The McGinley Family of Ireland and America

Pat McGinley and the Howth gunrunning

Pat McGinley, Gordon Shephard, Mary Spring Rice and Molly Childers

• Molly Childers, Mary Spring Rice, Gordon Shephard, and Pat McGinley aboard the Asgard

Patrick McGinley rose to fame as the chief sailor aboard the 'Asgard' yacht involved in the infamous 'Howth Gun Running' incident of 1914. He was originally a fisherman from Gola Island, County Donegal. Patrick was an early member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in Donegal, after its 'rebirth' in 1904. Afterwards he became actively involved in the Irish Volunteers - Óglaigh na hÉireann, being one of their most important members in Donegal. He was a friend of Erskine Childers, the well known Irish leader who purchased secretly 1,500 second hand rifles and 49,000 rounds of ammunition from Germany. The weapons arrived safely and was the 'unofficial' start of the War of Independance that culminated in the Easter 1916 Rising. Patrick McGinley (and Charlie Doogan also from Gola) were long experienced fishermen and sailors. They knew the waters of the north Atlantic very well. They were given the special responsibility to navigate the Asgard through the often torrid North Sea. Recently, the Irish Government have recognised the importance of this event in the fight for Irish freedom. Work began (with Government support) in 2001 to restore the Asgard as a national monument. Ironically, the Government Minister who initiated the proposal was Dinny McGinley, the Fine Gael Party representative from west Donegal!

The Easter Rising of 1916 would not have happened without these weapons that were secretly smuggled into Ireland. The weapons were stored in trunks at Pádraig Pearse's school, St Enda's in Dublin, and this was known by many members of the school. Patrick moved to America where he settled in Norridge, Illinois.

Taken from McGinley Clan official website.

Gemini AI has created a report about Pat McGinley and Howth.

You can read the report here.

Pat was born on Gola Island, County Donegal

• Gweedore map

Páidíí Dhónaill Pháidí Mac Fhionnghaile was born on the 23rd of Match, 1890 on the island of Gabhla, Gaoth Dobhair, Donegal. His parents were Daniel McGinley, a farmer, and Sarah Boyle. They were all Irish speakers, as was another Gola man Charles Duggan who Pat recruited for the operation. Gola Island is center left on the map.

During an RTÉ programme 'Childers and the Asgard' which was first broadcast on 12 April 1966 to commemorate the Easter Rising, Pat McGinley describes the arrival at Howth harbour and the volunteers that awaited them on the pier at Howth. The guns were unloaded by the volunteers. McGinley describes Erskine Childers as a "fine good seaman" and Mrs. Childers as a "fine woman, a good sail-maker and a good nurse". Molly Childers had tended to an injury he had received on the trip which is still visible on his forhead.

Pat met Francis J. Bigger of the IRB in Ardglass, Lecale, County Down

• Village of Ardglass, County Down

In 1911 when the Ardglass estate went bankrupt the castle was auctioned off as a building site. Thankfully, the ruin was purchased by Francis Joseph Bigger. He set about on a three month restoration and opened it in September 1911 under the name of Castle Shane - after Seaghan an Doimais - Shane O'Neill. Being a fanatic Gaeilge speaker Bigger used to mingle with the Donegal fishermen on the harbour. In 1913, he met Patrick McGinley. This fateful encounter culminated in a meeting between McGinley, Sir Roger Casement, Lord Ashbourne and Alice Stopford Green in the Ardglass Arms. In this meeting McGinley was recruited as a crew member for the Howth Gun Running on the Asgard. Many of these Mauser Rifles wound up in the hands of the revolutionaries in the Easter Rising!

Taken from Lecale Penninsula (County Down) website.

Howth Gun-Running And The Donegal Connection

In The Summer of 1914 while salmon fishing off Downings in north-west Donegal, Patrick McGinley from Gola Island received a telegram from Francis Joseph Bigger, a Belfast solicitor who he had met the previous year while fishing at Ardglass, County Down. The telegram summoned McGinley to Belfast immediately; on arrival he was given a letter and directed to Bangor in Wales, where he would make contact with Erskine Childers. On his arrival in Wales Childers took McGinley to the docks and showed him a large sailing boat moored there, the Asgard. The two began loading provisions onto the boat and after a week moved out, anchoring in the bay. Childers then requested that McGinley find another good seafaring man and he sent a wire to another Gola Island fisherman, Charlie Duggan, to come and join the crew, which included Mrs Childers, Mary Montague, daughter of Lord Montague. Charlie Duggan arrived a week later, just in time to join the others, and it was at this point that McGinley and Duggan were informed that they would be involved in gun-running to Ireland when Childers told them of the plan to transport a cargo of German rifles to aid the Irish cause. Taken from "The Donegal Awakening: Donegal & The War of Independence"

Documents related to pat McGinley's life in Ireland and America

• Pat McGinley and his wife Mary Roarty