1964: Life in DONEGAL | Tonight | Voice of the People | BBC Archive 

My father left Donegal in 1958 to work in Birmingham, UK and returned to Donegal in 1969. I left Donegal in 1986 to work and live in Birmingham and have been here since. Donegal to this day still, the young people are emigrating all over the world. A beautiful place but sadly not much there for the youth.

It’s important to note that for all of the adults, particularly the older lady, English will be their second language. Arranmore (Árainn Mhór) is still an Irish (“Gaelic”) speaking area.

My mum was from Donegal, loved every day I spent there, what a crowd of absolute grafters, great people.

My grandfather was a Donegal man who moved to England after the war. He was brought up working on a rain soaked wind swept small farm. This was a fascinating insight into that world. Bravo.

These are fantastic historical windows into Ireland. I went to the village of Errigal in 1974 and lived with a young family in the Gaeltacht . It was the best time of my life !! I came from Andersonstown West Belfast. My people were from Donegal originally. The mountain in the background of the last scene is Mount Errigal. They are the salt of the Earth.

Donegal is the most stunning part of the country .I worked in Donegal for two years and simlpy loved it. The people are hard working and very proud of where they come from. Kind and very much family focused . Love them all . 👍👍👍

My Grandad was from Donegal. William Byers 1926 - 1996

Hard working , God fearing , beautiful people that made Ireland great

My Dad came from Killybegs in Donegal nearly the end of the Ww11 and worked on the land in east sussex where he Met my mum who was in the land army they got married and moved to Brighton East Sussex where they stayed till the both died.♥️ Our surname was Dowds.

"We come from county Donegal where we eat our potatoes skin and all." ... said by my great grandfather in America.

Respect to those people ,living in hard conditions,never sworing ,only working👍🇱🇺

That is EXACTLY the spot where my DNA was traced to. Exactly. I did (2) DNA tests and they both said the same. My family emigrated to the United States with the last name “Rathbone”, now “Rathbun”. Wow. Absolutely incredible to see this. Thank you!

My Grandparents, Michael Doherty and Sabina O'Keefe were born there about 1890.. ish. It must be beautiful.

ive worked with many a man from there in central london digging small tunnels (headings) funny old bunch, hard workers and hard drinkers, quiet but with good wit, decent blokes

Such a simple life but content I loved visiting my grandparents in Leitrim ❤

All the houses are warm, tidy and well kept. Love those tough hardy ladies. What's not shown is the fathers in the UK seeing signs in boarding houses and Pubs saying 'no Irish'.

Through fear of missing out I feel I should moan like hell about this video like everyone else is but to be honest I just sat and enjoyed it for what it was.

Went to our family farm in mountcharles every year as a kid, I adored it. Went back recently and was pretty sad at the changes. No pubs on the main street when there used to be at least 10, and few people about. Very expensive villas dotted around. Our farm was demolished to make way for the New motorway between donegal and leterkenny, bitterly disappointing.

Makes me proud of my Irish heritage.

There was a young man from Donegal, who went to a fancy dress ball, he thought he'd risk it and go as a biscuit, but a dog ate him up in the hall.

Wonderful people 💖

Thank you,

2:19 She should have been Rocky's trainer in the first movie.

Bless Ireland ❤️ any Quinn’s out there?

To learn more of life was like in Donegal of old, read the works of early 20th century Donegal writer Patrick MacGill. To get a heart-wrenching insight into what life was like at the very last days of Britain's rule over Ireland, pick up (free digital versions online if you search), his novels _Children of the Dead End_ and _The Rat Pit_ The two are companion works that detail, from different perspectives, the fates of a young Donegal man and a woman driven from their homes by murderous poverty. You will come to understand why the Donegallers of that time were renowned for their roughness

Things have changed so much since then not in Donegal, Donegal still looks like this, but the rest of the world has changed so much!

So interesting and so different to life today.

That pretty n shy Mrs Gallagher looks like young Queen Elizabeth II

I googled County Donegal because my grandfather is from here (1902 - 1953). The women at 2:45 looks so much like my grandmother, but grandmother was from Tryone.

I love they focused on the women. "Don't complain much..." I feel so convicted.

My grandparents on my mother's side were similar to this up to the early 1970,s in Co. Longford. Have to admit my childhood days there fantastic, learned some necessary lifeskills that young people today sadly haven't got.

My great-grandmother’s last name was Crossin. Her great grandfather was John Crossin, born in Churchill in Donegal in 1802. That dna 🧬 apparently trickled down to me as 23andMe listed Donegal as a region of Ireland 🇮🇪 that I share a close association with. I’d like to visit the land my ancestors lived in one day. During my early life I had no idea I had any links to Ireland at all.

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Fantastic

A better life, quiet and healthy ... she's so right.

He's bad at geography, Donegal is one of three Ulster counties in the Republic.

Nobody in Ireland has ever called it Eire (despite it being an official name). It’s the Republic of Ireland.

I have long lost genealogy with Donnegal but in this video i recognise my own. God bless.

Tough life

Great video.

Very little has changed when it comes to its exports

All my uncles did the same, over to Scotland .

This video just goes to show how English centric media in the UK works. The twee music and some of the clueless questions. I'd love to say it's changed but I don't think it has.

Great people Donegal

The greatest women in the world

Good fishing up that way.

Incredible how hard this presenter is trying to make it seem like a sad, upsetting uneducated life and every single person in this clip is just clashing with his bias entirely

The green is greener with intelligent Ireland ✔

It's interesting but I feel like the way the host talked about the was a bit derogatory, especially the whole ''down south where they beat their wives'' stuff

Sad to see the government turn on its own people..how times have changed.

We survived 👊🏻

"Outside the frontier"! 😅

(9:15) "Going away has been a tradition here-for years, and years, and years.." (Spoiler alert: Many people went away.)

Wish I lived were the grass was green year round.

Some of these 'irish chaps' did well, longer term. The Irishman can be tamed. He has a rambunctious character and a love of family .

Many,thanks,for,these,archives But,please,don't,keep,them,buried Get,them,out,for,all,,too,see

Without the Irish Navvie there is no recovery from the war for england. Most of them worked on what was called a lump, no taxes no insurance no money off rain as the song says. A marvelous generation..👏👏👏👏

They never mentioned the eviction of the people of Donegal by the English that scattered them across the globe.

iz it me or are all the children really, really pretty?

"The men of Donegal don't come home to drink mountain dew until they begin to roar and beat their wife"....WHAT?! Wild generation of people?! Holy ****

“To England” shows the forth bridges 😂

Donkey could do with a hoof trim.

It's not pronounced Donnygall Trevor, it's Dhún na nGall, with a "u" not an "o"

This is brutish (british for those who cannot see) propaganda at its best - full of _____ (insert appropriate expletive to suit taste) . Trying to diminish the locals, who were hard working family people trying their best as a family to get ahead (and the numpty presenter is ignoring that Donegal was 1 of 3 counties that survived occupation in Ulster after the war of independence,, not the only one). Great to see that the women interviewed and the Headmaster all gave a great account of their area and that they held their grace not to remind that xyz so and so (numpty presenter) that the plight of the people in Donegal at that time was solely due to the brutish occupation for generations that had ruined the economic prospects of the whole Island for their own gain. The brutish government is now reaping their just deserts. And this numpty presenter would be long in his lead lined sarcophagus.

Simpler times.

“Finally settled “ I love the stupidity of that remark 😅

"Air-eh"

4:52😮 wtf

Best people you’ll meet on this planet. Relatives in Donegal (I’m born n bred UK) but would move in a heartbeat to Ireland…

Donegal now imports men . . . and they ain't European.

he purposely went to most undeveloped part of donegal in 1960s an island off the coast of donegal that’s how ridiculous this is He purposely did not want to show the developed parts what a disingenuous snob

Donnygawl.

At least they were spared becoming second class citizens in NI.

That's normal and the natural way of life between husbands and wives raising children. Today it's 24/7 co dependency. Settlement society.

he butchered the pronouncing of donegal

interesting how peaceful and honourable these communities were without any diversity present. even with absent father's the sons don't start stabbing every innocent bystander they can get too.

A safer place in those days. Sad.

Before this it's amazing that anyone had kids back then because life was so bad, why would you want to bring children into that suffering.

Wow, the English bias and racism is thick in this...

If Ireland hadn't been invaded by england (I've never proper-cased this word) it would been amazing to see what we could have done, maybe we are seeing this now.

Women these day moaning that can’t work and raise their children 😂

His weird religious rant at the beginning is weird as

Very conflicted with this one. Xenophobic... sure, Old school... sure. Happy... 50/50

begorrah begosh- English imperialism and bigotry to the fore.....

Ghastly forced "BBC" accent, and "Eire"....yeugh. Glad that's all gone.

A Donegal man once knocked at my door in Westmeath & said ah your not local judging by my Dublin accent I said no & ye don’t sound local yourself. ” No I’m from Donegal where the men are men & the sheep are afraid “ he said proudly 😂😂😂

it looks like a back end of the back end.... the Irish really must be happy their country changed so much, this looks so sad...