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11 Donegal
- Cork University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
11 Donegal 5 September to 19 October 19441 Tuesday 5.9.44 Took the one o’clock bus to Sligo. Went to Na Cealla Beaga at four o’clock and continued to An Charraig at 8.40. Spent the night there, at the Sliabh Liag Hotel2 (Ó Maoldhomhnaigh). The proprietor is a young man called Seán. I met Jim Boyle (O.S. from Leitrim). Talked with them and went to bed. Wednesday 6.9.44 Slept until ten o’clock. I wrote a few letters and Seán Ó hEochaidh came to visit. Talked for a while and ate dinner. I cycled to Teileann and spent the afternoon with Frank Cassidy. He had no strings for his fiddle and I got them in An Charraig when I went to meet the bus in the evening to collect my bag. On my return to Teileann, Frank had left without a trace. I went to bed at 11.30 having waited for him for an hour and a half; and I had put the strings on his fiddle. Thursday 7.9.44 Spent the day indoors writing letters and other notes about my visit to Mulrany and reading my Mayo material again. Spent the evening waiting for Frank Cassidy and when he came he only had time to grab a bite to eat and rush to An Charraig again. He and his brother, Páidí, are pressed for time to repair the hall3 in An Charraig. Óstán Shliabh Liag (Courtesy Ronan Galvin) 185 Friday 8.9.44 Wrote the diary this morning after breakfast and visited Frank Cassidy again. He was hurrying to An Charraig to work until this evening. I went to Cruachlann and spent the afternoon walking with Seán Ó hEochaidh to Bun Ghlas and back. Spent the evening at his house. Con Cassidy (c. 32), a fiddle player, was there and I wrote three tunes from him in the course of the evening. Seán’s mother [Máire] had an additional verse to ‘Eoinín Ó Ragadáin’. I wrote it down. (I called to see several friends during the day, before dinner and on my way to Cruachlann.) Saturday 9.9.44 The first dry day since leaving Mulrany. Spent the morning writing letters. Spent the afternoon walking down to the pier and visiting Connie Haughey, a fiddle player. He will not play for me. I went for a walk around the headland south of Teileann. Spent the evening at Frank Cassidy’s house, waiting for him. Sunday 10.9.44 After nine o’clock Mass in An Charraig, spent the morning talking with Frank [Cassidy]. A beautiful, sunny morning. Frank told me of a travelling fiddle player from Inishowen who is in Malinmore, six miles west. He suggested I should visit him. I went to Malinmore after dinner. Frank was NFC MM 020.178 From Con Cassidy, ‘Ríl’ 186 Going to the Well for Water [44.202.183.118] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 16:25 GMT) going to Na Cealla Beaga to work and there was no point in my waiting for him. I searched Malinmore and there was no trace of that fiddle player, John Doherty. I walked into Gleann Cholm Cille and back home again – expecting Frank at eight o’clock. I waited until midnight. Monday 11.9.44 Frank [Cassidy] still busy working on the hall in An Charraig. I went to Bealach Féith in search of John Doherty. After a great deal of searching and enquiries I found a man who knows him well and he told me that John Doherty had left that morning to attend the fair in Na Gleannta tomorrow.4 I spent the evening then with friends in Srath an Urláir and stayed overnight in Kee’s Hotel5 there. Tuesday 12.9.44 I cycled back to Teileann. I packed a bag and sent it to Na Gleannta. Here almost a week now and very little to show for it – [Frank] Cassidy is busy and there is little else here for me. A definite arrangement with Cassidy this evening. Arranged with Seán [Ó hEochaidh] to go to Learga na Saorthach tomorrow. Wednesday 13.9.44 I set off with Seán [Ó hEochaidh] to Learga na Saorthach at one o’clock. We spent the afternoon with Jimmy Heeney and I wrote ‘Laoi na Mná Jimmy Heeney (Courtesy NFC) The Séamus Ennis Field Diary 1942–46 187 188 Going to the Well for Water M...