ScéalLong ago during the time of the famine smuggling boats used to arrive at weekly at Tory island. The natives used to purchase these goods, and in turn sell them to the people of Mullaghderg, Kincasslagh, and Belcruit who used to assemble every week at an island called Oilean Glas.
When the goods were bought these people used to take their carts and go through the country as far as Letterkenny, selling them.
The Protestants of Mullaghderg got to know of the smuggled goods. They were jealous of their neighbours and proceeded to inform the coast gaurds as to what was taking place.
The Gaurds then went, and dispatched the people who were waiting for the goods , and they themselves waited.
When the boat arrived the captain was unable to discern those who waited for him so he and his men came ashore with some of the goods.
As soon as they landed they realised their mistake, but as

A man named Jack Curran was noted for his great strength. He could carry either a boat or a curragh on his back. He was also a great oarsman, and won all the races that he tried in a curragh. He was from Tory Island.
Hugh Lynagh was a great runner, Pat Duffy was against him. He won a race of 240 yards. He won all the races in this county. This man was from Carrigart.
James Ward was noted

A ship named The Wasp was coming from England to dispossess the people of Tory from their homes. A magic stone in Tory Island was turned against them, and the ship and they were wrecked (agan) on the rocks.
Two men were coming from Moville, and a gale was on. They met the American Liner off Malin Head and they were driven into Scotland.
Two stacks of corn were burned accidently in

Before Colm-Cille died he wished he was in Gartan or in Dombarton's blessed clay or in the Island of Tory surrounded by the sea.Also he said when he would die to put his coffin out on the water and where ever it floats to, to bury him there. His coffin floated to the Isle of Tory. There was a little boy herding two cows along the water. One of the cows never eat any grass but licked at this rock covered with fog. She had more milk than the other one. The people went to investigate it and found it was Colm-Cilles Coffin. He was buried in Tory Isle

La Hoats a French vessel coming to take Ireland with army & ammunition was taken prisoner & crew put in Derry gaol. It was wrecked near Port Salon, off the Atlantic Ocean.
The power of the cannon was such that the very plates & delph on the dressers were shaken.
This happened about 200 years ago. Wasp - The wasp was lost off Tory Island. the wreck was caused by a storm of wind, & happened about 70 years ago.

fested Lough Swilly, Lough Foyle and indeed the entire Nothern coast.
Balor's headquarters was in Tory Island, where a high, tower-like rock is called to this day Balor's Castle. He is also called Balor of the evil eye, for he had one eye, with venomous properties, like a Basilisk.
This eye would strike people dead or turn them into stone, so that Balor kept it covered, except when he wished to use it against his enemies.
Balor represented in Irish mythology the Powers of Darkness in contrast with his grandson Lugh, by whom he was finally slain, and whose "Sword of light," forms the design of one of the postage stamps of Eire.

When Saint Colmcille went on his banishment he made for Tory island intending to land there. There were two different clans on the island at that time. One of them would not let him land but the other fought against them and brought Colmcille in safely.
The people of the island were very much troubled with rats. Colmcille banished them from the clan who had previously rescued him. He told them that they would never again be troubled by rats. It is also said that he blessed the clay of the island.
A few years later a man of this clan went over to the English harvest. The place where he lodged was so infested with rats that he had to leave and seek lodgings elsewhere. He went over to the harvest the next year also and brought some clay from the island with him. There were no rats in the place while he was there but after he left they began again to increase in number.Collected by Celia Mc Laughlin, Knockbrack, Malin
From John Mc Laughlin, Knockbrack, Malin

An Old StoryIn the year 1902 on June 14th there was a terrible sea disaster which involved the loss of the S.S. Clog Mor owned by Messrs Fuher & Sons Newry. She carried a crew of 10 including the Captain's Sister and Miss Monaghan of Point Rd., Dundalk. The ship was scuttled and was sunk off Lough Swilly at Tory Island with six of the crew lost. Their names were G. [Mostyn?] G. Townley, M. Gray and M. Lennon all of Dundalk, and G. Mc Hee an M. Roddy, Newry. Those saved were the Captain and his sister, T. Maguire and J. Murphy. There was foul play attached to this disaster as was proven later in the Dublin Law Courts when it was discovered that Michael Lennon and Michael Roddy were locked in the stokehole by the Captain and did not give them a chance to escape in case they would tell what happened the ship.
They were on a voyage from Liverpool to Belfast with a grain cargo and took this strange route in order to enable the Captain to meet his fiancee, a Miss Stroller who had arranged to meet him in Lough Swilly. This was the first seamens case that was ever won.
The case was fought for three years until Mr. F. M. Healy K. C. and later Governor General of the Free State instructed by Mr. A. N. Shearn, Ravensdale. The late Mr. Healy and Shearn got great praise from the people

This graveyard, situated in the lower end of the Parish of Denn was closed in 1937 and a new one consecrated beside it. It must have been in use for centuries for all knowledge of the burial ground used before it’s time has been forgotten.
In it are some large stones which are well know locally as the “Flags of Denn.” In former years the strong men of the parish challenged each other after mass on Sundays and at funerals to lift these stones off the ground. About half a dozen men are known to have lifted them to their knees, the last man to do it being Larry Hyland of Banahoe. In my opinion the stones (two of them) weigh about five cwts.
There is a superstition connected with the flags to the effect that if, with the invocation of the devil they are turned over with the intention of doing a neighbour harm, some misfortune is sure to overtake that neighbour. Loss or injury of cattle is said to be the usual form of the misfortune. Many instances are given of such ill luck.
Note Compare our exactly similar superstitions practice in Tory Island off the coast of Donegal.

Na trí Mhic O gorra
The three sons of Corr are the names of three rocks which are situated to the north of Cruit.
Long ago when St Colmcille lived the island of Tory was under magic spells, One day Colmcille went up to the top of a high hill and he saw Tory from one spot. he told the people that there was only one spot from which you could see Tory.
The people of Tory heard this and that night the king and the queen of Tory came to the hill and the stuck sticks everywhere in the hill. When Colmcille went to the top of the hill he saw all the sticks.
He walked along until he came to the spot from

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With the lands of Rathmullan and Glencross. It is interesting to note that the name of Rathmullan was Fearann na mbriathar land of the friars. A townland in the suburbs of Rathmullan is named on the local map Aghavannan. Perhaps it should be written Aghavanny-the field of the manach or monk, as it was at one time a possession of the monastery now in ruins in the village.
In 1585 Dowcra plundered Rathmullan and took one thousand head of cattle from MacSweeney. He placed 150 soldiers in the monastery in charge of Ralph Bingley and the monks fled to the castle hard by. In 1587 the monks witnessed with sorrow the kidnapping of Red Hugh O’Donnell.
In 1595 when MacSweeney was assisting Hugh O’Neill at the battle of Clontibret the notorious George Bingham plundered the monastery and carried off the bell, twenty-two sets of precious vestments and most of the silver vessels for the use of the Abbey. On his way back to Connaught Bingham plundered St. Colmcille’s monastery on Tory Island. The vengeance of Heaven soon however overtook the spoiler, for shortly after his arrival back in Connaught he had an altercation with one of the Burkes who slew him. From the time of Bingham Rathmullan had no bell for summoning Catholics to worship until the year 1910 when

did not get up to put their cattle in. When it did not go over they got up but the doors were blocked with snow and they could not get out.
In 1856 sand blew and it covered some houses between Ballylar and the sea. The houses are still covered.
In 1856 the "Ship Cambera" was sunk at Harts with the same storm as blew the sand. All the people on board were drowned. At the same time a whale was washed in ashore alive.
In 1907 the "Wasp" was wrecked at Tory Island. There was a mark put on the rock where it was wrecked to save others.
The "Erener Maria" was wrecked about

This cow stayed there for some time until the people had a dispute about her. One Sunday morning a man put her into his byre, and went to Mass. But when he came back the cow was gone.
The people told a lot of stories of how she went away. Some said she was seen going into Tory island with another cow and that she was roaring. Others said that she went away in the shape of a red-haired boy.
A man named Andy Gallen had fourteen children. He had to go to Derry for food for himself and his children.
He went to Derry for meal on horse back, and then all the meal he could get was one pack of out-meal weighing 10 lbs. On the road home the poor people were lying on the road asking him for God’s sake to give them three grains of meal. He stopped to

Once upon a time there was a man who thought he should have a holiday.
One day in the month of May he got onboard a big ship. The ship brought him as far as Tory Island. There, he refused to pay his board. The captain searched about until he found a treacle barrel. He caught the man and put him into it. Afterwards he thew the barrell out into the Atlantic and left it to float into whatever bay it liked.
A week passed and nothing had been heard of the man. It was believed that the barrel had broken and that the man had been drowned.
The second week had almost gone by, when the barrel came in at Alt na Mádaidh.
He lay there for one night and half a day. A fox came and found the smell of treacle. He at once made

resided at Carrigart. For a wager of a bag of meal Lynagh carried from a cart on the roadside into a shop one bag of meal under each arm each bag weighing sixteen stone.
Another man who was considered very strong was a pedlar named John Love of no fixed residence. Love often wheeled 10 cwt on a handcart through the country.
A great runner who always won at races throughout the county and who could run a mile in four and a half minutes was a man named Edward Doherty, Devlinreagh Carrigart.
John Mac Fadden Swillybrin was reconed to be a fast and clever swimmer.
Anthony Coyle Gleneragh covered a distance of forty eight miles on foot in thirteen and a half hours.
A famous mower was a man named Anton Gallagher Downings who could mow five rood per day.
A famous dancer was a Mr. Séamus Ward, Tory Island. He received a gold medal for his good dancing.

In the year 1892 there was a ship coming in at Tory Island with a ship load of soldiers to evict the people out of their houses. A storm came, the ship was wrecked and the soldiers were all drowned but one man. He clung on to a log of wood and was swept ashore at Tory.
In the year 1933 there was a doctor named Charles McBride from Dunfanaghy sitting by the shore side at Horn Head when a big wave came up and swept him into the sea. Many people were looking for him but he was never got.
At the time of the trouble the British government built a coastguard station in Downings, and the coastguards lived in it for about twenty years. During the trouble in 1922 the Free State soldiers lived in it for about two months and then it was burned.
In the year 1918 there was an epidemic of influenza, in the parishes of Rosgull and Doe and there were many deaths.
In 1928 there was a great storm and as the train was going up the Gap of Barnes and it was blown off the rails

tide came in on them before they saw it and they were all drowned.The coast-guard station was burned in the time of the trouble. There was also a house burned in High Glen about thirty years ago. When occupants went to sleep a candle was left burning, something caught fire and the house was all burned.A big castle stood near Downings some hundreds of years ago. A great Lord lived there. The blowing sand began to blow and the people of the Castle fled and went to Dublin. The Castle was covered and never seen again. It is supposed to be hundreds of feet below the ground.
There are many graves in Drimdutton (Drumdutton) graveyard. There is a rock in it under which a king of Tory Island is supposed to be buried. There are many graves of chieftains, O'Boyles and McSweeeneys in Doe Castle graveyard. The flag stone which marked Tarla Oge O'Boyle's grave is now in the wall of the castle.There is supposed to be an urn of gold in Drimdutton graveyard which the monks put there when they were chasted from it by Cromwell.There was an epidemic of "flu" in 1918 in Drim and the surrounding district. It was very bad. There was a lot of deaths. A man named John Coyle from Glenereragh (Glenieragh) died.

hand and lift them over his head. The same man could lift a hundred weight bag of cement in each hand and throw them into a cart.There was a boy from Tory Island named Paddy Duggan, who was eighteen years of age. He and his father and other men went out fishing at Ramelton. There was a big stone in this place, and his father told him to lift it. He did so, and he asked his father where he would throw it. He told him to throw it over this wall, and the boy just threw it over. The stone is still lying in the same place at Ramelton.There was another man named John Sweeney from Ray. He was away in America and while he was there, he lifted five hundred and twenty-five pounds weight at the one time.There was a man from Glenalla named Robert Wallace, and he was known as the strongest man in the whole district. One time he went to the mill to get thorn thrashed. The mill was about twenty yards in from the road, and when the corn was threshed, he carried five hundred weights of corn from the mill out to the road, to put on the carts.There was another John Sweeney from Ray and he lifted forty stones of corn on to a horse's back. All these men were very big and strong, but they are

A Shipwreck.
On the twenty second of September eighteen hundred and seventy four, a British Revenue boat, named 'The Wasp' hit Swilly rock, a large rock at the mouth of Lough Swilly. It is said that there is a large stone on Tory Island called 'The Tory Stone' , that defends Tory from her enemies. If any person named the suspected ship and turned the stone round, the named ship was sure to sink. The race of people who had the power to turn the stone were named the Sweeneys.
Denis Curran,
3, Government Tce,
Letterkenny,
Co. Donegal.Mrs Carr,
Glenndown, (Glendowan)
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal

plunder and carry away barrels.
When the soldiers saw this they made a ring round in the sand and told the people not to come inside it. They had their riffles and Bayonets in their hands.
My grandfather was a small boy taking notice of all when suddenly he saw a soldier go up to a man called Robert McElhinney who lived in the town land of Leatbeg who was a step or two inside the ring and told him to stand back.
The man refused to do this. He was bidden three times but still he refused. The soldier knocked him down and the people kept out side the ring afterwards.
A ship named the Wasp was wrecked on a rock near Tory Island. Soldiers were on this boat going into Tory to dispossess the tenants. The boat struck the rock and was broken and all the men were drowned.
The Tory men still hold their small bits of land from that day to this.
John Morrow.
Told by my father William Morrow, Leatbeg, Carrigart Lifford, Age 57 years. Born and reared and spent all his life in Leatbeg.