I wonder if there are scenes of Towney in this piece? My great grandfather was from Towney ( Middle, as the allotment map from 1830 stated) was then the land of James McFaden ( McFadden)
My Grandfather Patrick, son of James McFadden, came from Tawny ( Towney) and was a fisherman,. He left the Kilcar area in 1849. His skills on the water served him well, as he enlisted in the US Navy in Philadelphia in 1852, serving four full years with the Perry Expedition to Japan, with an 11 month stopover st Shanghai at the American Consulate. He never returned to Donegal, but married a Margaret, also a McFadden, from Killybegs whom he met in New York City upon his return. The "Wild Geese" of southwest Donegal have left their mark upon the world.
If my great grandfather (from nearby Towney) had stayed in Kilcar he would have continued fishing for herring from a small boat from a poor harbour. He emigrated in 1849 to Philadelphia and worked multiple jobs. I think there is today a tendency to not put all of ones eggs in one basket, as the economic chaos of recent years makes one want to have more than one source of income
Everybody working for everyone else produces laziness, working for your family will always achieve the highest product. American Pilgrims found this out in the 1600's in the new American colony.
Love it! Fascinating and a great historical record. I had heard that the great or walking wheel was used for flax and the smaller, treadle wheel defaulted to wool. But instead here we are given evidence that it was the other way around, the tourn mór (please excuse spelling, Google translate wants to go in a different direction), was the default that was used for wool and the tourn beag was intended for use with flax but somehow found itself being repurposed for wool instead.
It is very hard to get excited about culture and tradition and Irish language if the bread on the table is hard to come by. Fr MC Dyers efforts, while very very commendable was a drop in the bucket of the needs of the Donegal community. Beautiful scenery and lovely young ladies singing and playing music is only for the tourists for 6 or 7 months of the year. In the early decades of independence Donegal might have been better off being the 7 th county of NI, economically. Culturally.... Not so different. Donegal always exported it's young
Dual Currency 1st 40 days of 2002 McDonald's & Educational Building Society were among the adverts. Upload more RTE advert breaks (1984-1989), 1991 & 1994 too name but a few.
