County Donegal

County Donegal
Contae Dhún na nGall / Contae Thír Chonaill
Coontie Dunnygal / Coontie Dinnygal

Coat of arms
Motto: Mutuam habeatis caritatem  (Latin)
"Have love for one another"

Location in Ireland, indicated in darker green
Coordinates: 54°55′01″N 8°00′00″W / 54.917°N 8.000°W / 54.917; -8.000Coordinates: 54°55′01″N 8°00′00″W / 54.917°N 8.000°W / 54.917; -8.000
Country Ireland
Province Ulster
Dáil Éireann Donegal North–East,
Donegal South–West
EU Parliament Midlands–North-West
County town Lifford
Government
 • Type County Council
Area
 • Total 4,861 km2 (1,877 sq mi)
Area rank  (4th)
Population (2011)[1] 161,137
 • Rank  (10th)
Vehicle index
mark code		 DL
Website www.donegal.ie
Coontie Dunnygal[2][3] and Coontie Dinnygal[4] are Ulster Scots spellings.

County Donegal (pronounced /ˈdʌnᵻɡɔːl/ or /ˌdʌnᵻˈɡɔːl/; Irish: Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal (Dún na nGall) in the south of the county. Donegal County Council is the local council for the county and Lifford serves as the county town. The population of the county was 161,137 according to the 2011 census. It has also been known as (County) Tyrconnell (Tír Chonaill), after the historic territory of the same name.

Geography and political subdivisions

In terms of size and area, it is the largest county in Ulster and the fourth-largest county in all of Ireland. Uniquely, County Donegal shares a small border with only one other county in the Republic of Ireland – County Leitrim. The greater part of its land border is shared with three counties of Northern Ireland: County Londonderry, County Tyrone and County Fermanagh. This geographic isolation from the rest of the Republic has led to Donegal people maintaining a distinct cultural identity[5] and has been used to market the county with the slogan "Up here it's different".[6] While Lifford is the county town, Letterkenny is by far the largest town in the county with a population of 19,588. Letterkenny and the nearby city of Derry form the main economic axis of the northwest of Ireland.[7] Indeed, what became the City of Derry was officially part of County Donegal up until 1610.[8]

Baronies

Poison Glen (Gleann Nimhe), in North West Donegal.

There are eight historic baronies in the county:

Informal districts

The county may be informally divided into a number of traditional districts. There are two Gaeltacht districts in the west: The Rosses (Irish: Na Rosa), centred on the town of Dungloe (Irish: An Clochán Liath), and Gweedore (Irish: Gaoth Dobhair). Another Gaeltacht district is located in the north-west: Cloughaneely (Irish: Cloich Chionnaola), centred on the town of Falcarragh (Irish: An Fál Carrach). The most northerly part of the island of Ireland is the location for three peninsulas of outstanding natural beauty: Inishowen, Fanad and Rosguill. The main population centre of Inishowen, Ireland's largest peninsula, is Buncrana. In the east of the county lies the Finn Valley (centred on Ballybofey). The Laggan district (not to be confused with the more famous Lagan Valley in the south of County Antrim) is centred on the town of Raphoe.

Seen from Space: County Donegal with the Ulster coastline with Lough Swilly and Inishowen west of Derry and County Londonderry with Lough Foyle east thereof.

Demographics

According to the 1841 Census, County Donegal had a population of 296,000 people. As a result of famine and emigration, the population had reduced by 41,000 by 1851 and further reduced by 18,000 by 1861. By the time of the 1951 Census the population was only 44% of what it had been in 1841.[15] The 2006 Census, undertaken by the State's Central Statistics Office, had County Donegal's population standing at 147,264. According to the 2011 Census, the county's population had grown to 161,137.

Largest towns (2011 Census)

Town Population (2011 Census)
Letterkenny 19,588
Buncrana 7,199
Ballybofey/Stranorlar 4,852
Donegal Town 2,607
Carndonagh 2,534
Ballyshannon 2,504
Bundoran 2,140
Lifford 1,658
Bunbeg/Derrybeg 1,553
Milford 1,530
Moville 1,481
Convoy 1,438
Killybegs 1,297
Muff 1,271
Ramelton 1,212
Dungloe 1,183
Raphoe 1,157
Newtowncunningham 1,067

Physical geography

Horse riding on Tramore Beach in Downings
Slieve League cliffs, the second tallest in Ireland
Glengesh Pass, near Ardara
Map of County Donegal

The county is the most mountainous in Ulster consisting chiefly of two ranges of low mountains; the Derryveagh Mountains in the north and the Bluestack Mountains in the south, with Mount Errigal at 749 metres (2,457 ft) the highest peak. It has a deeply indented coastline forming natural sea loughs, of which both Lough Swilly and Lough Foyle are the most notable. The Slieve League cliffs are the sixth-highest sea cliffs in Europe, while Malin Head is the most northerly point on the island of Ireland.

The climate is temperate and dominated by the Gulf Stream, with warm, damp summers and mild wet winters. Two permanently inhabited islands, Arranmore and Tory Island, lie off the coast, along with a large number of islands with only transient inhabitants. Ireland's second longest river, the Erne, enters Donegal Bay near the town of Ballyshannon. The River Erne, along with other Donegal waterways, has been dammed to produce hydroelectric power. The River Foyle separates part of County Donegal from parts of both counties Londonderry and Tyrone.

Botany

A survey of the macroscopic marine algae of County Donegal was published in 2003.[16] The survey was compiled using the algal records held in the herbaria of the following institutions: the Ulster Museum, Belfast; Trinity College, Dublin; National University of Ireland, Galway, and the Natural History Museum, London. Records of flowering plants include: Dactylorhiza purpurella (Stephenson and Stephenson) Soó.[17]

Zoology

The animals included in the county include Badgers (Meles meles L.)[18]

There are habitats for the rare Corncrake in the county.[19]

History

Donegal Castle, former seat of the O'Donnell clan.
Kilclooney dolmen, which is over 4,000 years old.[20]

At various times in its history, it has been known as County Tirconaill, County Tirconnell or County Tyrconnell (Irish: Tír Chonaill). The former was used as its official name during 1922–1927.[21] This is in reference to both the old túath of Tír Chonaill and the earldom that succeeded it.

County Donegal is famous for being the home of the once mighty Clann Dálaigh, whose most famous branch were the Clann Ó Domhnaill, better known in English as the O'Donnell Clan. Until around 1600, the O'Donnells were one of Ireland's richest and most powerful Gaelic (native Irish) ruling-families. Within the Province of Ulster only the Clann Uí Néill (known in English as the O'Neill Clan) of modern County Tyrone were more powerful. The O'Donnells were Ulster's second most powerful clan or ruling-family from the early 13th-century through to the start of the 17th-century. For several centuries the O'Donnells ruled Tír Chonaill, a Gaelic kingdom in West Ulster that covered almost all of modern County Donegal. The head of the O'Donnell family had the titles An Ó Domhnaill (meaning The O'Donnell in English) and Rí Thír Chonaill (meaning King of Tír Chonaill in English). Based at Donegal Castle in Dún na nGall (modern Donegal Town), the O'Donnell Kings of Tír Chonaill were traditionally inaugurated at Doon Rock near Kilmacrenan. O'Donnell royal or chiefly power was finally ended in what was then the newly created County Donegal in September 1607, following the Flight of the Earls from near Rathmullan. The modern County Arms of Donegal (dating from the early 1970s) was influenced by the design of the old O'Donnell royal arms. The County Arms is the official coat of arms of both County Donegal and Donegal County Council.

A view of Lough Swilly with Muckish mountain in the background.
Inch Island Causeway.

The modern County Donegal was shired[22] by order of the English Crown in 1585. The English authorities at Dublin Castle formed the new county by amalgamating the old Kingdom of Tír Chonaill with the old Lordship of Inishowen. However, the English authorities were unable to establish control over Tír Chonaill and Inishowen until after the Battle of Kinsale in 1602. Full control over the new County Donegal was only achieved after the Flight of the Earls in September 1607. It was the centre of O'Doherty's Rebellion of 1608 with the key Battle of Kilmacrennan taking place there. The county was one of those 'planted' during the Plantation of Ulster from around 1610 onwards. What became the City of Derry was officially part of County Donegal up until 1610.[8]

County Donegal was one of the worst affected parts of Ulster during the Great Famine of the late 1840s in Ireland. Vast swathes of the county were devastated by this catastrophe, many areas becoming permanently depopulated. Vast numbers of County Donegal's people emigrated at this time, chiefly through Londonderry Port.

The Partition of Ireland in the early 1920s had a massive direct impact on County Donegal. Partition cut the county off, economically and administratively, from Derry, which had acted for centuries as the county's main port, transport hub and financial centre. Derry, together with west Tyrone, was henceforward in a new, different jurisdiction officially called Northern Ireland. Partition also meant that County Donegal was now almost entirely cut off from the rest of the jurisdiction in which it now found itself, the new dominion called the Irish Free State, which in April 1949 became the Republic of Ireland. Only a few miles of the county is physically connected by land to the rest of the Republic. The existence of a border cutting Donegal off from her natural hinterlands in Derry City and West Tyrone greatly exacerbated the economic difficulties of the county after partition. The county's economy is particularly susceptible, just like that of Derry City, to the currency fluctuations of the Euro against sterling.

Added to all this, in the late 20th century County Donegal was adversely affected by The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The county suffered several bombings and assassinations. In June 1987, Constable Samuel McClean, a Donegal man who was a serving member of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, was shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army at his family home near Drumkeen. In May 1991, the prominent Sinn Féin politician Councillor Eddie Fullerton was assassinated by the Ulster Defence Association at his home in Buncrana. This added further to the economic and social difficulties of the county. However, the greater economic and administrative integration following the Good Friday Agreement of April 1998 has been of benefit to the county.

It has been labelled the 'forgotten county' by its own politicians, owing to the perception that it is ignored by the Irish Government, even in times of crisis.[23][24]

Irish language

Road signs in Irish in the Gweedore Gaeltacht.

Much of the county is seen as being a bastion of Gaelic culture and the Irish language, the Donegal Gaeltacht being the second-largest in the country. The version of the Irish language spoken in County Donegal is Ulster Irish.

Of the Gaeltacht population of 24,744,[1] 16% of the county's total, 17,132 say they can speak Irish.[25] There are three Irish-speaking parishes: Gweedore, The Rosses and Cloughaneely. Other Irish-speaking areas include Gaeltacht an Láir: Glencolmcille, Fanad and Rosguill, the islands of Aranmore, Tory Island and Inishbofin. Gweedore is the largest Irish-speaking parish, with over 5,000 inhabitants. All schools in the region use Irish as the language of instruction. One of the constituent colleges of NUI Galway, Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge, is based in Gweedore.

There are 1,005 students attending the five Gaelscoileanna and two Gaelcholáistí in the rest of the county. According to the 2006 Census, there are also 7,218 people who identify as being daily Irish speakers outside the Gaeltacht in the rest of the county.

Government and politics

Glenveagh Castle.

Donegal County Council (which has officially been in existence since 1899) has responsibility for local administration, and is headquartered at the County House in Lifford. The County Council runs alongside Town Councils in Letterkenny, Bundoran, Ballyshannon and Buncrana. Both the County Council and the Town Councils have elections every five years (alongside local elections nationally, and elections to the European Parliament), the last of which took place on 5 June 2009. Twenty-nine councillors are elected using the system of Proportional representation-Singe Transferable Vote (STV), across five electoral areas (also known as wards). These electoral areas are: Inishowen – 7 seats, Letterkenny – 7 seats, Donegal – 5 seats, Stranorlar – 5 seats, and Glenties – 5 seats.

For General elections, the county is divided into two constituencies, Donegal South–West and Donegal North–East, with both having three representatives in Dáil Éireann. For elections to the European Parliament, the county is part of the Midlands–North-West constituency.

Freedom of Donegal

The Freedom of Donegal is an award that is given to people who have been recognised for outstanding achievements on behalf of the people and county of Donegal. Such people include Daniel O' Donnell, Phil Coulter, Shay Given, Packie Bonner, Paddy Crerand and the Brennan family. In 2009 the members of the 28th Infantry Battalion of the Irish Defence Forces were also awarded the Freedom of the County from Donegal County Council "in recognition of their longstanding service to the County of Donegal".

Access

An extensive rail network used to exist throughout the county and was mainly operated by the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee and the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company (known as the L. & L.S.R. or the Lough Swilly Company for short). Unfortunately all these lines were laid to a 3-foot gauge where the connecting lines were all laid to the Irish standard gauge of 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in). This meant that all goods had to be transhipped at Derry and Strabane. Like all narrow gauge railways this became a major handicap after World War 1 when road transport began to seriously erode the railways goods traffic. By 1953 the Lough Swilly had closed its entire railway system and become a bus and road haulage concern. The County Donegal lasted until 1960 as it had largely dieselised its passenger trains by 1951. By the late 1950s major work was required to upgrade the track and the Irish Government was unwilling to supply the necessary funds, so 'the Wee Donegal', as it was affectionally known, was closed in 1960. The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) L.t.d. (the G.N.R.) also ran a line from Strabane through The Laggan, a district in the east of the county, along the River Foyle into Derry. However, the railway network within County Donegal was completely closed by 1960.[26] Today, the closest railway station to the county is Waterside Station in the City of Derry, which is operated by Northern Ireland Railways (N.I.R.). Train services along the Belfast-Derry railway line run, via Coleraine, to Belfast Central and Belfast Great Victoria Street.

County Donegal is served by both Donegal Airport, located at Carrickfinn in The Rosses in the west of the county, and by City of Derry Airport, located at Eglinton to the east. The nearest main international airport to the county is Belfast International Airport (popularly known as Aldergrove Airport), which is located to the east at Aldergrove, near Antrim Town, in County Antrim, 92 km (57 mi) from Derry City and 127 km (79 mi) from Letterkenny.

Culture

The Iron Age fortress Grianán Ailigh.

The variant of the Irish language spoken in Donegal shares many traits with Scottish Gaelic. The Irish spoken in the Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) is of the Ulster dialect, while Inishowen (parts of which only became English-speaking in the early 20th century) used the East Ulster dialect. Ulster Scots is often spoken in both the Finn Valley and The Laggan district of East Donegal. Donegal Irish has a strong influence on learnt Irish across Ulster.

Like other areas on the western seaboard of Ireland, Donegal has a distinctive fiddle tradition which is of world renown. Donegal is also well known for its songs which have, like the instrumental music, a distinctive sound. Donegal musical artists such as the bands Clannad, The Pattersons, and Altan and solo artist Enya, have had international success with traditional or traditional flavoured music. Donegal music has also influenced people not originally from the county including folk and pop singers Paul Brady and Phil Coulter. Singer Daniel O'Donnell has become a popular ambassador for the county. Popular music is also common, the county's most acclaimed rock artist being the Ballyshannon-born Rory Gallagher. Other famous acts to come out of Donegal include folk-rock band Goats Don't Shave, Eurovision contestant Mickey Joe Harte and indie rock group The Revs and in more recent years bands such as In Their Thousands and Mojo Gogo have featured on the front page of Hot Press magazine.

Mount Errigal towers over Gweedore and Cloughaneely. The former Church of Ireland church (now ruined) at Dunlewey can be seen in the foreground.[27] The church was built in the early 1850s.[27]
Kinnagoe Bay, Inishowen.
Cut turf between Carndonagh and Redcastle.

Donegal has a long literary tradition in both Irish and English. The famous Irish navvy-turned-novelist Patrick MacGill, author of many books about the experiences of Irish migrant itinerant labourers in Britain at around the start of the 20th century, such as The Rat Pit and the autobiographical Children of the Dead End, is from the Glenties area. There is a literary summer school in Glenties named in his honour. The novelist and socialist politician Peadar O'Donnell hailed from The Rosses in west Donegal. The poet William Allingham was also from Ballyshannon. Modern exponents include the Inishowen playwright and poet Frank McGuinness and the playwright Brian Friel. Many of Friel's plays are set in the fictional Donegal town of Ballybeg.

Authors in Donegal have been creating works, like the Annals of the Four Masters, in Gaelic and Latin since the Early Middle Ages. The Irish philosopher John Toland was born in Inishowen in 1670. He was thought of as the original freethinker by George Berkeley. Toland was also instrumental in the spread of freemasonry throughout Continental Europe. In modern Irish Donegal has produced famous, and sometimes controversial, authors such as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna from The Rosses and the contemporary (and controversial) Irish-language poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh from Gortahork in Cloughaneely, and where he is known to locals as Gúrú na gCnoc ('the Guru of the Hills').

Donegal is known for the beauty of its textiles, whose unique woolen blends are made of short threads with tiny bits of color blended in for a heathered effect. Sometimes they are woven in a rustic herringbone format and other times in more of a box weave of varied colors. These weaves are known as donegal tweeds (with a small 'd') and are world renowned.

Although approximately 85% of its population is Catholic, County Donegal also has a sizeable Protestant minority. Most Donegal Protestants would trace their ancestors to settlers who arrived during the Plantation of Ulster in the early 17th-century. The Church of Ireland is the largest Protestant denomination but is closely rivalled by a large number of Presbyterians. The areas of Donegal with the highest percentage of Protestants are The Laggan area of East Donegal around Raphoe, the Finn Valley and areas around Ramelton, Milford and Dunfanaghy – where their proportion reaches up to 30–45 percent. There is also a large Protestant population between Donegal Town and Ballyshannon in the south of the county. In absolute terms, Letterkenny has the largest number of Protestants (over 1000) and is the most Presbyterian town (among those settlements with more than 3000 people) in the Republic of Ireland. Some County Donegal Protestants (mainly those concentrated in The Laggan, the Finn Valley, Inishowen and the Donegal Town/Ballintra areas) are members of the Orange Order.

The Earagail Arts Festival is held within the county each July.

People from Donegal have also contributed to culture elsewhere. Francis Alison was one of the founders of the College of Philadelphia, which would later become the University of Pennsylvania.[28] Francis Makemie (originally from Ramelton) founded the Presbyterian Church in America. David Steele, from Upper Creevaugh, was a prominent Reformed Presbyterian, or Covenanter, minister who emigrated to the United States in 1824. The Right Reverend Dr Charles Inglis, who was the first Church of England Bishop of the Diocese of Nova Scotia, was the third son of The Reverend Archibald Inglis, the Rector in Glencolumbkille.

Places of interest

Glenveagh National Park.

County Donegal is a favoured destination for many travellers. One of the attractions is Glenveagh National Park (formerly part of the Glenveagh Estate), as yet (March 2012) the only official national park anywhere in the Province of Ulster. The park is a 140 km² (about 35,000 acre) nature reserve with scenery of mountains, raised boglands, lakes and woodlands. At its heart is Glenveagh Castle, a late Victorian 'folly' that was originally built as a summer residence.

Fintown Railway on the track of County Donegal Railways Joint Committee next to Lough Finn near Fintown railway station.

The Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking district) also attracts young people to County Donegal each year during the school summer holidays. The three-week-long summer Gaeltacht courses give young Irish people from other parts of the country a chance to learn the Irish language and traditional Irish cultural traditions that are still prevalent in parts of Donegal. The Donegal Gaeltacht has traditionally been a very popular destination each summer for young people from Northern Ireland. Scuba diving is also very popular with a club being located in Donegal Town.

Education

Third-level education within the county is provided by Letterkenny Institute of Technology (L.Y.I.T.; popularly known locally as 'the Regional'), established in the 1970s in Letterkenny. In addition, many young people from the county attend third-level institutions elsewhere in Ireland, especially in Derry and also at the University of Ulster at Coleraine (U.U.C.), the University of Ulster at Jordanstown (U.U.J.), The Queen's University of Belfast ('Queen's'), and NUI Galway. Many Donegal students also attend the Limavady Campus of the North West Regional College (popularly known as Limavady Tech) and the Omagh Campus of South West College (popularly known as Omagh Tech or Omagh College).

Sport

Gaoth Dobhair GAA grounds.

Gaelic football and hurling

The Gaelic Athletic Association (G.A.A.) sport of Gaelic football is very popular in County Donegal. Donegal's inter-county football team have won the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship title twice (in 1992 and 2012). Donegal emerged victorious from the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final on 23 September 2012 to take the Sam Maguire Cup for only the second time, with early goals from Michael Murphy and Colm McFadden setting up victory of 2–11 to 0–13 over Mayo. In 2007, Donegal won only their second national title by winning the National Football League. On 24 April 2011, Donegal added their third national title when they defeated Laois to capture the National Football League Division Two. There are 16 clubs in the Donegal Senior Football Championship, with many others playing at a lower level.[29]

Hurling, handball and rounders are also played but are less widespread, as in other parts of northwestern Ireland. The Donegal county senior hurling won the Lory Meagher Cup in 2011 and the Nicky Rackard Cup in 2013

Rugby Union

There are several rugby teams in the county. These include Ulster Qualifying League Two side Letterkenny RFC, whose ground is named after Dave Gallaher, the captain of the 1905 New Zealand All Blacks touring team, who have since become known as The Originals. He was born in nearby Ramelton.

Ulster Qualifying League Three sides include Ballyshannon RFC, Donegal Town RFC and Inishowen RFC. Finn Valley RFC and Tir Chonaill RFC both compete in the Ulster Minor League North.

Association football

Finn Harps plays in the League of Ireland and won promotion to the Premier Division in 2007 following a 6–3 aggregate win in the playoff final. They are now back alongside their arch-rivals Derry City F.C., with whom they contest Ireland's North-West Derby. There are numerous other clubs in Donegal, but none has achieved the status of Finn Harps.

Golf

Many people travel to Donegal for the superb golf links—long sandy beaches and extensive dune systems are a feature of the county, and many links courses have been developed. Golf is a very popular sport within the county, including world class golf courses such as Ballyliffin (Glashedy), Ballyliffin (Old), both of which are located in the Inishowen peninsula. Other courses to note are Murvagh (located outside Donegal Town) and Rosapenna (Sandy Hills) located in Downings (near Carrigart). The Glashedy Links has been ranked 6th in a recent ranking taken by Golf Digest on the best courses in Ireland. The Old links was ranked 28th, Murvagh 36th and Sandy Hills 38th.

Bundoran is regarded as one of the best surfing spots in Ireland and Europe.

Mountain Biking

Because of Donegal's hilly and mountain landscape, Mountain Biking has become a significant and growing interest. The Donegal Mountain Bike Club is the newest Mountain Bike club in Donegal, and held its first race on 31 August 2011. The 'Bogman Race' was entered by more than 50 people from different backgrounds of cycling. Due to the overwhelming popularity of their first ever race, the club plans to organise more races in the near future over different seasons, and aims to make it a major tourist attraction throughout Donegal.

Cricket

Cricket is also played in County Donegal. This sport is chiefly confined to The Laggan district and the Finn Valley in the east of the county. The town of Raphoe and the nearby village of St. Johnston, both in The Laggan, are the traditional strongholds of cricket within the county. The game is mainly played and followed by members of County Donegal's Protestant community.

Other sports

Donegal's rugged landscape lends itself to active sports like climbing, hillwalking, surfing and kite-flying.

Rock climbing is of very high quality and still under-developed in the county. There is a wealth of good quality climbs in the county, from granite rocks in the south to quartzite and dolerite in the north; from long mountain routes in the Poisoned Glen to boulder challenges of excellent quality in the west and in the Inishowen Peninsula. The current Donegal rock climbing guidebook contains over 2800 recorded rock climbs covering the entire county including the Donegal Sea Stacks, Malin Beg, Gola, and Cruit Islands.

Surfing on Donegal's Atlantic coast is considered to be as good as any in Ireland. The seaside resort of Bundoran, located in the very south of the county, along with nearby Rossnowlagh, have been 'reborn' as the centre of surfing in County Donegal. Indeed, these areas are renowned as the main surfing centres in Ulster.

Greyhound racing based in Lifford is home to the Lifford Greyhound Racing Stadium, a state of the art stadium built at a cost of €12 million and also the East Donegal Coursing Club.

Panoramic view of Mount Errigal's summit.

People

A

B

C

D

E

G

H

I

J

L

Mac/Mc

M

O

P

R

S

T

Surnames

The most common surnames in County Donegal at the time of the United Kingdom Census of 1901 were:[33]

  1. Gallagher
  2. Doherty
  3. O'Donnell
  4. Boyle
  5. McLaughlin
  6. Sweeney
  7. Kelly
  8. McGinley
  9. McFadden
  10. Ward

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "County Donegal". Central Statistics Office. 2011.
  2. ↑ "2006 Annual Report in Ulster Scots" (PDF). North-South Ministerial Council.
  3. ↑ "2002 Annual Report in Ulster Scots" (PDF). North-South Ministerial Council.
  4. ↑ Tourism Ireland – Yeirly Report 2009
  5. ↑ "Donegal Library Services". Donegallibrary.ie. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  6. ↑ Ireland Northwest.
  7. ↑ "Derry and Donegal Sinn Féin Councillors join forces to push North West tourism". Sinnfein.ie. 16 February 2009. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  8. 1 2 Brian Lacy (Editor), Archaeological Survey of County Donegal, P. 1. Donegal County Council, Lifford, 1983.
  9. ↑ For 1653 and 1659 figures from Civil Survey Census of those years, Paper of Mr Hardinge to Royal Irish Academy 14 March 1865.
  10. ↑ Census for post 1821 figures.
  11. ↑ "A collection of British Historical Population Reports". University of Essex. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  12. ↑ "NISRA – Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (c) 2013". Nisranew.nisra.gov.uk. 27 September 2010. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  13. ↑ Lee, JJ (1981). "On the accuracy of the Pre-famine Irish censuses". In Goldstrom, J. M.; Clarkson, L. A. Irish Population, Economy, and Society: Essays in Honour of the Late K. H. Connell. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
  14. ↑ Mokyr, Joel; O Grada, Cormac (November 1984). "New Developments in Irish Population History, 1700–1850". The Economic History eview 37 (4): 473–488. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1984.tb00344.x.
  15. ↑ Patterson, Edward M (1962). The County Donegal Railways. Dawlish: David and Charles. pp. 9–10.
  16. ↑ Morton, O. 2003. The marine macroalgae of County Donegal, Ireland. Bull. Ir. biogeog. Soc. 27: 3 – 164
  17. ↑ Ennis, T. 2014. The occurrence of Dactylorhiza purpurella (T.Stephenson and T.S.Stephenson) Soó Ir Nat. J. 33: 128
  18. ↑ Sleeman, P.D. et al 2009. The small-bodied Badgers (Meles meles (L.) of Rutland Island, Co. Donegal. Ir. Nat. J. 30: 1 – 6
  19. ↑ "Crex Crex Corncrake, Priority Species Northern Ireland".
  20. ↑ "Dolmen Centre, Kilclooney, Portnoo, Co.Donegal". Dolmencentre.com. Retrieved 9 July 2013.
  21. ↑ Renamed "County Tirconaill" 1922 by resolution of the county council.(Place Name Confusion – Donegal or Tirconaill, The Irish Times, 24 April 1924). After historians and Gaelic scholars pointed out that the historic territory of Tirconaill did not include the whole county, the name Donegal was re-adopted in 1927 (Back to "Donegal", The Irish Times, 22 November 1927).
  22. ↑ Connolly, S.J., Oxford Companion to Irish History, page 129. Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-19-923483-7
  23. ↑ County 'wiped off crisis HQ maps'. The Belfast Telegraph. 21 April 2010.
  24. ↑ Donegal ‘disappears’ from crisis response maps. Ocean FM. 21 April 2010.
  25. ↑ Donegal Gaeltacht statistics
  26. ↑ "Closure of the 'Derry Road' a great loss to Ireland – Derry Journal". Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  27. 1 2 Willie Cumming, Duncan McLaren and T.J. O'Meara, An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Donegal, p. 96. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (N.I.A.H.), Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin, 2014.
  28. ↑ Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607–1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1963.
  29. ↑ "Donegal Gaelic football and hurling Clubs". clubgaa.ie.
  30. ↑ Bradshaw's Guide. W.J. Adams, 1864
  31. ↑ the Bloomfield Land and Building Company
  32. ↑ BBC your paintings, Henry Musgrave by Henrietta Rae
  33. ↑ "Donegal Genealogy Resources & Parish Registers - Ulster". forebears.co.uk.

Further reading

External links

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