10th Anniversary Dan Gathering

The engraved Dan Seat which was commissioned as a memorial to Dan McGinty and placed in Kildownet cemetery beside his grave was unveiled on the 13th August 2010 to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth in 1810.The occasion of the unveiling and a commemorative mass in the cemetery church gathered a huge crowd of Dan's descendants from far and wide to celebrate, Margaret McCann, Dan's youngest daughter known as Peggy Dan' who lived in Derreens applied to the Public Record Office in Dublin in 1919 for a copy of the Dan McGinty household census of the 30th March 1851. The returned copy  showed that Margaret McGinty was 6 months old on that date which she produced as proof in her application for the 70 year old pension in 1920. The census copy of 1851 also showed the age of the head of the family Daniel McGinty and of his wife Judy along with the family number present. 

This document proved to be the springboard in the production of the extensive Dan family tree, initially showing the first three generations. Available copies of this family tree created great discussion and interest among Dan's descendants and the late Martin McGinty of Carraig, Bleanaskill was of the strong opinion that a memorial in the  form an inscribed granite seat be erected at Dan's grave in Kildownet graveyard in time for the forthcoming 200th anniversary of his birth.

Martin and his group organised a weekly pools draw on Sundays in Patten’s pub to raise the necessary funds and along with the assistance of generous private contributions the necessary costs were realised. The large crowd attending the mass and unveiling ceremony in Kildownet cemetery on the 13th of August 2010 was a very proud moment for Martin and it is appropriate and timely on this the tenth anniversary of the unveiling of the Dan seat that due recognition be recorded to Martin McGinty.