School: Castlefin
- Location:
- Castlefinn, Co. Donegal
- Teachers: Ailís E. Ní Bhaoighill Seosamh Ó Baoighill
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1098, Page 265
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- There is a well along the roadside in Carrick near Castlefinn known as “the Priests Well”. It is not a holy well, but it is so called because a priest was murdered there about eighty-seven years ago. There was ill-feeling at the time between the descendants of the Planters who were Protestants and the Catholics whose ancestors originally owned the land, so that faction fights were common. An Orange gang led by a one Doctor Meighan decided that they would murder Father O’ Kane for revenge against the Catholics.
Father O’Kane was on his way home on horseback from a sick call when he was attacked by men who lay in ambush awaiting him. He was pulled from his horse and a shear was driven into his skull. The attackers cleared and left him on the roadside to die. The horse galloped home. and friends who saw it without its owner knew that there was something wrong and set out in search of the priest. and found him unconscious on the roadside at the well They carried him home where he died after a short time He was buried in the graveyard of Saint Mary’s Castlefinn. A flat tombstone marks the spot where his remains were laid.
- Collector
- Dan Mc Hugh
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Carrick, Co. Donegal
