Bangor Historical held their January meeting on the 11th. The speaker was Dr Robert Neill who gave an illustrated talk about the history of Donaghadee from 1600. He explained that in the early seventeenth century it was a small fishing village. It was part of the lands owned by Con O’Neill. The speaker began by explaining how the ownership of the village descended through different families.

Con O’Neill lived in the Castlereagh Hills. He sent his servants into Belfast to get wine. This led to a chain of events in which soldiers were killed and Con was imprisoned in Carrickfergus Castle. A Scot, Hugh Montgomery, offered to use his influence with James I to obtain a pardon for Con in return for half his lands. The King agreed to the pardon, but Hugh’s fellow Scot, James Hamilton, then became involved in the deal and obtained a third of the lands.

As a result of the agreement Hugh Montgomery obtained the village of Donaghadee. He lived in the priory at Newtownards, another part of his lands. He built a harbour at Donaghadee and bought Portpatrick in Scotland. Until 1850 Donaghadee to Portpatrick formed the main route for the majority of trade to Great Britain. There is a rocky patch in the harbour which is all that is left of Hugh’s harbour.

By the mid eighteenth century Hugh’s descendant, Thomas, Montgomery, 5th Earl of Mount Alexander owned Donaghadee. He married Marie Angelique Delacherois. On his death in 1757 he left his land to his wife. She died in 1771 and as she had no children she left the village to her cousin Samuel Delacherois. By the mid twentieth century George Delacherois was the owner. Then next came the sisters Mrs Day and Mrs Stone. Mrs Day was the heir. After her death the new heir had no interest in Donaghadee and has begun selling off the family interests there.

A major milestone in the development of the town was the creation of the modern harbour.

About 1808 the engineer Telford investigated various possibilities for new harbours for trade between Ulster and SW Scotland. Both Bangor & Larne were considered as well as Donaghadee. The government decided on Donaghadee and employed the engineer Rennie to make the plans. It took 15 years before the new harbour was ready in 1836. A time capsule was buried during construction. Later the development of steamships caused major problems as these bigger ships could not get into the harbours at Donaghadee or Portpatrick. So they were superseded by Larne and Stranraer

The railway first came to Donaghadee in the early 1860s. It came via Newtownards and like railways of the period was built with private money. It was hoped this would revive trade. These hopes were never realized and the railway closed in 1950.

The harbour continued to be used by boats going to the Copeland Isles. Coal boats also sailed from the town to obtain coal from Cumbria, but this trade ended in 1955. This was due to the ships getting bigger and the harbour silting up.

Dr Neill then talked about the Princess Victoria disaster in January 1953 and the role played in the rescue of survivors by the local lifeboat.

He then turned his attention to the Moat, explaining that it was originally an Irish rath built about 4,000 BC. In 1170 the Normans transformed it into a motte with a simple castle on top. The current stone castle was built in 1821 to store gunpowder for use in the building of the harbour. It now houses a camera obscura which is open at weekends. A system of mirrors enables people to obtain views over the town.

A number of other topics were then covered by the speaker. He mentioned a number of hotels in the town such as the Baths Hotel, built c1866 for James Duffy. Other hotels included the Copelands Hotel, the Imperial and the Mount Royal. In 1936 Baron Von Ribbentrop visited Mount Stewart. We were shown a photo of him playing golf at Donaghadee Golf Course with a local businessman.

A prominent figure in the mid twentieth century was Cyril Lord. He built a house and a carpet factory in Donaghadee. The factory operated from 1957-1968 and was the biggest one in Europe. He also made a three-wheeler car, but it could not compete when the mini was introduced.

Finally Dr Neill talked about the Battle of the Copelands on 24 April 1778. John Paul Jones was a Scot who went to America. During the American War of Independence, he commanded a ship called the Ranger and attacked shipping around the British Isles. He sailed up Belfast Lough and attacked the British navy ship the Drake. After further successes he became a hero in the new United States. He later retired and went to live in Paris, dying about 1830. In 1906 the Americans had his body disinterred and taken back to America for burial in a naval college outside Washington.