Donegal priest murdered during the Penal Times featured in new book

The story of a Donegal priest murdered during the Penal Times is featured in a new children’s book called ‘Haunted Ireland: Ghost Stories from Every County’ by Kieran Fanning and illustrated by Mark Hill.

In an attempt to quash Catholicism, the Penal Laws were introduced in Ireland in the 17th Century by the ruling English Crown. During this time, Catholic Mass was made illegal and any priest caught saying it could be arrested or even executed. The people, however, weren’t going to give up their religion that easily, and so they organised secret Masses in remote forests or on isolated hilltops, hiding priests in their communities to perform the ceremonies.

On the Inishowen Peninsula, Father Seamus Hegarty, PP of Fahan, hid in a concealed cave on the shores of Lough Swilly. He was brought food by his sister Mary, who told nobody, not even her husband, where she went on her secret trips.

Perhaps, she didn’t tell her husband because he was known to be an English sympathiser. One day, curiosity got the better of him and he followed his wife on one of her clandestine missions. When he discovered Father Hegarty’s hiding place, he went straight to the authorities and received for himself a handsome reward in exchange for the location of the priest.

Captain Vaughan led the hunt for Father Hegarty, but the locals got wind of the Redcoats’ approach and gave the priest a white horse to make his getaway. He galloped towards his Mass Rock where a boat was waiting to ferry him to safety across the lough to Rathmullan. Vaughan gave chase and caught up with the priest on a clifftop.

To avoid capture, Father Hegarty rode his horse over the edge of the cliff and into the water. Vaughan called out to him, promising him mercy if he returned to the shore. The priest foolishly believed the promise and gave himself up but as soon as he’d crawled out of the water, Vaughan beheaded him.

At the moment of his death, it is believed that a large rock cracked apart in the shape of a cross. Father Hegarty’s head was sent to Dublin as proof of his demise and his body was buried where it fell. The place would later be named Hegarty’s Rock and there is a plaque there in remembrance of his death.

Father Hegarty’s white horse is said to haunt the cliffs around Hegarty’s Rock, located at Ballynarry, outside of Buncrana, and has indeed saved the lives of a group of boys that were quad biking on the path, by warning them of the steep drop into the ocean. This is one of thirty-two ghost stories in ‘Haunted Ireland’ by Kieran Fanning, pictured above, a Wicklow native, who lives and teaches in County Meath. The book is available in all good bookshops from October 3.