Donegal Town Thirty Years Ago
By Dr. Matthew Potter

Doctor Matthew Potter, a native of Donegal Town, is a full time author, researcher and historian, who is working on a history of Donegal Town and the Falls of Arran at the moment. He lives in Limerick City with his wife and two children.

Recently I visited Donegal Town for Heritage Week. I delivered one of the McGarrigle Lectures in the Courthouse on 7th March, and attended the St. Patricks Week Ball in Harveys Point on 8th March. It was a nostalgic trip for me. I am a native of Donegal Town and lived here until 1974. Since then, I have resided in the Limerick City area. I have made a number of trips back to Donegal Town in the intervening years, but it was my attendance at a Hugh Roe School reunion in 2001 and my recent visit which has led to my re-establishing old links in the town that were long broken. I think that now is a good time to reflect on the Donegal Town in which I grew up in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, and to compare it to the Donegal Town of 2003. The changes that have occurred in the intervening years are amazing. This can be illustrated if I describe my everyday life in town in the old days.
I was born in the old Donegal Hospital, which was demolished in 1978 and replaced with the present building. I lived in the house at Potters Bridge Drumrooske which was, in turn, the residence of Cis Doherty in the 1980’s and most of the 1990’s. Now it is semi-derelict. Drumrooske was completely rural in those days, with no housing estates, or commercial developments. I can remember the Pavesi Ballroom being built in front of the old Railway Station.

EDUCATION
I attended school in the old Ballydevitt schoolhouse for one year, where Ms. Rose McSweeney taught me. I received my first Holy Communion and my Confirmation in the old Killymard Church. Both school and church have since been replaced by brand new modern constructions built in the 1980’s. Later I attended the Hugh Roe Boys School on Main Street where my teachers were Nora McGinley, John Gallagher, Bert O’Neill, Roger Meehan and finally the principal Sean McGinley. Now, this boys-only school is amalgamated with the girls-only Nuala Convent to form the present co-educational establishment.
Later, I moved onto secondary school. This was the old Technical School on the Mountcharles Road, but the former Four Masters High School (Clerys) was also used by the school and long journeys between classes were quite common. The principal was Mr. Patrick Rooney and well I remember the change from having only one teacher to having several to contend with! I sat my Intermediate Certificate there in 1974. The present Abbey Vocational School was not built until seven years after I left Donegal Town.

GROCERIES AND TOYS
My father worked in Dunleavy’s Printing Office, behind Dunleavy’s Shop, in the Diamond from the day it opened in 1940 until the day it shut in 1972. I can remember the shops where we bought our goods and most of them no longer exist. The groceries were purchased in the Scotsman, then a shop as well as a public house, run by William Gibson, a real live Scotsman. (This was in the days before Ireland became a multi-cultural society!!!). We also went to the spotlessly clean Kerrs Foodstore in the Diamond (Now Four Masters Bookshop) run by Jack Kelly. I loved the model trains and cars sold by Willie Andrews next door (now the Gift Shop). Then, there was Timoney’s General Store on Bridge Street (now Castle Centre) which sold hardware, clothes, but best of all from my point of view, toys. (I recently gave my 8-year-old son some of my ancient toys bought in Timoney’s in the 1960’s). We got our fresh meat from Andy Begley (John Begley’s Pharmacy) and from McGettigan’s (at this time Ernan and Dermott McGettigan were in primary school with me and wore short trousers!). We went to Brady’s and Robinson’s Pharmacy (now O’C Bookmakers and Donegal Decors respectively). I got comics and sweets in Kevin Quinlan’s Newsagents and got my hair cut in Gorman’s of Quay Street. My father bought hardware in Jimmy Henderson’s shop on Bridge Street.

DONEGAL WONDERLAND
My family and I went to Mass either in Killymard or in the Town. The Parish Priest of Killymard was Canon Glacken, who lived in Tirconaill Street. The Parish Priest in town was Dean Long and his curate was Fr. Leo Moore. Our G.P. was Dr. Donal Browne on the Mountcharles Road. The Garda Sergeant was Joe Noonan. The Post Office was in the Diamond (now the Oven Door Bakery) and the site of the present post office was a fine old mansion, called Lisdaner House. It had a lovely garden, surrounded by the chain of the Frenchman’s Anchor (now at the Bay). In those days, there was no Abbott, no Craft Village, no Four Masters Bookshop, and far fewer houses in and around the town. Donegal in 2003 is now a larger, more prosperous, most cosmopolitan place that it was in 1974. Its inhabitants, like their contemporaries all over Ireland, living longer, enjoy better health, are better educated, more travelled, less religious perhaps, than their fore bearers in the 1970’s, To me, Donegal Town of my youth is a special place, a kind of wonderland that vanished forever in the mid-1970’s.
This is a romantic picture, but it is my personal viewpoint, unique to me alone. I look upon the old Donegal Town as one would view a John Hinde postcard, where the sun was always shining and everyone was happy and friendly.

Donegal has changed a great deal, but I have been able to follow many of these developments in recent years, as I get Donegal Times every fortnight.