County Donegal (Irish: Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county in the northwest of Ireland. It is one of three counties in the province of Ulster that does not form part of Northern Ireland. The name "Donegal" comes from the Irish, meaning "the fort of the foreigners".
The county was named after the former administrative centre of Donegal Town. When first created, it was sometimes referred to as County Tyrconnel (Irish: Tír Chonaill), after the Tyrconnel earldom it succeeded. Calling the whole county Tír Conaill is technically incorrect as the Inishowen peninsula (Irish: Inis Eoghain) was historically distinct from Tír Chonaill.
Uniquely, Donegal only shares a border with one county in the Republic of Ireland, namely County Leitrim in north Connacht.
The rest of its land border is shared with the United Kingdom (the Northern Irish counties of Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh). This apparent isolation has led to Donegal people and their customs being considered distinct from the rest of the country and has been used to market the county with the slogan Up here it's different.
Despite Lifford being the county town (and there also being a Donegal town), the largest town is Letterkenny.
The county consists chiefly of low mountains, with a deeply indented coastline forming natural loughs, of which Lough Swilly is the most notable.
The famous mountains or Hills of Donegal consist of two major ranges, the Derryveagh Mountains in the north and the Bluestack Mountains in the south, with Mount Errigal at 751 metres the highest peak. The Slieve League cliffs are the second highest sea cliffs in Europe, while Donegal's Malin Head is the most northerly point on the island of Ireland.
The climate is temperate and dominated by the Gulf Stream, with cool damp summers and mild wet winters. Two permanently inhabited islands, Arranmore and Tory Island lie off the coast, along with a large number of islands with only transient inhabitants. Ireland's second longest river, the Erne, enters Donegal Bay near the town of Ballyshannon.
The river Erne, along with other Donegal waterways, has been dammed to produce hydroelectric power.
An extensive rail network used to exist through out the county and was operated by the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee and the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company. Even though the railways in Donegal are fondly remembered, the network was completely closed by 1960. The county is served by Donegal Airport.
The variant of the Irish language spoken in Donegal is distinctive, and shares traits with Scottish Gaelic.
The Irish spoken in the Donegal Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area) is of the West Ulster dialect, while Inishowen, which became English-speaking in the early 20th century, used the East Ulster dialect. Scots is still spoken to a degree in the Laggan district of east Donegal.
Donegal Irish has a strong influence on Irish speakers across Ulster, who find themselves speaking a dialect noticeably different from the Irish most commonly spoken and understood in Dublin.
Like other areas of western Ireland, Donegal has a distinctive fiddle tradition which is of world renown.
Donegal is also well known for its songs which have, like the instrumental music, a distinctive sound. Donegal musical artists such as the bands Clannad and Altan and solo artist Enya, all from Gaoth Dobhair, have had international success with traditional or traditional flavoured music. Donegal music has also influenced people not originally from the county including folk and pop singer Paul Brady. Popular music is also common, the county's most famous rock artist being the Ballyshannon born Rory Gallagher.
Donegal has a long literary tradition in both Irish and English.
The famous Irish Navvy-turned novelist Patrick MacGill, author of many books about the experiences of Irish migrant itinerant labourers in Britain at around the turn of the 20th century, such as The Rat Pit and the autobiographical Children of the Dead End, is from the Glenties area.
There is a literary summer school in Glenties named in his honour. The Republican and novelist Peadar O'Donnell hails from The Rosses in west Donegal.
Modern exponents include the Inishowen playwright and poet Frank McGuinness and the playwright Brian Friel. Many of Friel's plays are set in the fictional Donegal town of Ballybeg.
Authors in Donegal have been creating works, like the Annals of the Four Masters, in Gaelic and Latin since the Early Middle Ages.
In modern Irish Donegal has produced famous, and sometimes controversial, authors such as the brothers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna from The Rosses and the contemporary Irish-language poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh from Gortahork, and where he is known to locals as Gúrú na gcnoc ("the guru of the hills").
Donegal has also contributed to culture elsewhere. One Donegal native, Francis Alison, was one of the founders of the College of Philadelphia, which would later become the University of Pennsylvania.
