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"It's Us They're Talking About" - Edition 9

 

'Inishowen At Work : Then And Now'

 

This year, as all Donegal commemorates the fourth Centenary of the Flight of the Earls,the Mc Glinchey Summer School takes this opportunity to explore Inishowen at that time of our history
The 2006 Summer School programme aimed to do three things: firstly, to celebrate the traditional crafts and trades of Mc Glinchey’s time; secondly, to look at the work situation in Inishowen past and present; and finally, to ask what are the challenges for all our futures in a very different world of new technologies and globalisation. These published Proceedings reflect these aims. They include not only the talks delivered at last year’s Summmer School but also specially commissioned articles which record the Inishowen craft and industrial scene throughout the 20 th century.

Working and Living in Mc Glinchey’s Time (1861-1955), the keynote address delivered by Nollaig Mac Congail, Profesor of Irish at NUI Galway explored the historical and social context of The Last of theName and compared it with recollections of Patrick Mc Gill, Séamas Ó Grianna and other Donegal writers. Articles on the Forge, the Mill and the Thatched Cottage by Margaret Farren and Danny Mc Connalogue recall how farming communities worked and lived in those days. The tradition of weaving in Inishowen is well documented in Mc Glinchey’s memoir and Marius Harkin, the editor of this issue, recounts the valiant efforts to revive the weaving industry in Clonmany in the late 1950s.

Copies of the magazine at €10 each are available at:

- Malin Stores, Malin Town
- Dohertys Corner Shop, Carndonagh
- Centra's, Clonmany
- Caitriona's, Clonmany
- Dunaff Post Office

Contact Us If You Are Interested In Getting A Copy

Or Check Out The 8th Edition Of The Magazine

Stories of the shirt and textile industries which provided valuable employment in Inishowen throughout the 20 th century are recorded by Maura Harkin, William Mc Carter and Patricia Doherty. The Congested Districts Board established in 1891 to stimulate development in coastal communities in the West of Ireland is the subject of an article ‘From Poverty to Development’ by an tAthair Pádraig Ó Baoighill of Pobalscoil Gaoth Dobhair. The CDB initiated improvements in housing, agriculture and fishing and encouraged the setting up of co-operatives. The story of the first Inishowen Co-operative is outlined by local historian, Sean Beattie. The alcohol factories built in the 1930s to benefit the potato growers of Donegal are the subject of an article by Jackie Mc Guinness, a former project manager.

A successful innovation last year was the Open Forum on Inishowen’s development possibilities. The scene was set by the eminent social and economic consultant, Trutz Haase, who made a presentation on Inishowen’s relative affluence and deprivation. His dramatic conclusion, based on analysis of successive censuses, was that Inishowen was consistently 11 years behind the rest of the country over a range of employment and educational indices, and had not gained ground during the great leap forward of the “Celtic Tiger”. Other invited speakers at the Forum were Denis Bradley, Paul Mc Kevitt Shauna Mc Cleneghan and John Farren.

Tributes are paid to Cis Farren and Charlie Doherty (Owen) both of whom enriched the area during their long lives among us. Photographs illustrate many of the articles and coloured pictures taken by Ludwig Schenkel in Clonmany in the early 1950s are a delight to behold. Poems and stories by J.J. Keaveny, Annie Doherty, Laurence Glackin and Micheal Coady also enhance this volume. Links with the Inishowen diaspora in Boston are maintained with an article by Dan Casey and Ed Callaghan who were responsible for the documentary The Green Square Mile, shown in Clonmany last January. Copies of It’s usthey’re talking about Vol.9 are available in shops throughout the peninsula.