Our Beloved Donegal

I have had many people recently ask me if I miss Philadelphia, so I felt that I should answer it in a post. I will always be a Philly girl, but my heart is now at home in Donegal.


When Joe and I first got married, he wanted to show me Ireland, so we did tent camping around the country. When we came to Donegal County, we both fell in love with it. Joe had never seen it before, and I thought it was a touch of heaven. I said to Joe, "Gee, I wish that we could live here." We were living in the middle of the country at that time, and Joe said, " Then, we will move here", and by golly we did! We have found a great deal of peace and beauty here in Donegal, and we never take it for granted. Today, we took our usual long walk, met a neighbor down the hill from us that we had never met before, and his friendliness was amazing. I took an instant liking to him. Anyways, I thought you might like to see this video of Donegal. It is a Gaelic song about Donegal and it shows lovely scenes from our county, including our village of Dunfanaghy, which you can see also pictured above.As to whether it was an adjustment living here in Ireland, well, I can honestly say that the hardest thing for me personally was getting used to living in a small village, as I came from Philly, which was huge. Now funny enough, I don't think that I could go back to living in a large city, and I guess that's why I felt so overwhelmed when I visited our capital city of Dublin recently. So, to answer your questions, I would never live anywhere else! Joe and I have found our niche, and we are truly happy. Enjoy the videos!! I am also including Christy Moore's song "City of Chicago", which is about the Irish Great Hunger or Famine, where Irish people were forced to emigrate. This is about someone who went to Chicago and still remembered his beloved Donegal. Christy Moore wrote the song and sings it from his heart, and I think you will love it.He is one of my favorite Irish singers.

Here is a lovely poem about Donegal, and it captures how everyone who has seen and lived here in Donegal feels about this grand ol' county:

My Old Thatched Cottage
Take me back to my old thatched cottageIn far off DonegalWhere the thrushes sing in the eveningBeside the waterfall
I'm tired of the noise of the cityI long for the peace of the plowWhere the sea gulls circle above meAs I wipe the sweat from my brow
I long for the sounds of the horsesThe cows coming down from the hillsThe bleat of the lambs in the springtimeThe song of the lark, how it thrills
I want to go back to the heatherThe roses that cling round the doorTo the hawthorn, the primrose, and daisiesTo my childhood again as of yore
Take me back to my dear old motherIn far off DonegalWhere the thrushes sing in the eveningBeside the waterfall

Hope this post helped to answer some of your questions.Enjoy the videos and the lovely scenery of our county....our beloved Donegal.