The River Swilly was no stranger to brutal and bloody battles throughout its history, Godfrey O’Donnell in 1258 and Shane O’Neill in 1567 (which we read about in the last post) saw to that. Another major battle took place in 1650, to the west of the still young town of Letterkenny at Scarrifhollis, near to
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Today, people entering the town of Letterkenny from the east or south do so by crossing over the River Swilly at either the Port or Oldtown bridges. However, these crossings only emerged in the seventeenth century with the construction of the new market town. Prior to this, the principal crossing points of the river were
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Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), land reform campaigner, champion of Home Rule, ‘uncrowned King of Ireland’ and also a descendant of Letterkenny! Best known as one of the most important figures in Irish history, it is not as well known that he was actually descended from the Stewart family of Gortlee, who acquired the land, then
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So far, we have discovered the ancestral links the town of Letterkenny holds with Michael Palin and Patti Boyd, ex wife of George Harrison. In this post we note another interesting ancestral link, showing a connection to none other than the English Royal family, through Diana, Princess of Wales. In 2011, Canon Stewart Wright of
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