Now measure from the Commons down to each end of the Purt,

                                                    Round the Abbey, Moy, and Knather,- I wish no one any hurt;

                                           The Main Street, Back Street, College Lane, the Mall, and Portnasun,

                                             If any foes of mine are there, I pardon every one.

                                             If ever I’m a money’d man, I mean, please God, to cast

                                            My golden anchor in the place where youthful years were pass’d;

                                           Though heads that now are black and brown must meanwhile gather gray,

                                           New faces rise by every hearth, and old ones drop away-

                                           Yet dearer still that Irish hill than all the world beside;

                                           It’s home, sweet home, where’er I roam through lands and waters wide

                                           And if the Lord allows me, I surely will return

                                           To my native Belashanny, and the winding banks of Erne.

Abbey Assaroe today 170 years after William Allingham wrote

 his well-remembered poem.

Abbey Assaroe

                                             Gray, gray is Abbey Assaroe by Belashanny town,

                                              It has neither door nor window,the walls are broken down;

                                              The carven-stones lie scater’d in briar and nettle-bed;

                                              The only feet are those that come at burial of the dead.

                                               A little rocky rivulet runs murmuring to the tide,

                                               Singing a song of ancient days,in sorrow, not in pride;

                                               The boortree and the lightsome ash across the portal grow,

                                               And heaven itself is now the roof of Abbey Assaroe.

  

   The little old Town where I was born has a Voice of its own, low, solemn, persistent, humming through 

    the air day and night, summer and winter. Whenever I think of that Town, I seem to hear the Voice. The

   River which makes it, rolls over rocky ledges into the tide; before, spreads a great Ocean in sunshine or storm; behind, stretches a many-islanded Lake.

     

Helen Allingham renowned artist.

see recent blog

William Allingham portrait by Helen Allingham

Helen Allingham's painting of two of their children

William Allingham’s Final Journey to Ballyshannon

William Allingham's birthplace on the Mall.

 On the 17^th November 1889 in his home at Eldon Road in Hampshire, England,  as he was in a weak condition, William Allingham,  was asked if he had any request to make, he replied:  “No, my mind is at rest”. Then to his wife he said:  “And so, to where I wait, come gently on”.  Once on the morning of his death he said; “I am seeing things that you know nothing of”. He died peacefully about 2 o’clock on Monday 18^th November.

At his own request he was cremated at Woking. A few friends and relations were present. There was no funeral service. Mr. F.G. Stephens, the oldest of his friends there gathered together, read aloud Allingham’s own Poet’s Epitaph.

Body to purifying flame,

Soul to the Great Deep whence it came,

Leaving a song on earth below,

An urn of ashes white as snow.

William Allingham is buried at St. Anne's Church on the hilltop

 in his hometown.

William Allingham’s ashes were interred at St. Anne’s Church on Mullaghnashee in his native Ballyshannon with the  following simple inscription on his gravestone-

William Allingham, Poet, born at Ballyshannon

March 19 1824. Died in London, November 1889.

The plaque on the bridge in memory of the Bard of Ballyshannon recalls his early life in the kindly spot, the friendly town.

Here once he roved a happy boy

Along the winding banks of Erne

And now please God with finer joy

                                                      A fairer world his eyes discern.

William Allingham never really left Ballyshannon although he lived in England for many years. His ambition to return to his native Ballyshannon is clearly in his mind in the final verse of his great poem on his hometown.

If ever I’m a money’d man, I mean, please God, to cast

My golden anchor in the place where youthful years were pass’d;

Though heads that now are black and brown must meanwhile gather gray,

New faces rise by every hearth, and old ones drop away-

Yet dearer still that Irish hill than all the world beside;

It’s home, sweet home, where’er I roam through lands and waters wide.

And if the Lord allows me, I surely will return

To my native Belashanny and the winding banks of Erne

                                                                                         "The  Winding Banks of Erne"

                         

                                                                                                By William Allingham

Limited edition quality hardback with dust jacket as above available when things return to normal in A Novel Idea and Local Hands Ballyshannon and Four Masters Bookshop Donegal Town. Also available for postage from anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com

 

 

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