School: Ballyharry (roll number 11235)
- Location:
- Ballycharry, Co. Donegal
- Teacher: Seosamh Mac Giolla Bríde
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1123, Page 548
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- This poetry was written on the occasion of the capture and trial of Dan Magennis one of the five illfated Magennis brothers. Dan Magennis was tried and found guilty of the murder of Norton Butler a tyrannic landlord residing at Grouse Hall. It is said that Magennis bayoneted him to the ground and after the bayonet had been removed a small boy ran his finger into the hoe made by the bayonet in the ground.
I
The summer dusk was deepening o'er the hills of Innishowen
And evening mists were seeping slow,
across the moorlands lone
As through the heath and cannaban by rush-fringed loch and tarn
Young Dan Magennis hastened towards the town of Gortayarn.
II
For weeks he'd been a fugitive the mountain heath his bed
With scanty food his position and a price upon his head
For slaying Norton Butler whose name(continues on next page)
- Informant
- Patrick Bonner
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 66
- Address
- Culdaff, Co. Donegal
