County Donegal in the second decade of the 20th century was a very different place to what it is today. The 1911 Census put the population of county at 168,537 people, with 50% living in houses of just two rooms. Through the work of local authorities and the Congested Districts Board however, the standard of living was rising. Among the improvements were the beginning of social housing, the gradual development of clean water supplies and sewerage systems, the building of roads and railways, the development of cottage industries, and efforts to spread the control of disease and improve access to education.

The introduction of the Old Age Pension in 1908 and National Unemployment Insurance were also of benefit to many of the poorer people in society. By 1916, World War I had raged for almost 18 months and many normal state services had slowed or had stopped because financial and human resources were being directed towards the war effort. Politically only Home Rule candidates had been elected as Members of Parliament in Co Donegal since 1885. In the 1911 local elections, 26 of the 32 seats were won by Home Rule candidates. Unionists across Ireland, particularly in much of Ulster resisted the Third Home Rule Bill. This opposition led to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers which in turn resulted in the formation of the nationalist Irish Volunteers in 1913. Two fishermen, Patrick McGinley and Charles Duggan from Gola Island, Co. Donegal, were involved in smuggling arms and ammunition for the Irish Volunteers into Howth, on the Asgard, in July 1914.

The Home Rule Bill passed its third reading in May 1914, but the outbreak of war in August resulted in its postponement. With nationalist opinion divided over the war, the Volunteer movement split. The majority opted to follow John Redmond’s National Volunteers and support the war in Europe, while the remainder retained the name Irish Volunteers and were committed to securing independence for Ireland.

Donegal was far from unknown to the Irish Volunteer leaders of 1916. Patrick Pearse visited Co. Donegal a number of times between 1906 and 1914, to promote the spread of the Irish language, on behalf of the Gaelic League. The Gaelic League employed him to promote and encourage the spread of Irish as a medium of instruction by teachers. It was for this purpose he came to visit Coláiste Uladh in Gortahork. He first visited in SeptemberHe was met at Creeslough railway station and went on to Marble Hill, home of Hugh Law MP. He later gave a lecture at Coláiste Uladh. On his second visit on 3 July 1907, he attended the re-opening of the college and toured the Donegal Gaeltacht.

In 1914, a number of meetings were held to increase recruitment to the Irish Volunteers. On Sunday, 1 February 1914, a meeting was held in the Parochial Hall, Dungloe. The principal speakers were Patrick Pearse and James Boyle, a former MP and solicitor from Stranorlar. In Pearse’s speech he stated that: ‘A splendid opportunity was given to Irishmen now to realise themselves as men, and they could not call themselves men if they were not able, if need be, to fight in defence of their manhood, in defence of their homes, their women and children, in defence of their rights’.

Pearse’s only legal case involved a Donegal man. Pearse was a Barrister-at- Law at the King’s Inns. He represented Niall MacGiolla Bhride from Creeslough, County Donegal in McBride v McGovern in 1906. The case was an appeal to the King’s Bench Division from a Magistrates’ Court in the Donegal Gaeltacht. A prosecution was brought against MacGiolla Bhride on the grounds that his horse and trap displayed his name and address in the Irish language and in the Gaelic font which did not comply with Section 12 of the Summary Jurisdiction (Ireland) Act, 1851. Pearse contended that as the Act applied to a bi-lingual State such as Ireland and as the alleged offence happened in a Gaeltacht area Irish should suffice. MacGiolla Bhride however was convicted and fined because it was held that:

‘An Englishman . . . if knocked down by an Irish cart in any part of the country, whether Connemara or elsewhere, is entitled to have the name and address of the offender in characters that he can read, if Irish letters are used he may be
powerless to identify’.

On their father’s death Patrick and Willie Pearse took over the family business of ecclesiastical and architectural sculptors. The firm made the pulpit and altar rails of the Cathedral of Saints Eunan and Columba in Letterkenny. The pulpit has within it carvings of the four Evangelists, Isaiah the prophet, and the Four Masters. Within the altar rails are carved symbols of the Passion of Christ. Two years before the Rising, in April 1914, Thomas MacDonagh visited Inishowen, on the invitation of the Donegal Irish Volunteers. He spoke at a large rally in Cruckaughrim, Carndonagh, where he appealed to young men to join the Volunteers. He praised the Volunteers as a national movement, made up of men ‘of all creeds and classes’. He declared that, ‘it was expedient for the Irish people to have a trained body of men to support and hold the Irish claim’.

Joseph Mary Plunkett attended Coláiste Uladh to learn Irish. There he met a girl called Columba O’Carroll, the daughter of a family friend. He wrote love poems for her, which he printed on what he called The Columba Press. Roger Casement also spent time in Donegal. He was committed to the revival of the Irish language and between 1904 and 1912 he spent much of his time in Ireland including visits to Donegal. In Fanad, he visited and corresponded with John Clinton O’Boyce, a school teacher in Portsalon. In a signed letter to O’Boyce, dated April 8th, 1905, from a London address, he wrote: ‘God bless you all in green Tirconaill – I hope and pray you will all fight and strive for the old tongue and never rest till you hear it coming back to hill and field and glen – fireside and Church too. It is the children we want to get it strong’. Casement also attended
Coláiste Uladh in Gortahork. He gave £100 for the building of the college hall.

A prominent member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in Donegal was Daniel Kelly, from Killygordon. For some years Kelly had worked on the railways in Scotland and while there, he and others had tried to organise a branch of Sinn Féin. After he returned to Donegal in 1912, he organised Irish Volunteer Companies in both Cloughaneely and Creeslough and spent some time trying to purchase arms and ammunition. By early 1915 the majority of those he had recruited had decided to stay with Redmond’s National Volunteers. The membership and morale of the Irish Volunteers was low. News of Eoin MacNeill’s order not to mobilise on Easter Sunday reached Donegal successfully. Nevertheless, a small group of about 30 Volunteers including Daniel Kelly met at Creeslough on Easter Sunday to await instructions. When there was still no word on Easter Monday, Kelly and his brother Joe decided to travel to Portadown to take a train to Dublin. However there were no trains running, and they returned home.

During the Rising itself men from Donegal were active on both sides throughout the country. One of the first people to die on Easter Monday was a County Donegal man, Charles McGee from Inishbofin Island, who was a Constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). He was based in Castlebellingham, County Louth. On Easter Monday a group of Louth Volunteers mobilised in Dundalk and set off towards Dublin. At Castlebellingham, they captured a number of policemen including Constable Magee, along with an army officer. In an incident, a Volunteer shot and wounded the officer and killed Constable McGee. He is buried in Gortahork graveyard in County Donegal.

Among those in the GPO in Dublin during Easter week was Joseph Sweeney, from Burtonport County Donegal. Sweeney was then an 18 year-old student in University College Dublin. He had been a pupil of Pearse’s at St. Enda’s School in Rathfarnham, and still lived there in 1916 acting as a courier and explosives maker. His account of his actions during Easter Week, later written in his application for a military pension, states that he was part of E Company, 4th Battalion Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, and that his Officers Commanding were Pearse and Liam Clarke. His short account of events that week includes his statement that he ‘served during the entire week in the GPO and Moore Street, being engaged for the most part sniping . . .’ He was one of James Connolly’s stretcher bearers from the GPO following the surrender of the rebels. In 1929, Joseph Sweeney became Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces.

Two other students, with connections to Donegal were in the GPO during Easter Week. These were Conor and Eunan McGinley, sons of Cú Uladh (Peter Toner McGinley) and cousins of Dr. J.P. McGinley, of Letterkenny. In 1916, Conor McGinley was 19 years old and a former pupil of St. Enda’s. He was studying architecture. When Pearse surrendered, Sweeney and the McGinleys were among those arrested and jailed. Conor was held in Dartmoor and Lewes prisons before being released in April 1917. Eunan was the youngest of the St. Enda’s boys, aged 16. In Richmond Barracks, after the surrender, he refused to tell the military authorities his real age, which would have meant his immediate release, because he thought his St. Enda’s comrades might possibly be shot, and he intended to share their fate. He was held in Stafford prison before being released in July 1916.

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By the end of Easter Week 485 men, women and children had been killed as a direct result of the fighting. Of these casualties, 184 civilians, 107 British soldiers, 58 rebels and 13 members of the police forces were killed between 24-29 April. Among the dead was Private Con Duggan from Annagry County Donegal. Con was a soldier in 3rd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, and was killed in Dublin on 29 April.

Men from Donegal who were active during the Rising outside Dublin included Donnacha MacNiallghuis originally from Malinbeg, Gleann Cholm Cille. In 1916, MacNiallghuis lived and worked in Cork and was an active member of the Irish Volunteers. He was among a large number of the Cork City Battalion Volunteers who assembled in Macroom on Easter Sunday in anticipation of Roger Casement’s arms landing in Co. Kerry. However, the Cork Volunteers’ attempt to mobilise ended abruptly following the failure of Casement’s plan, and they were forced to return home. County Donegal was very far away from the action in Dublin during Easter Week. So much so that Wednesday’s edition (26 April) of the Derry Journal could only report that there were ‘rumours of disorder’ in Dublin. By Friday, news was still not getting through and the paper complained that the lack of telegrams was leading to ‘alarmist and exaggerated reports’ of the disturbances in Dublin.

When news of the Dublin events did eventually reach Donegal the public reaction was negative. In May, Inishowen Rural District Council passed a resolution condemning the Rebellion and loss of life. Following the Rising the British Government was determined to adopt a tough policy against the insurgents. Over the following weeks sixteen leaders of the Rising were executed, including all seven signatories of the Proclamation. In August, Roger Casement was hanged in London. A further 97 people had their death sentences reduced to imprisonment, including Éamon de Valera and Countess Markievicz. In total over 3,500 people were arrested; almost 1,900 of these were sent to internment camps and prisons in England and Wales.

A number of Donegal Volunteers were arrested as Easter Week ended. Daniel Kelly’s witness statement describes the events at his home on the Saturday after Easter Monday, when the RIC arrived to arrest him. As the police searched the house, Kelly’s wife hid a rifle in her nightdress and Kelly watched as the police searched a chest which contained not just baby clothes but 500 rounds of revolver ammunition. He also describes his lengthy journey with other prisoners, via Derry, to Wakefield and Frongoch prisons. Kelly was released from Frongoch prison camp in Wales before Christmas 1916. Joseph Sweeney and Eunan McGinley were sent to Stafford Gaol and then to Frongoch prison camp. Sweeney was released in July 1916 and returned to Donegal to reorganise the Volunteers in the county. Conor McGinley was sent to Lewes and Dartmoor prisons (along with Éamon de Valera) and was released in April 1917. The mass arrests, executions and martial law which followed the Rising, soon turned public opinion across Ireland.

In Donegal Town on 10 June, the Donegal Rural District Council protested against the continuance of martial law, ‘more particularly in this county where not a rebellious symptom was demonstrated’. Popular support for the rebels and their cause began to gather momentum. During their time in prison Donegal men had the opportunity to meet others, discuss their political ideals, educate themselves in the art of war and begin to plan the reorganisation of the IRB and the Volunteers. As men were gradually released from prison in late 1916, they were openly welcomed home. Joseph Sweeney later wrote in 1970 that:

‘I was greatly surprised and encouraged at the warmth of the reception given me on my return home following imprisonment in England and Wales’.

In September 1916 the RIC County Inspector wrote of his concerns about the growing number of young Donegal men who, unable to travel to Scotland and England to find work, were joining nationalist organisations: ‘These men and their families have become sullen and discontented… there is little doubt but that they will come together, discuss their grievances, form some societies, secret or otherwise. Extremists will hear of their discontent and will probably endeavour to utilise it for their own ends’. Sweeney, Kelly and others began reorganisation of the Volunteers in earnest in 1917. Greater numbers of young men than ever before now joined the Irish Volunteers and the struggle for Irish independence began in earnest.

Donegal County Museum

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