School: Caológa (2) (roll number 16309)
- Location:
- Keeloges, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Tadhg Ó Laoghaire
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1073, Page 118
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- XML School: Caológa (2)
- XML Page 118
- XML “An Armada Relic”
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- (Told to a friend of mine in the train J. Doherty merchant, by the finder of the spoon. He sold it that day.)
A few years ago a farmer in the West of Doengal was demolishing an old barn. Here he found an old spoon. He brought it into the house but did not set much value on it. It was about the kitchen for a number of years and put to various rough uses. The men coming in from the fields scraped the mud off their boots with it.One day one of his girls polished it up and found that it was then a very nice spoon. It had an engraving representing a ship in the hollow and also an inscription. A chance visitor offered a very good price for it but the farmer declined. He subsequently sold it for £300.It was an Armada relic - probably from the same ship mentioned in the last page. How it came there is a matter for conjecture. Probably the original mortar of the barn was made from sea shore sand and the action of the tide had cast in the spoon, or it may have been brought ashore by an Armada survivor.
Note:- A breed of horses sometimes seen in Donegal sturdy, mouse coloured animals of smallish build are reputed to be of Spanish (Armada) Stock.
- Informant
- J. Doherty
- Occupation
- Merchant
