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"Being far from the ocean when the stormy wind rose..."

1795 disaster, boating, disaster, drowning, Friars' Island, local history, poetry, Station Island

"I do not think even Paddy could do much in protecting this lake"

"'And as parliament is usually dead slow,' added the Captain, 'it is much to be wished that Paddy, in the meanwhile, would take the affair [of Otter fishing] into his own hands : he is just the boy to do it well.'…"

colonialism, conversation, debate, fishing, Henry Newland, Irish identity, lake, legislation, memoir, nineteenth century, otters, overfishing, upper lake

"If I had my will, every otter-fisher should be solemnly ducked"

"'If ever an otter is admissible,' said the Parson,' it is so on such a lake as this. You certainly never get a day's fair fishing here.'…"

British Parliament, conversation, fauna, fishing, Henry Newland, lake, legislation, memoir, nineteenth century, otters, overfishing, upper lake

"In media lacus"

"This shews that Saints island is the one on which the monastery, because the present station does not contain 10 acres. There is however a mistake in the phrase 'in media lacus' for Saints island is very near the land…"

etymology, John O'Donovan, Latin, letters, movement of Purgatory, nineteenth century, ordnance survey, origin of purgatory, purgatory, Saints' Island, Station Island

"In nine cases out of ten, the legend is simply an attempt made by an unlettered, but imaginative people, to account for natural appearances by supernatural agency"

A description of the power given to unexplained natural phenomena in Irish folklore, and the character of the storytellers

colonialism, conversation, debate, dispute, fishing, Folklore, Henry Newland, Irish identity, memoir, mythology, negative description, nineteenth century, superstition, upper lake

"Shades of evening were adding solemnity to the landscape"

"By this time there began to be a stir among the boatmen, the sun had been for some while under the horizon, and the shades of evening were adding solemnity to the landscape…"

boating, fishing, fly fishing, Henry Newland, memoir, night, nineteenth century, sunset, weather

"Sure it's an aigle!"

"'What bird is that ?' said the Captain, rousing himself. 'Sure it's an aigle!' said the men ; and, for want of something better to do, the whole party stood, sat, or reclined, watching the bird as it hovered uneasily round and round them..."

birdlife, boating, eagle, Eagle's Rock Island, eggs, fauna, fishing, Henry Newland, lake, memoir, nineteenth century, poaching, upper lake

"This task was soon rendered less difficult by the rising of the moon"

"It was much too dark for any one to see where they were going, so that it seemed more by instinct than anything else that the boat touched the shore at the very spot where they had been taken in that morning…"

boating, fishing, Henry Newland, memoir, night, nineteenth century, Pettigo

"Though my letters are wild as the mountains in which they were written"

"Though my letters are wild as the mountains in which they were written, still do I feel myself very sober in thought, and exceedingly (excessive) in love with truth even to the prejudice of all national feelings…"

detachment, emotion, empiricism, environment, Folklore, John O'Donovan, letters, nineteenth century, Oral History, ordnance survey, region, remoteness, wildness

"Wild and gloomy loneliness"

"Lough Derg has certainly been well chosen as a spot of religious penitence and seclusion, for the character of its scenery harmonises well with such a feeling; it is that of wild and gloomy loneliness."

arbutus, colour, description, fauna, fishing, flora, fly fishing, Heather (Calluna vulgaris), Henry Newland, isolation, loneliness, memoir, mountains, myrica, nineteenth century, remoteness, wildness

A 1603 description of Lough Derg

"An inquisition taken at Donegal in the 1st year of [James I in 1603] may throw some light upon the time of this removal: In the parts of Ulster near the territory calle O'Donnell's Countrie, are the walls and monuments of a certain Monastery or…

abandonment, description, destruction of built heritage, dissolution, John O'Donovan, letters, neglect, nineteenth century, ordnance survey, ruin, seventeenth century, Station Island, suppression

Becalmed on the Lake

"But the breeze gradually dropped. Large splashes of calm, glazy-looking water appeared here and there, spreading by little and little over the whole surface, while the rises became more and more infrequent, and, before a dozen fish had been caught,…

fishing, fly fishing, Henry Newland, isolation, memoir, nineteenth century, remoteness, tranquility, upper lake, weather

Davog was a woman?

"Now let me at my old antagonist Oral tradition: The chair of Davog lies in the townland of Suidhe Dhabheog (Seeavoge) where in the living rock some impressions of elbows &c are strewn. Davog was a woman, who came to make the turas but she died…

fifth century, Folklore, gender, John O'Donovan, letters, nineteenth century, Oral History, ordnance survey, St. Dabheoc, St. Dabheoc's Seat, St. Patrick, women's history

Eagle's eggs

"It so happened, that the Parson had marked the very clump in which the bird had pitched, and had taken the bearings accurately. Guiding his course by these, he scrambled over huge, loose, mossy stones, so large, so irregular, and so unconnected with…

birdlife, dryness, eagle, eggs, fauna, fishing, Henry Newland, lake, memoir, nesting, nineteenth century, poaching, upper lake

Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the worm of Lough Derg

O'Donovan's account from a local of the origin of Lough Derg's name in a story from the Fenian Cycle

etymology, Fair Lake, Fenian Cycle, Fionn mac Cumhaill, John O'Donovan, lake, letters, mythology, nineteenth century, ordnance survey, Red Lake, worm

Fishing in the Upper Lake

"There was at first quite success enough to test the goodness of the extempore flies, and though few fish of much more than a pound weight were taken, and those of a dull brown, out-of-season sort of character…"

boating, catch, fishing, fly fishing, Henry Newland, islands, memoir, nineteenth century, upper lake

John O'Donovan catches a cold

"I visited the far famed terrestrial purgatory of Lough Derg, but received no benefit from my turas except a severe cold, which I attribute more to the wet mountain bogs that surround the lake, and to the chillyness (chilliness) of the wind than to…

bogland, cold, complaint, criticism, crossing, John O'Donovan, letters, negative description, nineteenth century, ordnance survey, pilgrim, rain, sickness, weather

Oral history and facts

A debate over the reliability of oral history, in which O'Donovan cites the heterogeneity of County Donegal local stories

debate, empiricism, Folklore, John O'Donovan, letters, nineteenth century, Oral History, ordnance survey, reliability, religion, scientism, tradition

The March of the Dead Maguires

An account of Lough Derg folklore on a fishing trip, explaining the strange circular currents of the lake in supernatural terms

fishing, Folklore, ghosts, Henry Newland, lake, Maguire family, memoir, mythology, nineteenth century, seventeenth century, Station Island, supernatural, water, weather

The monster guards a crock of gold

"The same or a similar monster inhabits the lake yet (still) and was seen not many months ago. It guards a crock of gold which lies buried in the ancient island of the Purgatory…"

Fenian Cycle, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Folklore, gold, John O'Donovan, letters, Ludovicus Pyrrhus, monster, mythology, nineteenth century, ordnance survey

The salmon of Lough Derg

"There is one strange fact connected with this lake - no salmon come into it, though they come up to the very point where the River Derg escapes out of it…"

Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar), empiricism, fauna, fishing, Folklore, John O'Donovan, letters, nineteenth century, ordnance survey, River Derg, Salmon, scientism, St. Patrick

Where to catch fish

"It is in the neighbourhood of [the islands beyond Station Island] that the fish are caught, and round them the boat made its slow circuit, as the fishermen, keeping accurate time, cast, with lines not above twice the length of their rods, the one to…

boating, Eagle's Rock Island, fishing, fly fishing, Henry Newland, Inishgoosk, lake, memoir, nineteenth century, upper lake

"Eagles build in the islands of Lough Derg"

"Eagles build in the islands of Lough Derg, in places apparently very accessible to man..."

Badger (Meles meles), birdlife, Croaghbrack townland, curlews, eagle, Eagle's Rock Island, fauna, grouse, hares, islands, kites, lake, Lieutenant W. Lancey, ordnance survey, partridges, Royal Irish Academy, snipe, Templecarne, upper lake

Geology of Templecarn

"This district is a primitive formation of quartz and gneiss with blue mountain limestone filled with organic remains on the margin of Lough Erne."

geology, geomorphology, gneiss, Lieutenant W. Lancey, limestone, Lough Erne, mountains, ordnance survey, outcrops, quarts, rocks, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne

Lough Erne

"The coast of Lough Erne in this neighbourhood is low and a very small portion of it belongs to Templecarn. The general climate of Tyrhugh is moist and damp."

Barony of Tirhugh, climate, environment, Lieutenant W. Lancey, Lough Erne, ordnance survey, Parish of Templecarne, Royal Irish Academy, Templecarne