The MacGill Summer School has been in existence for thirty one years. It was founded in 1981 in Glenties in Co. Donegal to celebrate the memory of local writer, Patrick MacGill, whose books in the first decades of the twentieth century on the social conditions in Donegal, the plight of migrant workers in Britain and the horrors of the Great War in which he fought as a soldier of the London Irish Rifles are still being published.
The year 1921 saw the formation of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Glenties. However the playing of a hurling match between Kilraine and Brackey (Ardara) in the summer of 1905 was perhaps the first time Gaelic games as we now know them were played in the parish of Inniskeel. This match was arranged by Alex McDyer, Kilraine and Charles McGill, Brackey.
Glenties features in much of Brian Friel’s writing. His mother was a native of the place and was a member if the McLoone family, consisting of five daughters and two sons, who lived adjacent to the railway station. Brian, an only son, and his two sisters spent almost all of their school holidays at their grandparent’s home in Glenties.
The following is an extract from “St. Therese of Lisleux, the Little Flower of Jesus”
History of its Foundation and Development
Compiled by Danny Boyle
As a result of a local historical study by a small group of people interested in the history, customs and traditions of the parish of Inniskeel, they were invited to present a programme on RTE’s Community Radio when it Visited Glenties in August of 1982. From that programme the idea was mooted that as there was so much local historical information available it should be preserved in a permanent way.
Patrick MacGill was born in 1889 in the Glen of Glenties, and was the first of eleven children. After a mere three years’ schooling, Patrick left at ten and after two years’ work on the home patch of land set out at twelve as one of a party of Donegal youngsters for the hiring fair in Strabane.
The Island of Inniskeel has a sacred interest in the present and the past with a long, if broken, history to commemorate its former greatness. It is still the seat of a must-frequented pilgrimage in honour of St. Connell, one of the most remarkable of Ireland’s early Saints. It contains his Church and his cell and in it repose his scared remains in the grave that had first closed over the body of his illustrious friend, St. Dallan.
The following is an account of Glenties Harvest Fair written and published in 1972 by the late Joe Campbell, Glenties.
In my young days and that’s not today or yesterday the Harvest Fair Day was a red-letter day in the history of the town. It was looked forward to by young and old for weeks before and remembered by many a long day afterwards. In fact, in those days it was a three-day event. First there was “the gathering” the day before; then there was the big day itself and then there was “the scattering” the following day.
Unusually for the small townships of West Donegal, Glenties has both a Market House and a Court House. The former seems to have been built about 1840 for the Marquis of Conyngham. It is a long low gabled two-storey building with two separate outside stairways giving access to the upper floor: today used as youth club, recreation room, stores and garage. In the lower storey, there is a single wide segmental arc and on either side an arched doorway: windows have been added rather miscellaneously from time to time. The quoins and dressings are of cut stone, as are the chimneys, otherwise the building is of random rubble harled over. Rather oddly, but endearingly, the upper walls are set back all round on the base furnished by the lower storey and stringcourse. The eaves of the Sables have cheerful little carved wooden brackets.
The death took place of Columba McDyer, a member of the Cavan team which defeated Kerry in the 1947 All-Ireland football final in the Polo Grounds, New York.
A native of Glenties, Co. Donegal, McDyer was on the first Ulster team to win the Railway Cup in 1942 and also played in the same competition with Connacht.