The drowning of up to 80 people off Donegal in the 19th century was remembered yesterday when a special monument was erected marking what is believed to be Ireland’s worst fishing disaster.
The 2½-tonne engraved Drumkeelan sandstone rock was unveiled by Donegal mayor Frank McBrearty in a landscaped garden overlooking Bruckless Bay to remember the drownings on February 12th, 1813.
More than 200 small open boats, like currachs, capsized in a sudden storm. No formal commemoration of the disaster, called the Bruckless Bay drownings, has ever been held before. Records indicate between 46 and 80 drowned.
Donegal county councillor John Boyle, chairman of the commemoration organising committee , said: “Down the generations people just didn’t talk about it. There was so much sadness attached to it, but also many believed a spell had been cast by a local woman. Two centuries ago people believed in witchcraft and wouldn’t have wanted to talk about what she had done.”