''An Clochán Liath'', known in English as Dungloe (sometimes misspelled as Dunglow;Placenames (Ceantair Ghaeltachta) Order 2004
/ref> ), is a town on the west coast of

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

, the northern

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in Ireland. It is the main town in

The Rosses The Rosses (officially known by its Irish language name, ''Na Rosa''; in the genitive case ''Na Rosann'') is a traditional 'district' in the west of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern Provinces of Ireland, province in Ireland. The Rosses has ...

and the largest in the Donegal ''

Gaeltacht A ( , , ) is a district of Ireland, either individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home. The districts were first officially recognised ...

''.Placenames Database of Ireland
/ref> Dungloe developed as a town in the middle of the 18th century, and now serves as the administrative and retail centre for the west of County Donegal, and in particular The Rosses, with the only mainland secondary school for the area.

Name

There is a river at the bottom of the town and years ago the only crossing was over a grey granite slab lying in the riverbed, hence the Irish name of the town, ''An Clochán Liath'', which means ''the grey stepping-stone''. The bridge was built in 1782. Dungloe library - geograph

The name ''An Clochán Liath'' was formerly anglicised as ''Cloghanlea''. The name ''Dungloe'' or ''Dunglow'' is believed to come from the Irish ''Dún gCloiche''. This name came into common English usage in the later years of the 18th century when the monthly fair, formerly held at ''Dún gCloiche'' (five miles north of the nascent town), was transferred to ''An Clochán Liath''. In time the name of the fair and that of the town were subsumed. Today, ''An Clochán Liath'' is the only officially recognised name of the town.

Irish language

The ''Comprehensive Linguistic Survey of the Gaeltacht'' (revised) found that only 21.4% of the population of the area spoke Irish on a daily basis. Despite being officially within the ''

'', Irish is not the everyday language of the majority of residents. Just over one-fifth of the population are daily Irish speakers. Nevertheless, there are Irish-speaking areas outside the town and Irish is to be heard regularly in the town.Dungloe / An Clochán Liath
on www.dun-na-ngall.com

Administration

Dungloe is home to the Dungloe

District Court District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy. These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...

, which covers the west and south-west areas of

. The local council offices are situated in the Public Services Centre on the Gweedore Road, including an Intreo centre, Citizens Information centre and

Donegal County Council Donegal County Council () is the authority responsible for Local government in the Republic of Ireland, local government in County Donegal, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The ...

office. There is a Garda station,

office, and a fire station, located on the Main Street. Also, there are several convenience stores, supermarkets, cafes, pubs and restaurants. The town is the headquarters of

' indigenous supermarket chain,

The Cope The Cope, or the Templecrone Agricultural Co-operative Society is a co-operative retail chain indigenous to The Rosses area of County Donegal in Ireland. Founded in 1906, it has a number of normal supermarkets as well as a full department sto ...

The Dungloe Community Hospital campus also contains a hospital, mental health services and a day centre for the elderly. A visitor centre to

Daniel O'Donnell Daniel Francis Noel O'Donnell, MBE (born 12 December 1961) is an Irish singer, television presenter and philanthropist. After rising to public attention in 1983, he has since become a household name in Ireland and Britain; he has also had co ...

was opened in 2012 in the town's former

National Irish Bank Danske Bank, formerly known as the National Irish Bank, is a bank operating in the Republic of Ireland. The bank is a subsidiary of the Danske Bank, Danske Bank Group which is headquartered in Copenhagen. Danske Bank is organised in three bu ...

building. The visitor centre closed in 2019.

Tourism

The town attracts tourists during July and August when the annual Mary From Dungloe International Festival takes place. It was founded in the 1960s and it has attracted 'special guests' over the years including

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...

Gay Byrne Gabriel Mary Byrne (5 August 1934 – 4 November 2019) was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was as the first host of '' The Late Late Show'' over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. ''The Late La ...

and

Sharon Shannon Sharon Shannon (born 8 June 1968) is an Irish musician, best known for her work with the button accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and Diatonic button accordion, melodeon. Her 1991 debut album, ''Sharon Shann ...

. Dungloe Bay and its surrounding hills have also attracted tourists to Dungloe. There is also a festival dedicated to the socialist writer

Peadar O'Donnell Peadar O'Donnell (; 22 February 1893 – 13 May 1986) was one of the foremost radicals of 20th-century Ireland. O'Donnell became prominent as an Irish republican, socialist politician and writer. Early life Peadar O'Donnell was born into an I ...

in Dungloe each autumn. A little to the north of the town is the site of the ancient church of Templecrone. Dungloe RC Church - geograph

Transport

The town is serviced by a regional

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with the exception of Dublin, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidiary of C ...

route and several

TFI Local Link TFI Local Link, or simply Local Link, is a set of local bus services in Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided ...

routes, as well as a number of private bus companies, both of which provide a link to national Bus Éireann routes through

Donegal Town Donegal ( ; , "fort of the foreigners") is a town in County Donegal in Ulster, the northern Provinces of Ireland, province in Ireland. Although Donegal gave its name to the county, now Lifford is the county town. From the 15th until the early 1 ...

and

Letterkenny 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 Ulster. Along with the nearby city of Derry, Letterkenny is a regional eco ...

, and to the north of the county and

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

also. In 1903, the town was linked, through Dungloe railway station, to the

Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway The Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company (The L&LSR, the Swilly) was an Irish public transport and freight company that operated in parts of County Londonderry and County Donegal between 1853 and 2014. Incorporated in June 1853, it on ...

. However, the station was closed on 3 June 1940 as part of a process that saw the closure of all railways in the county. The company continued to provide coach services to the town via the Lough Swilly Bus Company in the aftermath of the closure of the railways, however this ended in April 2014.

Religion and popular culture

By the standards of a rural ''

'' area, Dungloe has a significant

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

minority, many of whom are

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

. This is a result of the

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: ) was the organised Settler colonialism, colonisation (''Plantation (settlement or colony), plantation'') of Ulstera Provinces of Ireland, province of Irelandby people from Great ...

in the seventeenth century. However, the town has a large

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

majority. Dungloe is mentioned in FX series ''

Sons of Anarchy ''Sons of Anarchy'' is an American Action film, action crime drama television series created by Kurt Sutter for FX (TV channel), FX. Originally aired from September 3, 2008, to December 9, 2014, ''Sons of Anarchy'' follows the lives of a close-k ...

'' as the source of the motorcycle club's weapons from the True IRA, a fictional representation of the

Real IRA The Real Irish Republican Army, or Real IRA (RIRA), was a Dissident republican, dissident Irish republican paramilitary group that aimed to bring about a United Ireland. It was formed in 1997 following a split in the Provisional Irish Republica ...

. The song Mary from Dungloe by Emmet Spiceland.

People

* Tony Boyle (born 1970) – All-Ireland winning

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

er * Alexander Campbell (1833–1877) – American businessman *

Paddy "the Cope" Gallagher Paddy "The Cope" Gallagher (; 25 December 1871 – 24 June 1966) was the founder of The Cope (officially called the Templecrone Agricultural Co-operative Society). A businessman and campaigner for West Donegal, he was born in Cleendra, ...

(1871–1966) – businessman * John O'Donnell (1910–1954) –

er *

(1893–1986) – republican Marxist *

Adrian Sweeney Adrian Sweeney is an Irish former Gaelic footballer who played for Dungloe and the Donegal county team. Considered one of the finest forwards of his generation, he often played alongside Brendan Devenney for Donegal. Sweeney played for Doneg ...

(born 1976) – All-Star

er *

Goats Don't Shave Goats Don't Shave are an Irish folk rock band formed in 1990. Formed in Dungloe, County Donegal, the group was fronted by singer-songwriter Pat Gallagher and backed by musicians, Charlie Logue (keyboards), Declan Quinn (whistle), Gerry Coyle ...

, Irish folk group

References

External links

Dungloe population stats 2006
{{County Donegal Gaeltacht places in County Donegal Gaeltacht towns and villages The Rosses Towns and villages in County Donegal