Donegal Castle

In the town of Donegal on Tyrconnell Street, you can visit a castle that was originally built in 1474 by Sir Hugh O’Donnell, the chief of the O’Donnell clan at the time. It is situated on a bend the Eske River. The site was chosen for defense purposes.

The castle stayed in O’Donnell hands until 1607 when the O’Donnell leaders left Ireland in the flight of the Earls. This was precipitated by the English who decided to rid Ireland of the “pesky” Irish chieftains. The O’Donnell chief at the time was Hugh Roe O’Donnell. Hugh decided that if the English were to have his home, he certainly would not make it easy for them, and the castle was torched.

The next owner of the castle and its grounds was Captain Basil Brooke. He must not have found the torched castle very comfortable as he rebuilt it in 1623. The style that he chose for the addition of a wing was a Jacobean manor style. He also added windows and a gable. The castle stayed in the Brooke family for many years until, in the 18^th century, it was in a ruinous condition.

The Earl of Arran made a donation of it to the Office of Public Works in 1898. I believe that he just didn’t want to spend the money to restore or to tear down what remained of the castle.

The castle was partially restored in 1989 to 1996 and still has the original cobblestone floors. It also has the original trip stairs. These stairs can be quite trick to navigate. All the steps are at uneven heights to trip any sword fighters coming up the stairs. They also turn to the right to give the defenders an edge the fighting.

The garderobes were designed so that enemy soldiers would not be able to either use a spear or shoot an arrow up the chute taking the waste down to the river.

Currently, the castle is open to the public for tours. They allow 35 people on each tour and the tours last for approximately 30 minutes. The castle is also used to hold special events such as Gaelic festivals.

When we were there, it was enjoyable to stretch our legs after being on the bus for a couple of hours. We followed the tour guide, except some of us used the newer staircase rather than use the trip stairs for reasons of safety. 

Doagh Famine Village

Doagh Famine Village is an outdoor museum in County Donegal just over half an hour from Derry. The village itself was lived in until about 20 years ago by the family of the man who owns this museum. The displays are mostly under cover due to the amount of rain that falls. This is a seasonal museum, open from the middle of March until the end of October.

Doagh Famine Village follows the history of a family from the 1840s until today. Almost all of the buildings have thatched roofs and are interesting to see. The tour was led by Pat Doherty who started off in the house that he grew up in. I think that it was a shock to many of us that people still lived in houses that dated from the mid 1800s and in conditions that we would find difficult to believe. The people in the area depended on the sea for a lot of their food resources. Mr Doherty gave us a description of how the food was gathered and prepared.

Mr Doherty also gave us a good description of how daily life was like when he was growing up. This was not much different from what his ancestors had experienced in the mid 1800s. The houses were generally simple, a kitchen where most of the household work was done, possibly a parlour where guests would have been entertained. But many a young one would get into trouble when they went in with dirty shoes or clothes. A room for parents to sleep in and usually a loft for the children. There were no bathrooms as we know them. The family washed at the kitchen sink and used an outhouse. Bath night was when the wooden bathtub was hauled out and filled with hot water that had been heated over the kitchen fire. The father of the family would have his bath first, followed by the mother, and then the children from oldest to youngest. Clothes were washed by hand and then dried by wind power.

After Mr Doherty was finished his tour, he told us about some of the other displays that were available including the display showing how the republicans were kept safe from His Majesty’s forces, and the Haunted House. There is even a display for the Travelling People, otherwise known as Tinkers, or in some cases, Gypsies.

The houses each had different displays including a kitchen, a parlour, an Irish wake, and others. It made for an entertaining and educational afternoon. One of my favourite amusements was the Haunted House. After all, I have been through Nightmares in Niagara Falls. Why wouldn’t I go through a mere haunted house?

Would I go again? Yes, I think that I would as history is sometimes hard to understand with one reading or one presentation. The village did have some focus on the Great Famine, but I found that it had more focus on the politics of a violent time period covering the establishment of the Republic and the consequential establishment of Northern Ireland, with its problems and some of the solutions that came from the persistence of the Irish people for peace.

Day Eleven – Field Trip, April 2016

Well, we are no longer in Northern Ireland. We crossed the border about 8:30 this morning at a crossing where there used to be a huge British military camp. This was to prevent anyone who had no legal need from entering into Northern Ireland during The Troubles. At that time, the British presence was a fact of life. Thankfully, the British and the Irish have come to a point ten years ago where they have started to live more peacefully. They still have more work to do to sort out issues, but they are doing well, given the circumstances.

Our first stop this morning was at Donegal Castle. This castle was built approximately 1,000 years ago and, for approximately 300 years, sat empty and became run down. Part of it has been restored and they did an excellent job of it. Hopefully, more of the restoration will happen in the future.

We then walked around the corner to visit a shop where they weave their own tweed. We were greeted with Irish coffee of which I did not partake as I do not drink coffee. This was followed by a demonstration of the types of tweed that they make there and the process that is involved. It was interesting to watch the tweed being woven. They do produce some very nice tweed but I had no interest in purchasing any.

Back on the bus, we then travelled to Drumcliffe to visit the cemetery where W.B. Yeats is buried. We were given a short biography on the bus and we had the opportunity of finding the grave as well as visiting the church that is there. This particular cemetery has a long history as some of the graves have headstones made with the celtic cross. I would have liked to spend more time, but we were running a bit lake.

Lunch was at a restaurant named The Helm which is situated on Clew Bay. Because it was mid afternoon, we were not expecting a big meal. We were wrong. However, the food was delicious.

After lunch, we were taken over to Westport House. It is another site that has a long history. We heard about Grace O’Malley and her descendants. We were given a tour of the first floor and then left to explore the rest for ourselves. I found the dungeon and enjoyed the bit of fun that it provided.

We are now at our hotel and will shortly be going for dinner. Tomorrow, we have some more touring to do, but we will not be changing hotels.

Day Ten – Field Trip, April 2016

Saying good bye to Belfast, we travelled across Northern Ireland. Because we had a late night last night, I fell asleep on the bus. I do know that we had a quick stop at our hotel and then travelled to Lagcurry in County Donegal to visit the Doagh Famine Village and Visitors Center.

While there, I received some education about the area. It is a very remote area and the people did not have much access to education until approximately the 1980s. I may be out a few years (a decade or two). The people there did not have much money at all. They did with what they had which wasn’t very much at all.

The famine from 1845 to 1848 hit the area very hard. We learned that six years previously, there was a very bad storm go through the area. It was so bad that it destroyed the boats that the local people had for fishing. They had not been able to replace the boats prior to 1845 and, hence, were not able to provide food for themselves in the way of fish.

The guide went on to tell us that the date of the storm was very important in another respect. The government brought in old age pension with the required age for enrolment being 70 years old. There was no civil registration prior to 1864 and it took the government officials to figure out how to determine who qualified for the pension. They realized that if someone was alive and could remember the storm, they qualified.

We then wandered around the displays that they had which included more than information regarding the famine. There was also a display about the making of peace between the Republicans and the Loyalists. I enjoyed the haunted house that they had put together. There were a few things that would scare someone, but I don’t think that it is as good as Nightmares Fear Factory in Niagara Falls. I will have to go back to Nightmares soon to determine this.

A tea was provided for us consisting of bread, butter, jam, biscuits, with tea or coffee (or, in my case, milk). This was just a light snack for us at lunch time. We could have done with more. I know that I would have liked more.

Back to Derry we went. We met our guide for our tour and the bus dropped us off at the part way up one of the hills. We were close to the entrance for the top of the old city wall. This wall was built in the 17^th century and was quite wide. To me, it felt like a street, but no vehicles are allowed on it. We passed a couple of the gates and then descended from the wall. We walked through a shopping area which was closed because it is Sunday. Then we headed towards the Guild Hall where we ended our tour and met up with our driver.

Tonight, we will be having dinner in our hotel and I am sure that all of us are looking forward to it. It may be another late evening as we don’t go to dinner until 7:00 pm.