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| TOWN OF DONEGAL.-The above renowned stronghold of the ancient Irish princes of Tyrconnell - the warlike house of O'Donnell - takes its name from a dun, or fort, supposed to have been built by the Danish invaders, and called the Gaelic Dun-na-n Gall - the Fort of the Strangers. It is situated in the northwestern portion of the picturesque county of the same name, eleven miles north-northeast, of Ballyshannon, on the shallow river Eske, which falls into Donegal Bay. On three sides the town is bounded by lofty hills, and in its front is the ocean. The ruins of a Franciscan monastery, built by Hugh O'Donnell, in 1474, and destroyed during the Ulster wars of a hundred and twenty years later, crown one of the heights, while the remains of the once splendid castle of the O'Donnells-still imposing-looks down upon the river Eske. This castle is now owned by the Earl of Cavan, who has partially restored it. In the abbey were compiled the famous "Annals of the Four Masters," covering a period of 4,500 years! Within the castle, Hugh Roe O'Donnell-the victor of the Battle of the Curlew Mountains, in 1599, and the noblest and bravest of his race-gave many a splendid banquet. Of him, who had won forty battles against the English while still a youth, was written- Many a heart shall quail, under its coat of mail, When on his ear shall ring, borne en the breeze's wing, Deeply the merciless foeman shall rue, Tyrconnell's dread war-cry: "O'Donnell aboo!" |
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