Event which brought Mountcharles’ history to life is shortlisted for award

A Heritage Week event which brought to life the people and events that shaped the village of Mountcharles is on the shortlist for a National Heritage Week award.

The event was  put together by Winifred McNulty, Andrea McHugh and Kathleen Ayres with help from the heritage group. It was inspired by the ongoing work of the strong group including Helen Meehan, Patsy Mc Inaw and others who have been creating events and producing history books for many years.

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Winifred says: “Many people who were asked to play parts, help out be guides said 'Yes' and without that, none of it would have been possible.

“The theme was Routes and Connections but it is the connections and participation of the village and all the many many people who came out to support us, as well as the blessing of the day meant that it was a great success.

“The day before there had been an amazing event a walk around the gardens of Hall Demense which attracted record numbers and a onderful display of local heritage in the church of Ireland Mountcharles. So with the two events theres no doubt that in Heritage Week 2024 Mountcharles was the place to be”

Winifred tells us about the fantastic event that has reached the final three in the National Heritage Week awards, taking place this weekend:

From Salt to Stone was a Heritage week theatrical stroll through the village of Mountcharles where the street was used as a space to travel back to the town's vibrant history.

Organised by the Mountcharles Heritage Group, there were many collaborators including all the actors who came to play parts, the children from Mountcharles NS and Inver NS, all those who gave fascinating talks and older residents who kindly gave interviews as well as all those who came out to help on the day and many who came to enjoy the meander.

On the one sunny afternoon of August, small plays featuring historical characters connected to the town and historical talks about Mountcharles were woven together to tell the story of its built heritage and stone tradition, the people, the businesses and leisure of the town through the centuries.

As part of the event there were stories spoken by children that they had gathered from their grandparents in a recent oral history project between Mountcharles NS and Inver NS and the Mountcharles Heritage Group.

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The inspiration for the day arose from the desire to return Ethna Carbery and Alice Milligan to a street they often visited.

Ethna Carbery was married to Seamus    McManus and the women had collaborated as the editors of the journal, The Shan van Vocht. 

They were inspirational characters in the Gaelic League and the threads of their connections reach out to the Celtic Revival and Independence and beyond. 

They were trail blazing women and their journal was read worldwide. 

They appeared at the pop-up OpenDoor Theatre courtesy of artist Julie Griffith.

Burton Conyngham was the landlord in Mountcharles and he had built the road from Mountcharles to Burtonport, the first major route built in South Donegal, to support the development of fisheries and his plans for a Georgian town on Rutland Island.

He was an antiquarian who had artists record the ancient heritage of Ireland as it was in the late 18th Century, he had also been on the Dublin Broad Streets Commission but his Georgian town on Rutland fell victim to sand and the ‘unreliable herring’.

A scripted piece about businesses was performed and this had been gathered from interviews done with older people in the village who remember the town as a ‘better shopping town than Donegal Town.’

This also included a pre-planned audience interactive piece ‘shops lucky dip’ which resulted in lots of fun and more stories about the street.

Around these pieces the members of the Heritage Group in Mountcharles provided very high-quality content with historian Helen Meehan telling how Mountcharles got its name and Louise Price and Patsy Mc Inaw, Stonemasons, talking about Mountcharles Stone and its impact and reach in the built heritage of many cities.

Deirdre and Cora Murray gave a lyrical memoir of their musical family.

The children’s collaboration with their grandparents resulted in a rich seam of stories about a time when Mountcharles was full of leisure activities; Brogan’s dance hall, the tennis courts, the golf course, horse racing, radio station.

They also told about the very first meeting of the GAA Donegal County Board that was held in Mountcharles, along with stories of school and children’s lives in the past.

The Rock and Roll memories of Brogan’s Hall were brought to life by James McGarrigle whose father organised dances there.

If the town became a theatre for the day it also became a gallery.

Displays of linen, lace, sprigging and garments made in Mountcharles were displayed in the window of Britton’s Chemist. It had been Dunleavy’s shop which exported linen and embroidered goods all over the world, including, it is said, the napkins that were used on the Titanic.

An iconic crochet dress once the subject of an Irish Independent article on Gillespie Tailors was amazingly displayed beside the photo. The typewriter used by Mrs Dunleavy was in the window and a book by the late Mairead Dunleavy, who also came from that house, ‘Dress in Ireland’ was also in the window. This is just a sample of the serendipity that arose from the enthusiasm of all those approached to contribute to the day, so many links and coincidences.

Jason Harley had just returned from a visit to America that morning and he came to give a talk on Hugh Harley, the last man to live in Wall Street.

A model T Ford 1936 and a Ford Thames trader Lorry which belonged to the late Joey Kane were also on the street.

Actors became Emigrants who left to catch the train from Mountcharles and spread out all over the world.

Thanks to the Letterkenny Museum we were able to get a World War1 uniform for an actor to wear as he walked away from the town as the names of those who never returned from WW1 were read out.

Thanks are also due to the support of Dr Joesph Gallagher and the Heritage team in Donegal for their encouragement.

In all it was a fabulous day and we are thrilled now that the event is a finalist in the National Heritage awards to be held in Dublin on Friday, November 15.