The Outer Edge of Ulster

Hugh Dorian was born in poverty in rural Donegal in 1834. He survived Ireland's Great Famine, only to squander uncommon opportunities for self-advancement. Having lost his job and clashed with priests and policemen, he moved to the city of Derry but never slipped the shadow of trouble. Three of his children died from disease and his wife fell drunk into the River Foyle and drowned. Dorian declined into alcohol-numbed poverty and died in an overcrowded slum in 1914.

A unique document survived the tragedy of Dorian's life. In 1890 he completed a "true historical narrative" of the social and cultural transformation of his home community. This narrative forms the most extensive lower-class account of the Great Famine. A moving account of the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, it invites comparison with the classic slave narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs.

Dorian achieves a degree of totality in his reconstruction of the world of the pre-Famine poor that is unparalleled in contemporary memoir or fiction. He describes their

Acknowledgments

vii

Preface to the North American Edition

ix

Introduction

1

(56)

Note on the Text

57

(2)

Introductory Remarks

59

(2)

Descriptive Scenery

61

(22)

Method and Source of Literary Instruction

83

(16)

The School and Schoolmaster

99

(22)

Local Celebrities

121

(17)

The Nightly Meetings

138

(13)

The Master's Revenge

151

(6)

Villages

157

(17)

The New School

174

(22)

The `Catbrack', or Irish Teaching

196

(14)

The Years of the Famine

210

(21)

The Landlord Extermination

231

(27)

Observances on the Divisions of the Year

258

(14)

Poteen and Smuggling

272

(19)

Hints on the Manufacture of Poteen

291

(10)

Prevailing Customs at Marriages, Births and Deaths

301

(22)

Concluding Remarks

323

(3)

Appendix: National Schools in Fanaid, 1842-1880

326

(1)

Index

327

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The Outer Edge of Ulster

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