…Or so the old jingle goes, and those who don't know it - or haven't heard it - are strangers to the Finn Valley.

Although the rhyme is nothing more that a peoples' simple way of distinguishing their home towns of long ago, there's also a bit of history attached to it.

Brandy (or in Ireland, it's close relative, Whiskey - the water of life) is as old as civilisation, whereas here in Ireland, tea has been in use for less than two hundred years. From that, we can guess that Stranorlar is older than Ballybofey.

Casual visitors to the Twin Towns could be excused for thinking that both towns probably came into being at the same time. Others often ask why there are two towns - close, but very different - separated only by a bridge.

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Some years after the Plantation of Ulster, in the aftermath of Cromwell, possession of the rich land of the Finn Valley was the top priority for Scots and English settlers in Donegal. Their first task was to build their castle-type houses, provide manor houses and build stone bridges across the River Finn, where only crude wooden structures had previously existed (and they but few).

Before touching on the bridges of the Finn however, let's take a brief look back in history, to some of the events which have shaped our modern-day towns.

Being on the fringe of the rich valley of the Finn, it was inevitable that Stranorlar would be chosen as a frontier post in the Plantation. On the division of O'Donnell lands, the Manor of Stranorlar consisted of the northern portion of the present parish together with a large chunk of Sessiaghoneill. It also included Teevickmoy, Dunmoyle, Tirecallen, Garvine, parts of Newna, Teadenmore and Knockgarron (locals will easily identify these place names, despite their spellings).

In 1610, this princely concession of stolen territory was bestowed upon a particular favourite of James 1st.

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Henry Clare of Norfolk, who was further granted a knighthood the following year, something to which he no doubt had as just a claim as he had to Irish ownership. Having gained this exalted title, he had no intention of ever leaving Court and cashed in on his share of O'Donnell's lands by selling them in 1616 to an ex London builder named Peter Benson.Benson had already made a fortune in Ireland out of contracts such as building the Walls of Derry. By 1618, he had become an estated gentleman and Pynnar describes his circumstances like so: Stranorlar was the seat of a Yeomanry corps in the 18th and early19th centuries. The Band Field where their musicians played to entertain the residents still exists to this day. The town was also an administration centre, having the military, the revenue police, the courthouse/gaol, the schools and the pound.

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