Letterkenny ( , meaning "hillside of the O'Cannons"), nicknamed the Cathedral Town, is a large town in County Donegal, Ireland, on the River Swilly in the north-west of the Ulster province. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is a regional economic gateway for the north-west of Ireland.
Letterkenny began as a market town at the start of the 17th century, during the Plantation of Ulster. A castle once stood near where the Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba, County Donegal's only Catholic cathedral, stands today. Letterkenny Castle, built in 1625, was located south of Mt Southwell on Castle Street. County Donegal's largest third-level institution, Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Letterkenny, is located in the town, as are St Eunan's College, Highland Radio, and a Hindu temple. Letterkenny was also the original home of Oatfield Sweet Factory, a confectionery manufacturer; the factory closed and was demolished in 2014. In 1798, Theobald Wolfe Tone was arrested at Laird's Hotel in the town. In 2015, Letterkenny was judged as the tidiest town in Ireland.
Toponymy
Letterkenny takes its name from the Irish Leitirceanainn, meaning "Hillside of the O'Cannons" – the O'Cannons being the last of the ancient chieftains of Tír Conaill. While no evidence of forts or castles belonging to the O'Cannon clan exists in the Letterkenny district, eight miles west of Letterkenny is located Doon Rock, believed by some to be an ancient inauguration site of the O'Cannon Kings.
The O'Cannon dynasty is descended from Conn of the Hundred Battles and Niall of the Nine Hostages, two of Ireland's ancient High Kings. The O'Cannons have been described as 'Ancient Princes of Tír Connaill' and 'Valiant Chiefs'. Their 350-year dynasty in Tír Connaill ended in 1250. Their ancient territory is recorded as being in Tír Aeda (now the barony of Tirhugh) in what is now South Donegal. After the deaths of Ruairí Ó Canannain (Rory O'Cannon) and his son Niall Ó Canannain in 1250, the sept declined greatly in power. Brian Ó Néill (Brian O'Neill) died ten years later in 1260; he had supported an Ó Canannain claimant to Tír Conaill, i.e., to the Kingdom of Tír Conaill (Tirconnell). However, the O'Cannon Clan remained subservient to the O'Donnell Clan, the Kings of Tír Chonaill, from the early thirteenth century onwards, after Gofraid O'Donnell helped the English defeat the O'Cannons in 1250. The personal name Canannain is a diminutive of Cano, meaning 'wolf cub'. Canannain was fifth in descent from Flaithbertach mac Loingsig (died 765), high-king of Ireland; they were the descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages (Irish: Niall Noigiallach), who died 405 A.D., by his son Conall Gulban, who gave his name to Tír Conaill, the 'Land of Conall', now County Donegal.
By the early 17th century, the name Uí Canannain had been anglicised to O'Cannon. Further anglicisation took place during the Penal Laws in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and the name in Co. Dun na nGall became Cannon. In the early 1880s, just 200 families bearing the Cannon surname lived in County Donegal, who were mainly tenant farmers. The Cannons/O'Canannains were of the ancient sept of Cenell Conaill, a branch of the northern Uí Néill and descended from Ruaidrí ua Canannain (died 30 November 950), King of Cenel Conaill, and grandson of Canannain, who flourished in the second half of the 9th century. The site of the ancient seat of the Ó Canannain was near Letterkenny (the largest town of County Donegal, only since the 1950s), which is said to represent the countryside of the O'Cannons (English translation).
History
The modern town of Letterkenny began as a market town at the start of the 17th century, during the Plantation of Ulster. It may have been established on the site of an earlier Gaelic settlement. It was the first crossing point of the River Swilly. In the recent past, Letterkenny was a largely agricultural town, surrounded by extensive cattle and sheep grazing on what was then untilled hillside, at a time when Conwal (3 km west of Letterkenny) was the ecclesiastical and seaport centre. The waters of the Atlantic had not yet retreated from the basin of the Swilly, whose estuary at that time extended up almost as far as New Mills; proof of this may be found in those alluvial flatlands between the Oldtown and the Port Road.
Rory O'Cannon, the last chieftain of the O'Cannon Clan, was killed in 1248. Godfrey O'Donnell succeeded Rory O'Cannon as King of Tír Conaill. He engaged the Norman lord Maurice FitzGerald, 2nd Lord of Offaly in battle at Credan in the north of what is now County Sligo in 1257, in which both were badly wounded – Fitzgerald immediately fatally so. Godfrey (also dying from his wounds) retired to a crannóg in Lough Beag (Gartan Lake). O'Neill of Tír Eoghain — taking advantage of Godfrey's fatal illness — demanded submission, hostages, and pledges from the Cenél Conaill since they had no strong chieftain since the wounding of Godfrey. Godfrey summoned his forces and led them himself, although he had to be carried on a litter (stretcher). O'Neill and his men were completely defeated by the Swilly in 1258. Godfrey died, however, after the battle near where the town of Letterkenny is today. He was buried in Conwal Cemetery. A cross-shaped coffin slab marks his grave to this day.
The receding of the waters of the Atlantic eastwards enabled progress, and with the building of bridges, etc., the town of Letterkenny started to take the shape it has today. In the wake of the Plantation of Ulster (which began around 1609), when a area was granted to a Scotsman, Patrick Crawford, the compact community formed.
The honour of formally launching the town fell to Sir George Marbury, who married Patrick Crawford's widow — Crawford having died suddenly while on a return visit to his native Scotland. Initially, there were possibly fifty simple habitations sited where the Oldtown is situated today.
The main streets, though now suffering traffic congestion, were simple pony tracks used by the hill farmers to come to the markets. The markets — started by Patrick Crawford with only a few animals — grew into much busier markets that are not present today.
An ancient castle once stood near where the Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba stands today. Letterkenny Castle, built in 1625, was located south of Mt Southwell on Castle Street. No remains of the castle exist today.
During the Irish Rebellion of 1798, on 12 October, a French squadron transporting 3,000 troops, including Wolfe Tone, attempted to land in County Donegal near Lough Swilly. They were intercepted by a larger Royal Navy squadron and surrendered after a three-hour battle without ever landing in Ireland. After Tone was captured he was held for a short time at Laird's Hotel (opposite the Market Square) in the Main Street of Letterkenny before being transferred to the nearby Derry Gaol. He was later tried by a court-martial in Dublin and found guilty. His death through suicide occurred in prison.
In 1824, when the first description of Letterkenny as a modern town was written, it was stated that: "Within half a mile is the Port of Ballyraine, whither vessels of 100 tons bring iron, salt and colonial produce and whence they export hides and butter". Nothing remains now except the warehouses with the example of 19th-century warehouse architecture.Only Warehouse Architecture remains
Letterkenny achieved town status in the early 1920s following the partition of Ireland. When the Irish punt replaced the British pound sterling in County Donegal in 1928, many Irish banks that had been previously located in Derry (in the new Northern Ireland) opened branches in Letterkenny.
Geography
Climate Climate data for Letterkenny is recorded at Malin Head in the far northern tip of the county. Malin Head's climate is classified as Temperate Oceanic (Köppen Cfb) and is significantly milder than some other locations in the world at a similar latitude; this is due to the station's position near the Atlantic Coast and exposure to the warmth of the Gulf Stream. Due to its northerly latitude, Malin Head experiences long summer days and short winter days. Summers are cool with temperatures rarely exceeding , while winters are relatively mild with daytime temperatures rarely dropping below . Extreme heat is very rare; however, the town can on occasion receive extreme cold from the Arctic, where temperatures drop several degrees below . Snow is relatively uncommon, and the station receives, on average, 20 days of recorded snowfall per year, the vast majority of this occurring between December and March. Humidity is high year-round, and rainfall is spread quite evenly throughout the year, with winter months receiving the rainiest days.
Architecture
Several of Letterkenny's more notable buildings were built in the early 1850s or earlier. These include educational and ecclesiastical buildings. The town's tallest building is the Cathedral of St Eunan and St Columba, which was completed in 1901. The cathedral was designed by William Hague from County Cavan. It is built in a light Victorian neo-Gothic version of the French 13th-century Gothic style. Located opposite the cathedral, at the junction of Church Street with Cathedral Square, is Conwal Parish Church, parts of which date from the 17th century.
Another dominant building in the town is St Eunan's College. It is a three-storey castellated structure, built in 1904 in the Edwardian variant of the neo-Hiberno-Romanesque style. It has four turreted round towers and flying buttresses which are modelled on the nearby cathedral.
Other architecturally notable buildings can be found at Mount Southwell Terrace, which is located at the top of Market Square, just off Castle Street. This Georgian-style terrace of red brick was built in 1837 by Lord Southwell. The terrace contains five Georgian houses and served as a holiday home for Maud Gonne when she stayed here while holidaying in Donegal. St Conal's Hospital is a large Victorian neo-Georgian structure located on the Kilmacrennan Road in the town. While the oldest parts of the building date from the 1860s, the hospital's chapel was built in the neo-Norman style in the 1930s.
The Donegal County Museum is housed in the old workhouse on High Road, which was completed in May 1843.
In later years, Letterkenny has seen more modern architectural developments. The new Letterkenny Town Council offices, known locally as "The Grasshouse", were designed by Donegal-based MacGabhann Architects. The building features a sloping grass roof situated above a broad band of aluka matt cladding and a runway-like ramp to the first-floor concourse. A 2002 article in The Sunday Times reportedly described it as a "building of international interest". The town council had previously been based in a house known as "Murrac-a-Boo", off the Port Road, which was badly damaged in a fire in 2004 and subsequently demolished.
Demographics
The population of Letterkenny in 1841 was 2,161.
Letterkenny is the largest town in County Donegal. Despite having a long tradition of emigration that continued until the early 1990s, Letterkenny has since had net immigration. The recent immigrants include people from Central Europe, Africa, and Asia. This is reflected in the recent growth of immigrant restaurants and shops, including Chinese and Indian restaurants, as well as specialised shops run by and providing goods for Africans, Asians, South Americans, and Central Europeans. Letterkenny is home to one of Ireland's few Hindu temples.