Sweeney sisters La and Madeline on bygone times in the iconic Dungloe hotel

The gathering held to mark the reopening of Sweeney’s Hotel in Dungloe brought back a lot of memories for those gathered, but none more so than for Madeline Mitchell and Kathleen Gallagher.

Madeline and Kathleen, who is better known as La, are two of five sisters from the Sweeney family who grew up in the hotel and have wonderful stories of its heyday. They lived there along with their sisters, Christina, Charlotte, and Sr Mary Delores who went on to spend many years in Sierra Leone. 

The pair were delighted to see so many of the original features sitting proudly amongst the newer decor. From the grandfather clock in the corner to a beautiful wooden sideboard, a section of the original black and white flooring in the main hallway, and the solid wood bar, there is much that will be familiar to those who frequented Sweeney’s in years gone by.

One item in particular that caught the sisters’ attention was the brass gong.

“It was used to call people for dinner,” Madeline recalls fondly.

She had travelled from Galway for the event on Wednesday evening, and her sister La had come from Dublin.

“I find it quite emotional to be back here but it is wonderful to see it opened again,” says Madeline.

La nods in agreement.

“I just filled up,” she says. “There were five generations of Sweeneys here. 

“But it is so lovely to be back in the house.”

The heartfelt hospitality that the Sweeney sisters and their predecessors bestowed upon their guests has laid the foundation for the industry as we know it today. It was establishments like Sweeney’s up and down the country that helped build Ireland’s reputation as the land of a thousand welcomes.

The success of the modern day Wild Atlantic Way and Donegal Tourism marketing campaigns have put west Donegal on the tourist trail. But what kind of guest do Madeline and La recall from their time growing up in the hotel?

Madeline says: “We had all the commercial travellers who came and stayed. 

“And then we had a lot of fishermen. My father was very involved in the Rosses angling, setting up with a lot of other locals.”

La adds: “A lot of the fishermen, they would come for a month fishing. They travelled from England during the months of June and July. 

“They would have gone out on the lakes every day, brown trout fishing mainly.

“The guests were all full board in those days so they would have been given a packed lunch at the hotel so then they would spend the day on the lake.”

Guests also included visitors from Northern Ireland, and is still the case, there would be something of an influx traditionally beginning around July 12 and lasting well into August.

La says: “The Northern people used to come and they'd maybe stay for a week or a few nights of bed and breakfast.”

Madeline explains: “At that time, people toured. They just landed in a hotel and asked if there was a room.”

As well as serving guests, the restaurant was open to the public.

But it was the hotel kitchen that was the real heart of the Dungloe community. 

“My father was Dessie and everyone called my mother Mrs Dessie,” says Madeline. “And our Uncle Stanley worked here too.

“You could have any number of people coming into the kitchen for a chat.”

La says: “It was actually in that kitchen that the Mary From Dungloe Festival was conceived.”

Madeline explains that a lot of those who were away working in Scotland used to come for the Glasgow Fair, a traditional Scottish holiday held in late July.

“There was no entertainment from them because of all the emigration,” she says. 

“So then the idea was sown that they would have a festival for the people coming home. The first festival was in 1967.

“And then in 1968, Emmet Spiceland, had a hit with Mary From Dungloe, so it was renamed Mary From Dungloe festival.”

She recalls Gay Byrne getting involved, adding: “So he, with the local committee, Daniel Gallagher and Nancy the Cope, they used to sit in Sweeney's kitchen and talk about what they could do. 

“In the early days it was fairly simple. There was a donkey race and there was walking. It all grew from that.

“It was a great place, that kitchen, for a gathering. Sweeney's was kind of the centre of it all at that time.”

Their sister Christina carried on running the hotel for a time, and her four children Dermot, Corinna, Andrea and Ronan were born and reared there. 

It was bought some years ago by builder Pat Boyle who has family connections to the area. After extensive refurbishment, the hotel has reopened, still proudly bearing the Sweeney name that is synonymous with generations of Rosses hospitality.