School: Cronaghbois (roll number 2658)
- Location:
- Crannogeboy, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Criostóir Ó Beirn
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1048, Page 362
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- XML “Famous People”
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- The only person in the locality living or dead who can lay any claim to fame is on Thomas Larkin. He is still alive and contributed some of the stories in this book.
Thomas was famous as a swimmer. No sea held any terrors for him. The shore here is rock strewn and it is very difficult to land a boat even in fairly calm weather. But Thomas knew every rock and on dark winter nights he often acted as pilot to the herring fleet as he swam before them guiding them through the rocks to safe anchorage.
On one occasion while rowing tourists around the cliffs one of the tourists shot a seal. The tourist was a famous swimmer and jumped out to try and capture the wounded animal. Not to be outdone Thomas plunged overboard and reached the seal first. After a struggle he caught one of the seal's "clats" in his mouth and swam with the prize to the shore.
