Ballyshannon Musings

Wednesday, 7 August 2013

"There goes a poet if he only know it" "Only you're an ass you'd let the poet pass"

Ballyshannon 400 is going really well and I was amazed at the attendance at my Famine Walk on Monday 5th August when up to 200 people walked around Ballyshannon in glorious sunshine. Thanks to all who supported this local history tribute to our forgotten Famine victims and especially to my colleagues Patricia Keane and Conor Carney who added greatly to the event with their songs, poems and stories.

On Friday 9th August I will be joining Michael Daly, Editor of The Donegal Democrat in the Abbey Centre at 3 p.m. when we will be looking back at the long history of newspapers in Balllyshannon. All welcome to this free event.

On Saturday 10th Patricia Keane and I will be doing a short reflection of about 30 minutes on the local history of the south side of the Erne in Owen Roe's at 9 pm. as part of the Rock Parish Gathering. There will be other guests All welcome to this free event.

Check Town Council site or programme listing for events which continue until Sunday 11th August.

Anthony Begley

Francie Daly and William Allingham

Francis (Francie) Daly lived in Bachelor's Walk in the town and was not married. Daly was a painter and artist in brass and used to do ornamental brass plates and door knockers for the well to do. He also wrote poetry. Local anecdote would claim that Daly wrote some of Allingham’s poems. No substance has ever been provided for the claim or no specific poems identified as having been written by Francie Daly. William Allingham did say that he collected ballads at the fairs and perhaps this led to the suggestion, and that is all it appears to be, that Francie Daly wrote some of his poems. The work Allingham did on completing ballads may have given rise to this impression but his poetry was, one feels, his own work.

Local lore suggests that Francis Daly was walking down the Mall one day and as he passed William Allingham’s house, a voice from an upstairs window said: “There goes a poet if he only know it”. Daly turned around but couldn’t see anyone and replied: “Only you’re an ass you’d let the poet pass!”

An Erratic Genius

John Downey editor of The Donegal Democrat described him as “an erratic genius and very few recognised the talent hidden by the somewhat peculiar exterior”. He composed a number of pieces of poetry few of which were ever published.He was a simple, unassuming person who was a familiar sight on the streets of Ballyshannon for many years. As an old man he read his poems and sung his own compositions to local youth in his home at Bachelor’s Walk. Francie Daly died circa 1919.

Hallow-Eve Night’s Dream

The following is an extract from a poem entitled, “Hallow Eve’s Night Dream” by Francie Daly . The background to the poem is believed to be, that in 1885 Daly was infatuated with Lily Harris a tightrope walker from “West Bromwich” and in the poem he talks of waking up in the morning and seeing the track a snail makes on a wall-it had made the initials L.H. Lily Harris had been touring the country with a theatrical company and performed in Ballyshannon where Daly saw her as a young man and she remained the girl of his dreams. The poem makes use of placenames which gives it a local flavour and the artist referred to is Daly himself as he was a house-painter and sculptor of a kind. Daly’s Fort on the Hills of Tullymore was where the Daly family resided before coming to live in town.

In eighteen hundred and eighty-five, the date being true and right,

Many colleens fair and young played “tricks” on Hallow Eve Night,

Twas gathering weeds round corn-stacks that many took a turn,

Pulling the yarrow, throwing reels, and more had nuts to burn.

There was one among them who was both fair and tall,

She says,” Now each has played a ‘trick,’ but I played none at all,

I have two nuts here in my hand from yonder hazel line

I shall burn them in my lover’s name to see if he’ll be mine.”

They only saw her when she spoke and at her they did gaze,

A blazing brand she lifted up, and set the nuts to blaze,

She watched the flames as they did unite, and to them there she said,

“A ring I see in the ruddy glow, my trick is truly played,

I must away my love to see, he rests by some bright stream,

And place these nuts beneath his head, perhaps on me he’ll dream,”

She quickly turned away from them, these maidens all in fright,

Saying fare ye well, I wish you joy, and “A Merry Hallow Eve Night.”

They all followed with their eyes, but she soon left their view,

Not knowing where she came from, nor where she was going too.

Says one on to another, “I’ve seen her once before,

She was coming down from Daly’s Fort on the hills of Tullymore.”

A bedroom door was on the lock; a fire was in the grate,

The artist he lay fast asleep when Morpheus showed his fate,

For a vision bright, all clad in white, and ornaments so rare,

With red-rose cheeks, coral lips, and yellow-golden hair,

She glided up to his bedside, and o’er him she did stand,

The gold ring off her finger she held it in her hand,

She says, “This is our marriage token I truly tell to thee,

For when we are two in one you must come with me.

50% Reduction on postage for orders for this book to all destinations. Genuine special offer.

Ideal local gift for Christmas and all special occasions.

Contact anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com for further details and for orders of the book.

Signed hard back and soft back books available at special price for postal delivery or collection.

A New Local History Book suitable for those at Home and Away

A new book entitled: "Ballyshannon. Genealogy and History" reveals newly researched history and genealogy of the town, extending as far as the Rossnowlagh, Cashelard, Corlea, Clyhore, Higginstown and Finner areas. Includes the parishes of Kilbarron and Magh Ene.

The genealogy material provides detailed guidelines for anyone tracing their roots in the area or anywhere in County Donegal or Ireland.

The book contains 500 pages and is richly illustrated with stunning colour, aerial photography, original illustrations and rare photographs of the area not seen before.

Topics include: How to go about Tracing your Roots/The first settlers in the area/ Newly researched history of the town of Ballyshannon and the townlands in Kilbarron and Mágh Éne parishes/ Records of the first travellers and tourists to Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Belleek, Rossnowlagh and Ballintra/An aerial guide to place names along the Erne from Ballyshannon to the Bar/Flora and Fauna of the area/ A history of buildings and housing estates in the locality/Graveyard Inscriptions from the Abbey graveyard, St. Joseph’s and St. Anne’s /Rolling back the years with many memories of the Great Famine, Independence struggle, hydro-electric scheme, Gaelic games, boxing, handball, Boy Scouts, soccer, mummers, characters, organisations, folklore and lots more.

Book Available from Anthony Begley West Rock Ballyshannon. anthonyrbegley@hotmail.com Enquiries welcome for postal and other details. Also available at The Novel Idea Bookshop Ballyshannon, Ballyshannon and District Museum, Ballyshannon Tourist Office, The Four Masters Bookshop Donegal Town.

The blogs are original and are not taken from the book above.

Final Blogs

10th August "There goes a poet if he only know it"

"Only you're an ass you'd let the poet pass"

17th August "Ballyshannon a Market Town in Famine Times."(names of merchants and craft workers etc.)

24th August The Gaelic Revival in Ballyshannon a Hundred Years Ago.

31st August A Unique Diary of Ballyshannon Life in the 19th Century

7th September Complete Guide to Ballyshannon Musings 2012-2013

Ballyshannon Musings: Good to hear that people connected to the Ballyshannon area enjoyed the blog worldwide and the site received thousands of hits. The site is called Ballyshannon Musings and there are a number of back issues available on the internet. Copy this link and it can be googled at http://ballyshannon-musings.blogspot.ie/

The blog archive of Ballyshannon Musings will still be available to read on the internet.

Saturday, 3 August 2013

Cures of Bygone Days

Famine Walk in Ballyshannon on Monday 5th August all welcome.

On Monday 5th August 2013 at 2.30 p.m. I will be leading a Famine Walk from the Paupers' Graveyard to the Workhouse in Ballyshannon. The meeting point is the Abbey Centre in Ballyshannon and I hope you can make it as part of the Ballyshannon 400 Week. On the Famine walk we will hear stories, songs and verses from the Great Famine of the 1840s and recall the suffering endured by our ancestors in this area. Conor Carney and Patricia Keane well known in the arts world in Ballyshannon will sing and recall Famine memories on the walk.

The workhouse at Ballyshannon housed people from:

The Belleek area as far as Churchill, Devenish and Boho in County Fermanagh
Kinlough, Glenade and Tullaghan areas in County Leitrim
Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Ballintra and Rossnowlagh areas in County Donegal.

If you know anyone from the areas above please invite them to come along to remember people from their area who are forgotten today, some of whom would be buried in the Paupers’ graveyard. The walk will be at a leisurely pace. All welcome.

Anthony Begley

Cures of Bygone Days

In the days before doctors and chemists were as plentiful as today people relied on herbs and faith healing to cure their illnesses. Below are cures which were collected by school student from the old people in the 1930s in a folklore study. Naturally today there are medical remedies and advice for patients which was not available in bygone days and the cures below are not practised today.

Ringworm: A cure for ringworm was to pass a wedding ring round it three times, reciting the prayer, in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Another cure for ringworm was to get some clay and mix it with spittle and then make a worm crawl around it on the floor. The clay was then rubbed on the ringworm and the worm was then made to crawl around the affected part. This was done three times. This cure was handed down from a man to a woman and from a woman to a man.

Sprain: A sprain could be cured with woollen thread and by saying some prayers. The thread was twisted around the part where the sprain was and this was kept there for some days. Another cure for sprain was to make the sign of the cross two or three times on the forehead, then the person rubbed their hands on the ground and then rubbed the sprain and shortly afterwards the sprain disappeared.

Mumps: If a person had mumps he went to the seventh child in a family whose mother and father had the same name. This person put a donkey’s winkers on the person to be cured and led him to the river and gave him three drops of water. This treatment was performed for three consecutive days.

A Stye in the Eye: If a person wished to be cured of a stye in the eye he got nine whitethorns of a gooseberry tree and pointed them at the sky. Then he would be cured.

Toothache: The seventh son cured a toothache by rubbing it with his hand. One never got a toothache if one made a promise (such as not shaving on a Sunday) and never broke it. A visit to the dentist was only for the well off but for a severe toothache the doctors in the 19th century had to bleed the gums with leeches.

Warts: A cure for warts was to steal a piece of meat or bacon and rub it on the warts. The meat was then burned and as it rotted the warts would disappear. Another cure for warts was to wash them with water taken from a hole in a rock.

Whooping Cough: When a child had whooping, also called chin cough, an ass’s milk was considered a good remedy.

A Cold: Mary Ann Sheil wrote about cures the people had for the common cold in the 1840s when they took jam drinks to alleviate the symptoms.

Natural Remedies: Garlic was considered good for colds and coughs. The juice of dandelion was considered good for cancer. People boiled dandelion and gave the water to a person with a sick stomach. Bogbine was used for the good of the blood. Nettle tea was given to children with measles. Celery seeds when boiled and strained and then drunk were a cure for rheumatism. Roots of parsley when boiled and drunk were good for kidney disease.

A Men Only Cure for Cows! When a cow lost her milk she was said to be touched by the little people. She got dull and gave no milk. To cure her a red hot coal in the tongs was brought to the byre. This was passed over the cow from head to tail and then under her, coming out at her shoulder when a sign of the cross was made on her back. At the same time three Our Fathers and three Hail Marys were said. This was done three times on three different days. Then the cow would get her milk back. For this cure to work the cow had to be kept in the byre all the time and the cure had tobe made between sunrise and sunset and never on a Friday. Only men could make this cure!

^{Next Blog}

10th August "There goes a poet if he only know it,

Only you're an ass you'd let the poet pass!"

Lots Happening for Ballyshannon 400 Gathering 5th-11th August. Check out week of events

Check out the events/venues you might like to attend in the summer and later in the year :

A New Local History Book suitable for those at Home and Away

The blogs are original and are not taken from the book above.

Ballyshannon Musings: Good to hear that people connected to the Ballyshannon area enjoyed the blog worldwide and the site received thousands of hits. The site is called Ballyshannon Musings and there are a number of back issues available on the internet. Copy this link and it can be googled at http://ballyshannon-musings.blogspot.ie/

Saturday, 27 July 2013

A Famine Walk and Sad Memories in South Donegal, Leitrim and Fermanagh

On Monday 5th August 2013 at 2.30 p.m. I will be leading a Famine Walk from the Paupers' Graveyard to the Workhouse in Ballyshannon. The meeting point is the Abbey Centre in Ballyshannon and I hope you can make it as part of the Ballyshannon 400 Week. On the Famine walk we will hear stories, songs and verses from the Great Famine of the 1840s and recall the suffering endured by our ancestors in this area.

The workhouse at Ballyshannon housed people from:

The Belleek area as far as Churchill, Devenish and Boho in County Fermanagh
Kinlough, Glenade and Tullaghan areas in County Leitrim
Ballyshannon, Bundoran, Ballintra and Rossnowlagh areas in County Donegal.

Anthony Begley

This week's blog recalls earlier famines and an outbreak of cholera where some of the dead were interred in what later became the Pauper's Graveyard.

Early Famines 1816-1822

There was widespread poverty in the Ballyshannon area with frequent failure of the crops which caused great hardship long before the Great Famine. The failure of the crops in 1816 was not severely felt until the spring of the following year with serious scarcity of food in the summertime. People collected nettles, wild mustard and any other edible plants or herbs. In the seashore around Ballyshannon marine plants were collected to eat and the poor regularly collected cockles, limpets, mussels or even putrefying fish they found on the shore. This food gathered from the seashore kept many families alive. In desperate times seed potatoes were eaten but this was eating their future crops and merely postponed the evil day. Blood was drawn from cattle in the fields and was mixed with oatmeal, when this was available, and this was some families’ means of survival.

Christian Ladies Assist the Poor in the Ballyshannon Area

A local group of Christian ladies assisted the poor by providing gainful employment for them in their own homes. Donations of clothing were received from the Ladies Association in London to enable the poor to spin cloth. By the 23^rd of February 1822 there were over 120 spinners being supplied and the number was on the increase. The local ladies took in yarn, paid for the spinning and distributed flax and clothing. They also visited the poor in their own homes to encourage them to send their children to school and they also checked on the levels of hardship. In the days before the welfare state the provision of meaningful employment had a double advantage as it enabled people to earn money and to have the dignity of work.

Cholera brings Fear and Death to the Locality in 1832

Cholera was believed to have spread to the town from Bundoran where it had arrived on board a ship in August 1832. In early September 1832 a young man called Gallagher, a cart maker, had left Ballyshannon to avoid cholera but died of the disease at Brownhall near Ballintra. He was buried in the Abbey graveyard. Cholera continued to spread in the community and a Cholera Relief Fund raised £45-8-6 to help the victims and their families.

Fear of cholera was rife in the area and a poor woman called Magrath who lived in the Cloghan contracted cholera. The Cloghan is just beyond Bishop Street on the road to Rossnowlagh. She refused to go to the hospital or to take the prescribed medicine and she died. Sadly her infant child also died of cholera in the hospital. A neighbouring woman called Grace Gallagher, aged 70, also died of cholera. The early weeks of September saw the death of a man called Daly and another man called Edwards from the Abbey, both of whom were taken to the graveyard in the same cart. Edwards’s father also died at this period. William Ellis of the Main Street died, Arthur O’Neill, a shop keeper of Mill Street died, a child named Sergeant died and an old lady named Highland died of cholera in the Port, having refused to go to the hospital.

Death of a Journeyman called Hume

By the 21^st of September the Ballyshannon Herald was still reporting on sad individual cases of sudden death from cholera. A man called Hume worked as a journeyman for Mr. Wilson who was a cabinet maker in the town. He had been out walking on a Sunday morning and was at Mr. Wilson’s house where a girl offered him breakfast. Mr. Wilson was away from home at the time. Hume started to feel sick before breakfast and left to go to his lodgings in the Port. There he paid his landlord for three weeks lodgings which he owed and he also settled his bill with the washerwoman. On returning to Mr. Wilson’s house he shook hands with the girl who had offered him breakfast earlier and he walked down to the hospital on the Donegal Road. He died later that night.

The Sad Case of Mrs. Flaherty of the Port

Three other recorded deaths in September 1832 were of a man called Meehan who fled the disease in the Cloghan but died in the Port, a butcher named Mc Crann who took ill, refused to go to hospital and died, and the unusual case of a woman from the Port called Flaherty. Her husband Daniel Flaherty, a pilot on the ships, thought that his wife was dead and went to the hospital for a coffin and the dead cart was sent to the house to collect her remains. On arrival at the house Mrs. Flaherty had recovered somewhat and the cart returned empty. However the story didn’t have a happy ending as her condition deteriorated and she died at eleven o’clock that night. The cholera epidemic affected the business life of the town and shops in the Back Street and the Port were nearly deserted. Crops and markets were still good but the poor were in want.

Newspaper Suggested a Scourge from the Almighty?

By October 5^th1832 the local paper recorded that some people paraded the town, accompanied by music, in celebration of a clearance of cholera from the area and a feeling that the worst was over. The editor reflecting on the cholera outbreak felt that “the disease was a scourge from the Almighty for our numerous transgressions”. The parade was led by the band of the 4^th Dragoon Guards who played “God Save the King”, “Patrick’s Day” and many lively tunes. However the local military in the Barracks at the bridge were not immune from attacks of cholera and, despite the optimism, a soldier of the 4^th Dragoons took ill in October and died within six hours. Sergeant Major Smith of the Donegal Regiment who had apparently recovered from an attack of cholera had a relapse and died.

Tragic Death of Local Priest but End in Sight

By October 19^thonly one death was reported in the previous week and that was of Fr. O’Donnell who would have been vulnerable to attack as he attended the sick and the dying in their final moments. His death was mourned by people of all creeds and his remains were brought to the graveyard accompanied by a huge crowd of friends and parishioners. By mid October the worst appeared to be over and a day of thanksgiving for their deliverance from cholera was arranged by the Established Church. The shops of all Protestants were closed throughout the day and at twelve o’clock divine service was held in St. Anne’s Church.

Mr. Neal O’Neill a shopkeeper died of cholera in Ballyshannon in November 1832. Also in the same month Mrs. Bird wife of Richard Bird, a grocer and seed merchant, in Main Street and Mr. Purcell of the Ballyshannon Distillery also died. Surgeon Crawford died of cholera in November. In December Miss Mary Britton a daughter of Captain Britton of the Whitehill died of cholera. Ballyshannon was free from the ravages of cholera by January 1833 but upwards of one hundred people had died from the disease with at least a further 230 people having contracted the disease.

People in the Ballyshannon area felt some relief when the cholera epidemic abated but more devastation was around the corner as in the next decade the Great Famine of the 1840s began.

P.S Check the archive for November 2012 for a blog on the closure of the workhouse 90 years

Next Weeks Blog

3rd August "Cures of Bygone Days.

Lots Happening for Ballyshannon 400 Gathering and Other Events

Check out the events/venues you might like to attend in the summer and later in the year :

A New Local History Book suitable for those at Home and Away

The blogs are original and are not taken from the book above.

Ballyshannon Musings: Good to hear that people from the Ballyshannon area enjoyed the blog worldwide and the site received thousands of hits. The site is called Ballyshannon Musings and there are a number of back issues available on the internet. Copy this link and it can be googled at http://ballyshannon-musings.blogspot.ie/