Donegal’s Scottish links are plain for all to see and hear

by Dave Bowman

This former Isle of Coll ferry now carries vehicles and passengers across Lough Swilly, Co Donegal.

Union flags and St George’s flags are as rare as hen’s teeth in the Republic - even in the most touristy of areas

FOR the Italian tourists peering out of their luxury coach as it entered the centre of Donegal Town last month, it must have felt for a moment as if they had booked to travel to Scotland, not Ireland, by mistake.

Looking to the right the visitors couldn’t help but notice the giant Saltire fluttering outside the town’s Abbey Hotel; to the left another Saltire on display at McCafferty’s Bar and, just around the corner, the Scotsman’s Bar watering hole - though this time no flags!

For this long-time visitor to Ireland’s most northerly county (part of the Irish Republic because including it in Northern Ireland during the 1921 partition talks would have given the new statelet a small Catholic majority) the flags underline and strengthen the long and enduring special relationship between County Donegal and Scotland in general - and Glasgow in particular.