With St Catherine’s Day coming tomorrow, it is a good time to look at an old postcard, and try to pin down its year.

This card belongs to Laura Steinke – she guessed that its date was about 1922 and that it was sent from America by her grandmother soon after she landed there.

How accurate is that date?    In trying to find a reliable date, there are several clues. The pilgrims in the photo are wearing clothes in the style of the 1920s or 1930s, possibly in the American style.  Could it be that these penitents are visiting the Well in preparation for a voyage across the Atlantic?  Or returning after a holiday. 

The wall around the graveyard gives a better clue.  In the postcard it has been newly built or repaired.  That wall has been repaired many times over the years.  In 1924 the Glenties District Council proposed to repair the wall.  However, the work was not costed and the plan fell into abeyance.  In the meantime it must have been in very bad condition, because in 1928 some of the people in Killybegs sent a petition to the Minister of Local Government, pointing out the condition of the wall, and demanding that it be remedied. The Minister referred the matter to the Donegal Board of Health, which sought tenders for repairs.  The successful contractors were named as Callaghan and McGuinness.  It looks like the Callaghan was Denis, a grandfather of Anne Fallon and the McClafferty brothers, but the McGuinness is unidentified for the present.   Denis Callaghan was a professional stone mason who worked on many projects, including the construction of the Basilica at Lough Derg between 1925 and 1929.

It is also known that ‘extensive renovations’ were carried out at the well in 1937, but the 1928 date is more reliable seeing that the owner of the postcard placed it in the 1920s.

(As some of the above is guesswork, please feel free to give your views)