Columcille tried many a time to convert Tory island but the cheif of the island would not let him Columcille anyway thought of a plan.
He asked if he would let him convert as much as his handkerchief would cover. The chief thought that was'nt much so he gave him leave. All Columcille did was to put the handkerchief under his feet and it began to spread until it covered the whole island. The chief had keep his word so in that way Columcille converted Tory Island.

island. The chief had to keep his word so in that way Columcille converted Tory island.

The following three stories were obtained from John Rochford (Aged 76) who was born in Culdalee, Aclare, Co Sligo, and who is now living in Ballyhowley, Killasser SwinfordHow Columcille converted Tory Island.Columcille often tried to convert Tory island but the chief of the island would not let him. Then Columcille thought of a good plan and asked the chief to let him convert as much as his handkerchief could cover. The chief thought that wasn't much so he granted the request. Columcille put his handkerchief under his feet and it began to spread until it covered the whole

(walk)ing stick to Tory Island.
Saint Colmkille's stick landed on Tory Island. The reason why the other man's stick did not go to the Island was because he put his own help before the help of God, but Saint Colmkille did not, he put God's help before his own help.
There's no help in the whole wide world greater or as great as the help of God.
Grace Mac Fadden, Cashel.

Story
Once upon a time Saint Colmcille and another holy man were up on the top of Muckish. These two men had walking sticks with them. Saint Colmcille said to the other man, "Now let me see which of us can throw our stick to Tory Island."
The other man said to Saint Colmcille, "Well I will try first." He tried and he said while he was throwing the walking stick, "With the help of myself and the help of God I will throw this walking stick to Tory Island. He threw his stick but it did not go to the Island, it landed on the water between the Island and Muckish, the place where Saint Colmcille and the other man were standing. Then Saint Colmcille said he would try and so he did try. Saint Colmcille threw his and he said while throwing his walking stick, "With the help of God and the help of myself I will throw my walk -

Tory Island. Tala Oge O'Boyle lived in Faugher and every day he came to Lockagh and went fishing in a little boat.

There was a Government boat called the wash going out to tory island because the people would not pay the rent. When the boat was a half of the Island the people saw her coming and they turned a certain stone. Immediately there arose a great storm and the boat sank and all the crew drowned

which he could see Tory. He then went to Tory himself and the king wasent going to let him come to Tory, but Colmcille said ho only wanted to spread his coat on the rock.
he spread his coat on the rock and it began to spread until it covered the whole island. All the people that were living on the island went down to the bottom of the sea.
Three sons of Corr went away to put Aran under magic spells but before they reached Aran they were seen. and they were changed into three rocks. Every seven years they go away and they try to reach Tory, but if they are seen they have to come back

The Wasp was a British gun boat and was on her voyage to Tory Island on 21st February 1881. Tory Island was owned by an English Landlord. This man processed the tenants for the rent. As they would not pay it he asked the government the help of her soldiers to aid him to make them pay. Accordingly this gun boat which was lying off the coast of Mayo was placed at his disposal. The captain squared her bow and sailed quickly over the blue waters towards Tory. There were fifty soldiers on board as well as the ship's crew.
The "Wasp" sailed up to the coast but fate was against her. A fog arose and she

Rosguill is named after Gaol Mac Moirnin. His mother's name was Meidhbhe and it is said that Gaol stepped from Rock Meidhbhe to another rock some distance away. He also said that he would wade from Rosguill to Tory Island through the ocean and when the water was up to his shoulders he turned and came back to the mainland. There is some place in Hornhead near the Ross supposed to be Diarmuid and Gráinne's bed. There is a little (gl) garden beside a hill at

Till a widow's mighty sorrow can have learned for to forget".
No fish ever did come for fifty years.
About fifty years ago a boat named the "Wasp" containing bailiffs and soldiers went to Tory to evict some tenants for non-payment of rent. The Tory stone was turned on them and they were all drowned.
About a hundred years ago a party of coast-guards left Sheep Haven to go to Tory. While they were there a storm arose and in order to balance the boat they took some stones from an old ruin in the island. They were warned not to take them but they insisted. However when they were returning home the boat capsized and they were all drowned It is said that the next morning the stones were back in Tory Island.
Nine years ago four Inis Boffin men left to fish during the salmon season in Sheep Haven Bay. The boat capsized and three of them were drowned. The fourth, Patrick Coll by name held on to a frail part of the boat for nine hours. Then he was picked up by a passing trawler three miles south east of the Horn in Horn Head.
Over 100 years ago the men from Doe parish gathered and marched to Dunfanaghy. In front of Mc Colgan's, Sandhill, Dunfanaghy they lay in wait for the Yeomanry. The latter were defeated and the Tithe collector Moore was driven out of

When St Martin set his foot in Tory Island off the coast of Donegal, the island was plagued with rats. These he banished into the sea and they have never since existed in the island.
Furthermore rats always shun the earth of the island even when it is placed in another district so that people from the island whose houses or lands have been infested by rats often get some of the earth from the island to banish the rats.
It is also said that somebody who denied the tradition carried a flock of the rats to the island but as soon as he let them loose on the land they scattered into the sea and were never afterwards seen.

Prayers at Turas.
1. Stand on the rock facing the Turas and say Five Paters and Five Aves.
2. Go round the Turas three times and say the same prayers.
3. Say these prayers facing Tory Island.
4. Stand with your back to Turas and say the same prayers.
5. Repeat the same kneeling facing Tory Island.
6. Then touch any diseased part with the water, and touch it on the blood stains on the stones.
7. Say your beads at the old Altar in the hazel bushes.

The people in older times had to work with wooden plights and with wooden barrows and with wooden pins. The people now have iron oughts and barrows but the people in Tory Island still have wooden ploughs and barrows.
The people used to gather crottle off the rocks along the shore and they boiled it in a pot and they had a nice brown dye. This they used for dying the yarn which they spun.

This is believed to be (about) the identical rath, which according to the Four Masters, was erected by Nemidius of Moylurg. We are told that Nemidius came from Greece with a fleet of men, women and children. In exploring the thickly-wooded and uninhabited country he discovered the plains of Moylurg, the earliest name of the barony of Boyle.
He was so much pleased with the soil and the situation that he constructed thereon a noble fort or rath, a kind of fortified dwelling, which was very generally adopted by his followers, as there numbers through Moylurg testify. The Annals tell us that after the second great battle with the Formorians the Nemidians ''fled into the interior of the island''.
Therefore those who were left of these earliest progenitors of Gaedhils came back to Lisserdrea, to the plains of Boyle. We are told that three bands are said to have emigrated with their respective (captans) captains, and it is from this remnant of the second battle of Tory Island the succeeding colonizers of Erin are sprung. The Boyle man, then can claim pre-eminence of place, both on the score of antediluvian and ante-Christian occupation of this territory by the sires from whom the Irish race is sprung.The old sagas, the modern poems, and the stories that paraphrase the tales of the days of

Margaret Gibbons, Accony N.S. Louisburgh, Co MayoThe famine began in the harvest of '45. It spread everywhere except Donegal and Tory Island. The cause of the Famine was all the potatoes got the blight and failed to grow. The potato was the food of the people because they had no flour or meal. It became worse in forty six, forty seven and forty eight. Father Patrick McManus Parish priest of this district told them not to sow but turnips. Some of them sowed potatoes and other turnips. Those that sowed the potatoes had twice as much of a crop. The others died with hunger. The Cholera came and other diseases and thousands of people died. Those that had no food were hoking the slits that were sown, up from under the clay and eating them. Those that had a head of cabbage were boiling poreens, chicken weed and bráisce through it and eating it. They were put into no coffins. They used make a big thick rope and roll it around their head and body and bury them. Some of them used to be carried on a donkey and cliabs (?) others of them, used to be buried where they died. Mr John Comer lived in Louisburgh

In the years 1846, 1847, 1848 a severe famine broke out through the country. It first made its appearance in Tory Island and from that it spread into the mainland.
The famine was caused by the failure of the potato crop. A disease called blight spread on the stalks and destroyed the crop. Thousands and thousands of people died of hunger in the famine years.
Then the English people placed old rotten ships along the coast of Ireland to take the people away to America. Some of these ships never reached their destination. Several of them

through one of the windows in Bishop's Hall stable, and prints on the window sill are supposed to be there left by his horse when jumping through. It is said he jumped over The White Horse when he was pursued another time. The horse was killed in the jump and that is how the "White Horse" derives its name. On the summit of Tory Hill there is an odd turret which is supposed to have been built by a nobleman for his son, because a witch foretold that as seen as he would reach a certain age he would be killed by lightning. According to his father's orders he was to go into the castle and not leave it for a year. But against his father's wishes the boy went down the side of the hill and his under the side of the hill and hid under the side of the hill that night the castle
was blown down by a storm and the boy was safe on the hillside.
(Received above from Peggy Hays, a pupil of Burnfort, N.S. who heard legents from her mother residing in Island, Burnfort, Mallow.)

All Ireland seems by tradition to have come under the lash of the blight scourge with one exception. The island of Tory on the north west coast of Donegal came free of its ravages and even remains exempt to the present day. These were the first years of the potato scourge in 1846. The writer has it traditionally from a man upon whose authenticity veracity and probity she can rely. The old man himself who related the story came home from school, and before he could get anything to eat for his dinner he had to go to the field where the potatoes were planted.They turned over the ground from three o'clock until dark, as long as the potatoes were visible which were difficult to see owing to the disease. They brought home the half rotten ones and boiled them they couldn't eat them. They never got any potatoes afterwards, as they all rotted in the earth and were

1. Long ago on Peter Dunleavy's land there is a spot which is called, "Pairc na Sealg". It is said that mass was said there and there is a mass rock. Mass was celebrated there in open air.
2. On John Gallagher's land also there is a flag of stone standing in Saint Connells graveyard. Mass also was said in open air. The names of the vestments are still to be seen on the stone.
3. On Tory Island the priests had a place of hiding and they would come to the main land to say mass. They were informed on