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| BANN FALLS, CO. DERRY.- The River Bann is a very charming and romantic stream and the falls shown above are regarded with admiration by all tourists who visit the town and neighborhood of Coleraie in the County Derry. At a point about two miles above the town, the river rushes over a ledge of rock about thirteen feet high, forming one of the most striking "salmon leaps" in Ireland. The noble fish abounds in the waters of the Bann, but the "rights" of the fishery are leased to a company, which draws from the industry a liberal revenue. Below Coleraine, which is about four miles from the sea, navigation is obstructed by a sand bar, greatly to the detriment of trade. Most of the shipping business of Coleraine is carried on at the neighboring town of Portrush. In history the River Bann is famous as the centre, so to speak, of the alleged "Massacre" of 1641, when the native Irish, robbed of all their father possessed and driven to desperation, rose against their oppressors and sought to drive them from the lands they had usurped. The transactions of that year made "bad blood" between the old and new inhabitants of Ulster for generations. In his poem of "Una Phelimy," Samuel Ferguson makes the Scotch lover say to his Irish mistress- Bann rolls my comrades, even now, through all his pools and fords, And their hearts' best blood in warm, Una, upon thy brothers' swords! |
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