Author and historian John Joe McGinley to speak at famine commemoration

Author and historian John Joe McGinley will be speaking at the Dunfanaghy Commemoration day on Friday, May 19, at 6pm at the Workhouse. 

Mr McGinley will be delving into some of his stories from his latest book Famine, Murder and Eviction. He will focus predominantly on stories relating to the fighting priest of Gaoth Dobhair, Father James McFadden and Patrick O’Donnell who was hanged for the murder of informer James Carey.

"Both of these tales have been heavily influenced by the famine. Father James McFadden whilst coming from a fairly prosperous family background witnessed the horrors of the famine whilst coming from a relatively prosperous background, a young James lived through the traumatic years of the famine. The stories he was told growing up of the devastation in Ireland would have a profound impact on him and instill a burning desire to improve the lives of his fellow Irishmen and women.

"He also witnessed the harsh treatment meted out to those that survived the famine by four notorious landlords. Lord George Hill, Lord Leitrim, John Olphert and the most notorious and vicious of the quartet, John George Adair, a wealthy land speculator from County Laois. John Adair was to incur everlasting infamy throughout Donegal and Ireland by ruthlessly evicting some 244 tenants in the Derryveagh Evictions.

"James had a deep faith which would lead him to the priesthood but he also had a strong sense of injustice and distrust of the landlord system so prevalent in Donegal of the late 1800’s. It would be this faith and his determination to fight this pernicious system that would guide his life," the author said. 

Patrick O’Donnell was from a different background and it was the great hunger that forced him and many others alongside him to emigrate to North America.

"I want to share with people the reasons why he left America which was a tragedy which I feel has not had enough coverage, the Wiggins patch massacre of Patrick O’Donnell’s cousins early on the morning of December 10, 1875. Twenty masked and armed men broke into the boarding house of elderly Irish immigrant Margaret O’Donnell, in Wiggins Patch, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. They were seeking vengeance against two alleged members of the Molly McGuire’s, Margaret’s sons, Charles and James. In the space of 20 minutes, Margaret would find herself pistol-whipped, her son Charles riddled with bullets, another son James running for his life and her heavily pregnant daughter Ellen McAllister murdered, shot in the stomach as she came to the aid of her mother and brothers. This was the issue that forced Patrick O’Donnell to firstly take his cousin James to safety in New York and then leave America to seek a new life in South Africa. Sadly, his hopes of fortune would lead to the hang man at New Gate Prison when he was found guilty of the murder of the infamous informer James Carey."

These stories and more will be explored at Workhouse in Dunfanaghy this Friday and people can register by phoning 074 91 36540.