My April 4-14 trip to Ireland allowed me to visit several places that American journalists wrote about during their late 19th or early 20th century travels to the country. Over the next few weeks I will publish some of my travel photos, plus links to the correspondent’s original reporting and my work about them. MH

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“(Traveling into County Donegal we) entered upon great stone-strewn wastes of land seemingly unreclaimed and irreclaimable. Huge boulders lay tossed and tumbled about as if they had been whirled through the air by the cyclones of some prehistoric age, and dropped at random when the wild winds wearied of the fun. The last landmark we made out through the gathering storm was the pinnacled crest of Errigal. Of Dunlewy, esteemed the loveliest of the Donegal lakes, we could see little or nothing as we hurried along the highway, which follows its course down to the Clady, the river of Gweedore.” — William Henry Hurlbert, Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American

Hurlbert was born in Charleston, South Carolina, educated at Harvard, and worked as a New York City newspaperman in the second half of the 19th century. He visited Ireland early in 1888 and published a book about his travels before the end of the year. Passages about his travels in County Donegal are found here on pages 77 to 124. My 2018 Ireland Under Coercion, Revisited serial placed his journey in historical context. I followed Hurlbert’s footsteps to Killone Abbey in County Clare in 2018.

The village of Dunlewy seen at the right side of the same-name lake in County Donegal. April 2025.

The Dungloe River at the edge of Dungloe town. April 2025