Committee Members 2025/26
LEITHINIS DONABATE PORTRANE CCÉ COMMITTEE
Chairperson: Paul Kelly
Vice-chairperson: Brian Gallagher
Secretary: Markus Kohler
Treasurer: Daragh Farrell
P.R.O. Sarah Canty
Child Protection Officer: Catherine Harnett
Class Co-ordinator: Margaret Findley
Auditor: Margaret Findley
Youth Officer: Catherine Elliot
Treoirí na Gaeilge: Brian Gallagher
Delegates to Co. Board Catherine Harnett and Markus K.
Branch History
Leithinis CCÉ which means half Island or peninsula seemed a very apt name for our Comhaltas in Donabate Portrane which was born on Wednesday 6th February 2019 when a meeting held by Breda Dockrell & assisted by Jim O’Donohoe in Donabate Portrane Educate together formed branch on our Peninsula. Nearly 50 people turned up and there was great enthusiasm. Mary Whelan, Chairperson of the Dublin County Board of CCÉ, spoke about how in general to form a branch & Elizabeth Byrne, founder member of CCÉ Port Mearnóg, spoke about setting up their branch. Joe Hughes of the Kinsealy Branch gave us endless help & support.
We began with some Slow Sessions on a Sunday from11am-1pm in the then Café Natural at the Community Centre for the first few months – later we moved to our newly refurbished Parish Hall which is a gem on two Fridays of the month. In that first March we started some Trad Sessions in Keeling’s Pub led by by Denis Stack and now there is a regular session twice a month in The Brook Pub, this has now expanded to a very large group of people not just from Leithinis, who come from far & wide to play. Also, in that first March and we have continued the tradition, we had local trad musicians and Active Age for All Singing Group and the Ciorcal Comhrá etc from the parish together to play in Cates Café in the Supervalue Mall as part of Seachtain na Gaeilge & Paddy Day. Members of the first committee from the new Leithinis spoke to people on the day and an expression of interest sheet was available to sign re classes starting in September – these people were contacted for registration in mid Sept & endless posters, Facebook posts, targeted emails & a new website were used to entice people to join! A good way was demonstration, we brought young musicians courtesy of Joe Hughes to the primary schools for a day for workshops. The best way of getting students was WOM!
On Monday 30th September 2019 due to the hard working committee under the helm of Paul Kelly & great teachers led by Eamonn Galbubh; 40 plus people signed up for classes in various instruments, with a 50/50 split between adults & juniors. We average about 60 students now It was an historic day on our peninsula to get a Comhaltas branch up & going! Students doing classes mainly adults so we are trying to encourage more young budding musicians to take part! We have members who volunteer for some tasks & to come on board on the committee, so we can form a strong little community of musicians & people who love the Irish Music, language & song. If you want any further information please drop in at 7pm to DPENS on a Monday evening or contact us on leithinis@comhaltas.net.
Donabate and The Foggy Dew
How many times have we heard the ballad the Foggy Dew, do you know the connection of the song and Donabate and the wider Fingal Area. Let me explain.
“as down the glen one easter morn to a city fair ride I. There armored lines of marching men in squadrons passed me by”
The opening lines of the song which included the men from Donabate and Fingal. Some of these men still have decedents living in the area.
Over many months the men from Donabate and Fingal trained to play their part in the coming rising. Their time came in easter week when the commandant Thomas Ashe gave orders for the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) to be attacked. On the Wednesday the barracks in Swords was successfully attacked sizing arms and ammunition.
On the Thursday the group attacked the RIC barracks in Donabate. But the Sargent managed to secure the door, during the attack the volunteers shoot the lock of the door off resulting in the Sargent receiving a hand wound. The barracks party then surrendered and the Volunteers sized more arms and ammunition.
“and from the plans of Royal Meath strong men came hurrying through”
On the 28th of April the Fingal volunteers with the Donabate men moved to the town of Ashbourne just inside the Dublin / Meath board, to attack the RIC barracks there. Just as the barracks party was surrendering a collum of 100 RIC men were seen coming along the road from Naven. Ashe split his command to ambush the collum at the Rath Cross. This type of action would see use in the future in Cork and Kerry.
Following the withdrawal of the police collum two volunteers were dead along with eight policemen 18 police men were wounded.
“Oh had they died by Pearse side or fought with Cathal Brugha”
Easter week James Connolly requested Ashe to send 40 men to Dublin. But Ashe only sent 20 men, the number was reduced by the countermanding order issued on the Friday before the rising. And Ashe had planned to join up with the volunteers from Meath, Kildare and Wicklow to provide a ring around the city, this was never achieved.
“Their bravest fell and the requiem bell rang mournfully and clear For those who died that easter tide in the spring of the year”
The men from Donabate and Fingal fought in the Mendicity Institute on Ushers Island under Captain Richard Coleman from Swords.
The building was surrounded and taken on the Wednesday the 26th of April; it was during this action Peter Wilson of Swords was killed. He is buried with a member of 4th Battalion in Dr Stephens hospital. Alongside their grave is the grave of five British soldiers killed during the week. Three of these solders are from the Royal irish Regiment
“But the angelus bell o’er the Liffey’s swells rang out in the foggy dew”
At the end of the fighting the men from Donabate and Fingal marched into captivity along the Liffey as the bells rang out. By December 1916 these men marched back home along the same route with the bells still ringing. They reorganized and trained for the next fight to come, but that’s another song and story.
Leithinis Donabate Portrane CCÉ 