Qualla: Main Street, Letterkenny https://qualla.com/main-street-letterkenny en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/f/2/main-street-letterkenny-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Main Street, Letterkenny https://qualla.com/main-street-letterkenny Main Street, Letterkenny: Introduction https://qualla.com/main-street-letterkenny/ Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 3 November 1798, the United Irishmen leader Theobald Wolfe Tone was brought into Letterkenny under guard, having been captured in a French naval engagement off the Donegal coast. They held him for a short time at Laird's Hotel, opposite the Market Square, before transferring him to Derry Gaol and onward to Dublin, where he died in his cell. The hotel is long gone. The pub built later on the site of the old Garda barracks across the way is called the Wolfe Tone Bar, and that is one of the more conventional things to be found on this long, sloping, history-soaked thoroughfare that locals claim - depending on how generously you measure it - is the longest main street in Ireland.

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Image: CeltBrowne | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/f/2/main-street-letterkenny-wp/gcf2-main-street-letterkenny-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Main Street, Letterkenny: Upper and Lower https://qualla.com/main-street-letterkenny/ Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. Main Street is not really one street but two, joined in the middle at the Market Square. Lower Main Street runs from the Oldtown Road roundabout at the south end up the hill toward the square; Upper Main Street continues from the square to Crossview House at the top. Traffic flow...

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Image: CeltBrowne | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/f/2/main-street-letterkenny-wp/gcf2-main-street-letterkenny-upper-and-lower.mp3 0:06 2 full Main Street, Letterkenny: The Rabble Days https://qualla.com/main-street-letterkenny/ Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. Twice a year - in May and in November - the corner of Upper Main Street at Speer's Lane filled with children. The hiring fairs, locally called Rabble Days, were the day on which boys and girls between the ages of eleven and sixteen were lined up to be hired for six-month terms by...

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Image: CeltBrowne | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/f/2/main-street-letterkenny-wp/gcf2-main-street-letterkenny-the-rabble-days.mp3 0:06 3 full Main Street, Letterkenny: The Cathedral and the Tone https://qualla.com/main-street-letterkenny/ Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. Main Street has its anchors of history at both ends. At the south end, the Wolfe Tone Bar marks the spot where the United Irishmen leader was held before being sent to die. The bar occupies the site of the old Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, in continuous use from the 1850s un...

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Image: CeltBrowne | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/f/2/main-street-letterkenny-wp/gcf2-main-street-letterkenny-the-cathedral-and-the-tone.mp3 0:06 4 full Main Street, Letterkenny: Old Shops, Empty Shops https://qualla.com/main-street-letterkenny/ Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. Drive Upper Main Street slowly and you can read a hundred years of family business in the signage. Magees Pharmacy from 1928. R. McCullagh Jewellers from 1869. The Central Bar from 1808. McGarrigles Shoes from 1981 - which announced its closure in April 2023. Donegal Stationery f...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/f/2/main-street-letterkenny-wp/gcf2-main-street-letterkenny-old-shops-empty-shops.mp3 0:06 5 full Main Street, Letterkenny: The 114th Marches Past https://qualla.com/main-street-letterkenny/ Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. On 3 May 2019, the 114th Infantry Battalion of the Irish Army marched in formation through the Market Square and along Main Street on parade. They were on their way to a UNIFIL deployment in southern Lebanon, Ireland's largest overseas military mission. The Defence Forces chose L...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/f/2/main-street-letterkenny-wp/gcf2-main-street-letterkenny-the-114th-marches-past.mp3 0:06 6 full