GLENSWILLY MCGINLEYS

The McGinleys settled around the western end of Glenswilly and to a lesser extent Glendowan sometime after 1603. They were never as numerous as those of Glencolmcille and tend to be collectively known as the Glenswilly McGinleys. These McGinleys arrived here shortly after 1603/4 when the ancient clan lands further north were over-run by English soldiers during the Nine Years War and forcibly removed from the family. Not much is known about the earliest Glenswilly McGinleys but it is known that they did not fare too well here in the early days. They lived in the heavily forested hills like outlaws in their own country. The main area can still be seen around the forested rounded hill at Foxhall and Rashedoge. In the early 1600's the landscape around this area would have been much the same (but with more trees). The open areas consists mostly of rough ground and some bogland. Some stretched out as far as Breenagh further west. There was very little industry about the area at the time. It has been suggested that they made a living through illicit whiskey/poitín stills as records show that this activity was 'well developed' around the area throughout the 1600's and the 1700's. The better farmlands in the valley were quickly grabbed by other displaced clans the Dohertys and McDaids and these families done well. They came from the Inishowen peninsula shortly after the Nine Years War. They settled on the better farming and grazing lands a little closer to Letterkenny (in the flat valley). For a while they became farmers of substance (later known as 'forty shilling freeholders'). The surnames of Doherty, and McDaid in particular, are still found often in the Glenswilly area.

Probably the best known from this branch of the family was the noted Dr McGinley who was also a surgeon and politician amongst other things. He was one of the most important figures in Donegal life in the twentieth century. As far as politics go, we should note the great contribution made by P.T. McGinley otherwise known as Cú Uladh, a major figure in politics, the Irish Language as well as writing. Many of his immediate family as well as uncles became figures of note in the area. Both Bridget and Michael McGinley have contributed well to the poetry and song writing history of Co Donegal. The Glenswilly McGinleys were steeped in the Irish Language and played prominant parts in its survival.

Some McGinley families were to travel a little further, to neighbouring Co Derry and are regarded as descendants of the Glenswilly McGinleys. The opportunity for work, despite Catholic resentment by the Establishment, was better here. We have a few notes on McGinleys in Co Derry in the mid to later 1600’s. In the Derry Cathedral Register we have note of a Séamus Mag Fhionnghaile/James McGinley of Co Tyrone getting married and subsequently living there in the year 1657. In the same year, the records show the marriage of a Seán Mag Fhionnghaile/John McGinley from Clandermot. We also have on record a Conchobhar Mag Fhionnghaile/Knougher McGinley who was the Official Porter at Derry Castle! This was between the years 1661 to 1665. Further information relating to a Donnchadh Mag Fhionnghaile/Donnchie McGinley in Derry during the years 1678 to 1684 can be found. The death of a Tomás Mag Fhionnghaile/Thomas McGinley is recorded under the year 1667 in Derry. There can be no doubt that alot of McGinleys moved to Derry in the 1600's. They, for the most part, would have been very poor peasants who would most often have worked as farm labourers or in building projects.

Cú Uladh, the pen name of P.T. McGinley, was perhaps the most famous of the Glenswilly McGinleys. Cú Uladh was a great lover of the Irish language. With a few other colleagues he decided to start a 'mixed' class of teenagers (Catholics and Protestants) to learn the Irish language. Apparently the parish priest of Portarlington (where Cú Uladh was living at the time) objected to these mixed gatherings and the priest was backed by the bishop! However, Cú Uladh continued with the classes which proved popular. The priest then preached a sermon one Sunday denouncing the language classes as "an occasion of sin". Cú Uladh interrupted the sermon to the astonishment of the congregation. Cú Uladh said "That is not true Father. That is not true. You know that you are free to come down at any time and see what is going on. You were asked to come down but you did not come down. How then would you know what they are like? You have no right to use the pulpit to attack me in this way". The priest was flabbergasted and looked towards a policeman in the congregation and tried to get Cú Uladh arrested. Cú Uladh turned to the policeman and said...." You have no right to arrest me in Church. You can arrest me outside but not in the Church. If you do arrest me your superiors will hear about it". He was not arrested.

Cú Uladh was a very interesting man. He was educated at Tullyhoner School and then at the Literary Institute in Letterkenny. It was the only secondary school in the area at the time. He then went to Glasnevin Agricultural College in Dublin for two years followed by two more years at the newly opened Blackrock College. He had twelve children (two girls and ten boys) all born at 108 Drumcondra Road in Dublin. They all spoke Irish as their first language and all the boys went to Pádraig Pearse's All-Irish School, St Enda's in Rathfarnham, Dublin. A very interesting story relates to this. Pádraig Pearce (a close friend of Cú Uladh) was trying for a while to get an All-Irish school started. He came up against alot of opposition but managed to get St Enda's off the ground. When all the campaigning and arguments had been won, Pádraig suddenly realised that the 'real' work was ahead. He confided in Cú Uladh that he might find it a bit tough getting children to join the school. It was a wild revolutionary idea at the time to have a school teaching 'everything' through the medium of Irish. Remember that the Irish language had been banned or unofficially banned for centuries in Ireland by the English authorities. Cú Uladh turned to his friend and told him that he should not worry as he already had ten pupils. Cú Uladh then sent ALL of his ten boys to the first All-Irish school in the country, ensuring its opening and developement!.

Cú Uladh was also a close personal friend of Irelands first President, Douglas Hyde, as well as Pádraig Pearse. One day in the early part of 1916, two of Cú Uladh's sons, Conor and Eunan came to him and said that Pádraig Pearse had asked them to get permission (from their father) to take part in 'something serious' which was about to happen. The two boys were already members of the Rathfarnham Company of Irish Volunteer's commonly known as 'Pearse's Own'. Cú Uladh paused for a moment and then turned to his sons and said "Boys, whatever Mr. Pearse asks you to do, you obey". Cú Uladh knew that his sons could die, for the cause of Ireland's freedom, in what was to follow.....the Easter Rising. The two McGinley boys joined Pádraig Pearse in the GPO on Easter Monday and fought side by side until the following Saturday when Pearse surrendered. Cú Uladh was the main figure behind the setting up of the first Letterkenny branch of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) when he set up the initial meeting at the Literary Institute. Cú Uladh refused to speak in English in the Irish Parliament, the Dáil!

Bridget McGinley was another interesting character from the noted 'Glenswilly McGinley' line. Although she lived but a short while, she made her mark on north Donegal society. Her wonderful poems outlived her. Unlike most women of her generation, she had the chance to travel. For a while she was in Leeds in England living with her brother Cú Uladh. While there, she spent some time in a Leeds Convent. Later she returned to Glenswilly, married a local man Patrick Gallagher and settled down in the Newmills area. She died of cancer of the lung, and a year earlier had an operation for cancer of the breast. Despite her short life, she wrote many enduring poems about love, life and tha harsh realities of living as a Catholic in north Donegal. The hunger, the evictions and the blatent Anti-Catholic feelings of the authorities can be seen in her work. The titles of 'Poetess of Glenswilly' and 'Poetess of the McGinley Clan' sit well on her shoulders. She is also credited with starting 'debating societies' around Glenswilly and Illistrin which helped to highlight social injustice and farmers rights among other subjects. Two publications which she started (along with John Greer), were the "Donegal Christmas Annual" started in 1883 and the "Illistrin Budget" was started in 1885. The Donegal Christmas Annual changed to the Donegal Annual and is still published today. Her co-organiser, John Greer was a known Presbyterian liberal who disliked the many unjust situations he saw everday.

Dr J.P. McGinley, the best remembered of the Glenswilly McGinleys in the twentieth century bought Beechfield House in Letterkenny in 1923 from a Unionist R.S. Watters who became dissatisfied with the new 'rights' given to the native Catholic population after Irish Independance. He left Ireland for Canada, unable to accept equality! Dr McGinley settled his family at Beechfield including his two sisters Susie and Bridget who moved in. Dr McGinley was for decades the most respected Doctor and Surgeon in Donegal. One tribute to Dr McGinley by a journalist writing under the pseudonym of MacDara said: "The late surgeon McGinley played a prominent, forthright and always honourable part on the wider stage of public affairs. As a young T.D. (Irish politician) barely out of medical school he played a man's part in East Donegal in the Anglo-Irish War. His speech on the Treaty was one of the few that showed forth the conscientiousness with which he had weighed the issues and the care he had taken to make himself truly a spokesman for the electorate. His speech was one that even today can be read with advantage".