ballyshannon

I'll admit that I'm coming up blank for the moment. (Though I'm sure it will turn out to be somewhere completely obvious!)

Sharon Corbet Has everyone gone on holiday today?

Shadows, are we looking North East? Rapids/waterfall in the river which flows South into the harbour. Huge convent or maybe a barracks on the hill. Could it be Ballyshannon? I believe it is, the "convent" is the old workhouse. General View, Ballyshannon from the Eblana collection. We are looking a bit South of East

Niall McAuley is amazing! And so is Flickr! This via Aidan Devlin about the Mall pier / jetty / quay, centre frame - " ... This jetty was also the site where many thousands of passengers and emigrants who left Ireland during the nineteenth-century (particularly during the years of the Great Famine c. 1845 - 1851 and in the decades afterwards) on their way to North America etc. The port/harbour at Ballyshannon was hindered by the presence of a dangerous sandbar in the estuary, which meant that the larger ships could not come into the port but had to move the goods/passengers to and from smaller boats to reach the shore (goods were also regularly unloaded at Killybegs - then a subsidiary port of Ballyshannon and later transported to Ballyshannon by smaller vessels). This quay was apparently constructed or remodelled for a Dr. Sheil prior to 1836 and was later purchased from the Sheil family by the Ballyshannon Harbour Commissioners (for £137-10-00) in 1888. Works were carried out on the harbour by Robert Stevenson (1772 - 1850), a Scottish engineer, in 1835 – 6. The harbour/quay appears to have declined in importance by the end of the nineteenth-century. ..." Edit - above quote originally from www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/40852...

Reverse-ish view with dating information -

Is that our most bonkers building yet?

Streetview: www.google.ie/maps/@54.501592,-8.1903264,3a,75y,120.45h,1...

The tall Scots Baronial-style building was built in 1878 for the Belfast Bank according to the NIAH: www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/40852... The lower building to the left of the tower was built in 1885/6 for the Provincial Bank: www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/40852... Both banks eventually became part of Allied Irish Bank, who still occupy the lower building and the building at extreme left, but no longer occupy the tower.

Carol Maddock I think the 'Wonderful Barn' is more bonkers!

Shot on the weekend

its all there in the picture , murdered in 1889 , at Gweedore in the line of duty , an R.I.C officer

Here's an account of his death... freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~donegal/deathi...

RTE did a radio documentary on the incident. But it was in the land campaign that he became famous. When the landlords agents arrived at one house to evict a tenant, Fr McFadden stood in the doorway. He withstood the bailiffs and orders were given for his arrest the following Sunday as he was saying Mass. This was too much for the people and they resisted it, in the process accidentally killing the police inspector. But the police returned another day and succeeded in taking Fr McFadden, and forty two others from Gweedore, into custody and brought them to trial for the murder of Inspector Martin.

More from the Nation, Saturday, 9 February 1889...

The Rev. J. McFadden was arrested at Gweedore on Sunday at the conclusion of the ordinary service in the chapel. In his address to the people after Mass, Father McFadden exhorted the people to be quiet and peaceable under any circumstances that might arise. When the congregation left the chapel a body of police under District-Inspector Martin, of Ballyshannon, was posted by the chapel door. The people stood by to see what would happen. As soon as Father McFadden made his appearance the police moved forward to arrest him. Simultaneously the people made a move to save the priest from being captured, and during a melée between them and the constables the priest escaped from the crowd, and ran towards his house. He was, however, followed by the police, and just as he was mounting the steps to his house door, Inspector Martin caught him by the coat. Seeing this the people at once hurled stones at the officer, and one of the missiles struck him on the back of the head. He fell insensible down the steps, his face being crushed as he reached the ground. He dide not recover consciousness, and died about three o'clock in the afternoon. He was attended by Dr. McFadden, of Gweedore, who happened to be returning from Divine Service at the time. Father McFadden, seeing what had happened, submitted to arrest, and was taken to the police barracks at Gweedore. Father McFadden left the Gweedore Hotel for Londonderry at half-past six, escorted by a detachment of the 60th Rifles and a body of constables.

As dearbhaile2 mentions, some of the context is given in the plaque itself. But certainly not all of it. As it happens, this image could very easily be added to the Tríd an Lionsa sequence that we saw on this stream in late 2015, as it relates to some of the images (including those below) shown during on particular episode of that TG4 program. (The episode is unfortunately now gone from the TG4 player). What the plaque doesn't reflect is why and how the named RIC member was killed. It was during the Land War, when the inspector attempted went (maybe inadvisably given the outcome) to arrest the local parish priest immediately after mass. The parishioners were (perhaps unsurprisingly) taken-aback at armed men seeming to pursue and accost the priest, and the inspector was struck and killed in the melee that followed. The TV program covered it well I thought. Though the main point of the program was how photography was used in the case that followed (in that, in 1889, the trial was one of the first in Ireland to use photographic evidence). www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/23350774204/