The Ghosts of Tory Island

Nine miles off the western coast of Ireland lies a tiny island known as Toraigh, better known as Tory Island. Only three miles long and about half a mile wide, winds off the Atlantic buffet the cliffs that extend from the ocean’s surface to more than 245 feet high, creating a natural defense against invaders. This is a land forged from mythology and still connected to distant pagan rites and religions even as it blends into the 21^st century.

In Irish mythology, Balor was the king of the Fomorians, an ancient supernatural race that rose from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. He had one eye in the middle of his forehead that was covered by seven cloaks. With each cloak that was removed, increasing levels of destruction were unleashed. He lived on Tory Island in a castle that included a high tower.

One day a seer prophesied that Balor’s own grandson would rise up to kill him. When his beautiful daughter Ethniu married and became pregnant, he imprisoned her in the high tower, where she gave birth to triplets—all sons. He ordered them drowned immediately, their infant bodies cast off the cliffs to the craggy rocks below—but one, Lugh, survived and when he grew to adulthood, he returned to Tory Island and killed Balor, fulfilling the seer’s tale.

Today Balor is known as the God of Death in Celtic mythology. After his death, the Fomorians returned to the waters off the coast of Ireland. It is said on days of gloom when black clouds are roiling and tumbling against unsettled skies and the winds roll in from the Atlantic in fury, the Fomorians rise from their watery depths and prey upon ships off the coast of tiny Tory Island. It is then that mothers herd their children indoors to wait out the storm’s rage lest they fall into the hands of these evil monsters.

From the 11^th of January, 1974 and continuing for two months straight, the island was cut off from the mainland by massive Atlantic storms. Perhaps 280 inhabitants huddled in their homes waiting for the storms to pass. When the skies finally cleared, 130 of them left Tory Island never to return and made their homes on the mainland.

In the 6^th century, Saint Columba (Colm Cille in Irish) landed on Tory Island in order to spread Christianity. At the time, pirates were descending upon the vulnerable island as it laid cut off from the mainland, plundering and destroying their homes and often abducting the women. Saint Columba built a monastery there and prophesied that when the people, led by a man named Duggan, rose up against the pirates, they would leave and never come back. The inhabitants rose up, the pirates departed, and with the ensuing peace, they converted in droves to Christianity. It is a religion unlike others, however, as they adopted Catholic ways as well as held onto their pagan beliefs.

In 1595, the English under the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I invaded Tory Island, killing many of its inhabitants and almost completely destroying the Catholic monastery.

In my book, Clans and Castles, the first in the Checkmate series, William Neely arrives at Tory Island in 1608 during O’Doherty’s Rebellion. Mulmory MacSweeney, one of the MacSweeney clan leaders, and Shane McManus O’Donnell of the O’Donnell clan, escaped to Tory Island during the rebellion, taking up residence in the ruins of the castle and monastery. The English and Scottish, William among them, surrounded the island in their boats, laying siege to it and cutting off all means of escape. In this scene from the book, several weeks have passed before one man rowed from the island to one of the ships with a note in hand:

It was midafternoon when a rowboat left Tory Island. One man carried it out of the rampart in full view of the ships. It was the first time they had seen movement outside the stockade and a silence fell on the ships as men positioned themselves along the decks to watch.

As the boat was placed into the water in front of Wills’ ship, he watched the parapets once more before moving back to the lone man. Everything grew deadly silent as he approached.

“Bring him aboard,” Wills ordered. He watched as men dropped netting over the side of the ship. One man scurried down to secure the rowboat as their visitor climbed up the netting. He noticed that Stewart, still at anchor in the ship next to his, was preparing to board as well.

“Bring him to the cabin,” Wills instructed Fergus and Tomas. As his friends moved out to offer a somber greeting, they ushered him toward the cabin. He noticed the man’s clothing was so loose he was having some difficulty keeping his breeches from falling and as he moved past the cooking fire, he almost appeared as if he would bolt directly for it.

When Stewart joined him, they made their way into the cabin where they found the man seated at the table, Fergus and Tomas guarding the door. “Back to work,” Wills said to the others gawking. As they cleared out, only Fergus, Tomas, Stewart, Archie and Wills were left in the room with the man.

“I am Captain William Stewart,” Stewart said.

“William Neely,” Wills added.

“James MacDowell,” the man answered. With a trembling hand, he held up a note.

Stewart stepped forward to receive it. He read it silently and then handed it to Wills, who read it through once and then, unable to fathom its contents, read it again. When he was through, he locked eyes with Stewart. Then they both looked at James MacDowell.

“Have you read this note?” Wills asked him.

“I was there when The MacSweeney wrote it.”

“That would be Sir Mulmory MacSweeney?”

The man averted his eyes. “Aye.”

“Is this true?” Stewart asked. “Has MacSweeney begun killing his own men?”

The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “Aye, sir. He is requesting a Pelham’s Pardon, sir.”

Wills glanced at Stewart. “I am not familiar with this Pelham’s Pardon.”

“Sir William Pelham,” Stewart answered. “Ruthless man; he conquered much of Ireland in the mid fifteen hundreds and became Lord Justice of Ireland. A Pelham’s Pardon is the refusal to grant any Irish rebel surrender unless he had killed another rebel of equal or higher rank.”

A chorus of voices sounded on the deck and Wills stepped to the portal to peer toward the island. As he watched, three heads were raised on pikes set along the keep’s pinnacle. He turned back to MacDowell. “Have you seen this?” he asked, stepping away from the window so the man could view the island.

MacDowell remained seated, however, and did not look toward the portal. “I have seen them already,” he answered.

And so it was that MacSweeney continued to murder his men, hoping for a Pelham’s Pardon which never came. His men finally rose against him and murdered their own leader before each of them was killed and his head was delivered in a sack to the English.

Many more true stories that took place during O’Doherty’s Rebellion play out through my ancestor, William Neely, in Clans and Castles.

On September 22, 1884, the English gunboat HMS Wasp sank off the coast of Tory Island and 50 sailors were drowned. Only 6 of the crew survived and were rescued by inhabitants of the island. The ship, along with others, was responsible for bringing officials to the outlying islands to evict the native Irish. This was during the Land Wars in which many absentee owners lived well in other countries off the labor of their tenants in Ireland but did little or nothing to improve their tenants' lot. When crops were spoiled (as in the infamous Potato Famines) and tenants could not pay their rent, the ships brought officials to the islands to evict the tenants and then destroy their homes so they could not come back. During the inquiry into the sinking, there was some speculation that the lighthouse was left dark intentionally in order to draw the ship closer to the rocks where it splintered and sank but no one was ever charged.

Today there are approximately 150 residents still living on Tory Island. During calmer weather, you can catch the ferry to the island where you can still see the ruins of the castle’s high tower and the monastery. The Tau Cross is one of only two in all of Ireland. They speak Irish Gaelic similar to the Scottish Highlands Gaelic, and some speak varying degrees of English. The King of Tory Island, elected by the inhabitants, greets every boat personally.

And if you are there as the sun departs and the winds roll in, you may hear Balor’s daughter Ethniu wailing, her cries and her curses carrying across the island, pleading for the lives of her three infant sons. But if the storm clouds gather over the ocean, the clouds puckering like a fist intent on Tory Island, you’d best flee to the mainland. The channel—your escape route—will begin to churn with rising cross tides while the gale-force winds will set upon you, threatening you with a watery grave amidst the remnants of the race that once called the God of Death their king.

The Emotional Impact

There’s a simple reason some people enjoy reading particular books, authors or genres. Though they might not realize it, they’ve experienced an emotional impact.

I am currently reading The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin. It is a heart-wrenching story, difficult to read at times and yet I can’t put it down. From the very first page, I was sucked in by the enormous emotional impact.

Noah is a four-year-old who has always been terrified of water and who knows things that can’t be explained, like the identification of lizards, how to score a baseball game or every scene in Harry Potter. His mother chalks it off to an active imagination or even that he’s a liar. But when his stories of being held underwater threaten to involve social services, she has no choice but to find out what’s wrong with him. She goes into debt, her business sidelined and the medical bills mounting yet test after test reveals nothing wrong. Until finally, she is forced to consider the impossible.

What if Noah is the reincarnation of another boy that was killed at the age of eight? A boy that simply disappeared, a boy whose mother is convinced he is still alive and one day he will come home to her? And what if Noah remembers exactly who shot him, exactly who tried to drown him, and exactly where his body is buried?

As an author, I am confronted with the emotional impact with every book I write. I write for my readers and sometimes that means they want to fall in love. Sometimes they want to be whisked away to an exotic location. Sometimes they want to be pulled back in time, perhaps looking for a simpler place, a simpler time only to discover a different set of obstacles. Sometimes the emotional impact comes in the form of having to know what is going to happen next, of solving the puzzle, of learning the answer. Sometimes it’s a heart-thumping read and at other times a breathtaking vista.

When I wrote Clans and Castles, the first book in my new Checkmate series, the emotional impact was even greater for me because I was writing about my ancestor, William Neely. There is something about envisioning an ancestor as a young man filled with hopes and dreams and desires… Knowing he loved deeply and lost intensely… Knowing he left everything he had ever known to forge a new future in a foreign land amidst odd customs, different dialects and warring factions. In a world that is divided today by religion, the divide between the haves and the have nots, power struggles and political alliances and upheavals… and then moving back in time to discover this has occurred for almost as long as man has lived on this earth. Some would flourish despite the odds; others would falter and still others would die far too early in their lives. It is the emotional journey that kept me writing and, like every author, it is the emotional journey that I hope keeps the reader reading…

p.m.terrell is the author of more than 21 books, including her bestselling book, Songbirds areFree, the true story of Mary Neely’s capture by Shawnee warriors; her award-winning River Passage, the true story of the Neely family’s journey westward with John Donelson; the award-winning Black Swamp Mysteries Series and award-winning Ryan O’Clery Mysteries. Discover book trailers, download free excerpts and read more about her books at www.pmterrell.com.

O'Doherty's Rebellion

April 19 is the anniversary of O’Doherty’s Rebellion, which took place in Ulster, Ireland in 1608. Chances are you’ve never heard of it but if you are of Scot-Irish descent, this was a significant event in your ancestor’s life.

In the decades before O’Doherty’s Rebellion, Queen Elizabeth I sent English and Scottish troops to Ireland in an effort to colonize it. The Spanish Armada had come ashore in 1588; some accounts claim that the ships had been blown off course during a gale while others claimed that Spain intended to colonize Ireland. Concerned, Queen Elizabeth sent legions of soldiers to the island to prevent Spain from claiming it. The result were decades of war with Spain and with Ireland, particularly those fiercely independent clans in Ulster.

When King James I succeeded Elizabeth, colonization expanded dramatically. He offered Scottish Lowlanders the option of moving to Ulster in order to establish plantations. Scottish Highlanders were forbidden from participating because they had been a constant thorn in England’s side, whereas the Lowlanders were more likely to be Protestants and agreeable with the English monarchy.

One Gaelic Irish Lord was Cahir O’Doherty. He was a descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages, one of the greatest High Kings of Ireland, and Cahir’s family had ruled the Inishowen Peninsula in northwestern Ireland for more than one thousand years. Cahir became the Lord of the O’Doherty Clan when he was only fifteen years old when his father passed away. It was a critical time in the nation’s history, as Sir Henry Docwra of England was under siege at Derry and both he and his soldiers were facing starvation or a soldier’s death.

Cahir made the critical decision to turn against other clans such as the powerful O’Neills and O’Donnells and he came to Docwra’s rescue. He fought alongside the English during the Nine Years’ War, becoming knighted and known as “The Queen’s O’Doherty” under Elizabeth, and becoming accepted in the Duke of Wales’ Court under King James.

But Docwra was soon replaced with Sir George Paulet, a man that did not hide his hatred for the Irish. Paulet became the Governor of Derry and participated in a scorched earth policy along with Arthur Chichester, who ruled all of Ireland for the English Crown. He was constantly attempting to seize the O’Doherty’s lands, although they had been protected by the Crown, and the two men became bitter enemies.

That all came to a head on April 19, 1608. Cahir had grown into a handsome man of 6’8”—incredibly tall for that time period. He wore a Spanish-style metal cap with a tall feather and often rode in front of his troops during battle, casting an imposing figure. On April 18, he tricked his friend Henry Hart, commander at Culmore Fort north of Derry, overrunning the fort and seizing all the weapons and munitions. On April 19, he marched on Derry.

George Paulet was so confident in his position at Derry that he did not have any soldiers maintaining watch and the village was caught off guard. Paulet and Sheriff Hamilton were killed along with a few English soldiers, and the entire village was burned to the ground. This event was to touch off O’Doherty’s Rebellion. The result would change Irish history forever, and it would make Cahir O’Doherty the Last Gaelic Irish King in all of Ireland.

After the Rebellion, King James I instituted a more massive approach to colonization, resulting in thousands of Scottish men, women and children immigrating to Ulster. Every person that claims a Scot-Irish heritage owes their history to the ancestors that emigrated from Scotland to Ireland during this period.

This is part of the story I have written about in my upcoming book, Clans and Castles, the first book in the new Checkmate series. The book is creative nonfiction; the events are all accurate and the characters are as well: colorful characters such as Sir Cahir O’Doherty, Niall Garbh O’Donnell, Phelim MacDavitt, The Maguire, Sir Henry Hart, Sir George Paulet, Sir Arthur Chichester, Sir William Stewart…

And William Neely, my ancestor. William emigrated from Scotland at the age of 18 to join William Stewart in the old O’Donnell Clan territory in 1608 in the months leading up to O’Doherty’s Rebellion. He would find himself in a war that initially England was losing, and he would find himself on the battlefield facing Cahir O’Doherty.

For William’s service during O’Doherty’s Rebellion, he was granted one thousand acres at the base of the Inishowen Peninsula, strategically located near Derry (now known as “the Slash City—Londonderry/Derry”) and Burt Castle (one of Cahir’s castles which can still be seen today). He became a sea captain, purchased his own ships and brought scores of Scottish Lowlanders and English to Ulster.

Clans and Castles will be released this summer. Here’s a book trailer that tells you the story in about one minute:

An Irish Christmas Wedding

Everyone loves a wedding and what could be more idyllic than combining one with Ireland and Christmas?


In the sixth book of the Black Swamp Mysteries Series (to be released in 2017) Vicki Boyd and Dylan Maguire head to his native Ireland for their wedding and honeymoon. Researching traditional Irish weddings was a lot of fun; the hard part was not overdoing the ceremony and selecting which traditions would remain and which to discard.

Christmas is not the most ideal time to visit Ireland. The sun sleeps later, eventually rising at 9:00 am over Donegal in northwestern Ireland. It also sets around 4:00 pm, leaving a mere seven hours of daylight. They make up for it in July and August, when the Emerald Isle receives about 18 hours of daylight and the sun doesn't set until after 11:00 pm.


The Irish like to say their weather is always mild, averaging between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit year round. But this doesn't take into account the winds and I've learned firsthand that the air currents off the North Sea can be frigid. In December, however, when the next parish over - Boston - can encounter snow and ice, Ireland remains in the upper 40's and lower 50's and rarely receives appreciable snow accumulation.

The nicest thing about visiting Ireland during the Christmas holidays (which end on the Day of Epiphany, January 6) is the combination of the magic of Ireland and the magic of Christmas. It's an unbeatable combination.


Vicki and Dylan are wed by Dylan's childhood friend, Thomas Rowan, who is now Father Rowan, in the village where they both grew up. The church is similar to the one in this blog. It sits atop a hill where it overlooks the village below.


One tradition is to place a tiny statue called The Child of Prague at the church on the morning of the wedding to ensure picture-perfect weather.


Another involves the use of the Magic Hanky. This is a handkerchief - often with lace trim - that is worn on the wedding day. When a baby is born to the couple, it only takes a couple of stitches to turn it into a cap for christening. Vicki wears the one that Dylan's mother and grandmother wore at their weddings.

Vicki carries her bouquet by a handle called a Porcelain Horseshoe. When the couple moves into their new home, the horseshoe is mounted above the door, the opening at the top so their luck doesn't run out.


She uses a traditional saying during her vows: “There are four things that you must never do: lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, then lie in my arms. And if you must steal, steal away my heart. If you must cheat, then cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away.”


One thing I found particularly interesting was this vow: "Through all our lives together, in all our lives, may we be reborn that we may meet and know and love again, and remember."

Sam gives away Vicki's hand in marriage. They spend their first night at the cottage they first visited in Dylan's Song before heading to a manor house in County Donegal.


There is a tiny matter for them to take care of during their honeymoon. Sam needs for Dylan to cross paths with a Russian spy, who will slip him a microchip detailing Russia's newest stealth technology. It's a simple assignment - except when the operative Dylan is supposed to pass it on to is abducted off the streets of Donegal. It pulls Dylan and Vicki into a whirlwind adventure - and brings Dylan face-to-face with a man he thought he would never see again.

p.m.terrell is the internationally acclaimed author of more than 20 books in several genres, including two award-winning series: Black Swamp Mysteries and Ryan O'Clery Mystery Series, as well as the award-winning River Passage and her bestselling book, Songbirds are Free. Visit www.pmterrell.com to read free excerpts from all her books, view video trailers, and lots more.