On 9 January 2011, at a political meeting at the Silver Tassie Hotel, Letterkenny, Blaney disclosed that he and his wife had agreed to an amicable separation and that he had moved out of the family home in Rosnakill, Fanad.

The origins of the name Fanad are lost in time though there is some speculation that the name derives from an old Gaelic word Fana for “ sloping ground ”.

It measures approximately 25 km north-south measured from Fanad Head to the town of Ramelton and approximately 12 km east-west measured between the townlands of Doaghbeg and Glinsk.

The underlying rock in the peninsula is mostly of Dalradian meta-sedimentary rocks, which have been exposed by weathering and erosion over the millennia There are areas of Granodiorite igneous rocks across the northern end of the peninsula from Ballywhoriskey to Fanad Head, but the greater part of Fanad consist of Middle-Dalradian Quartzite and some Pellite rocks with local occurrences of Schists and Tillites – the latter mostly concentrated around the northern inlet of Mulroy Bay.

The cliffs around Fanad Head are of exposed Grandiorite, whereas the higher ground running south from Fanad Head to Portsalon is a band of Quartzite.

The subsequent evolution of the landscape in Fanad probably owes more to human intervention than to natural forces, reflecting the shift from visits by Mesolithic hunters, fishers and gatherers to the introduction of primitive farming during the Neolithic period from 4, 000 BC onwards.

The earliest evidence of human settlement in Fanad is probably the existence of Megalithic court tombs in a variety of locations including Tyrladden, Drumhallagh Upper and Crevary Upper dating possibly from circa 4, 000-3, 500 BC.

Several cist burial sites which are though to date from the Bronze Age were discovered in Fanad including a now destroyed group at a cairn at Killycolman near Rathmullan.

Bealoideas and the earliest records suggest that Fanad was originally occupied by the Corpraige from whom St. Colmcille ’ s mother Eithne is said to have come.

In the early 7th century, the Cenel Conaill, one of the tribes of Donegal said to be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages ( Gaelic: Niall Noigiallach ) and who originated at Mag nItha in the Lower Finn Valley, started to expand into Fanad, possibly forcing the northward retreat of the Corpraige.

Congal Cennemigher Mac Fergus Fanad was high king of Ireland from 700 AD until his death in 710 AD.

With the reduction of power of the Cenel Conaill, the territory of Fanad came under the control of the O ’ Breslins who were descended from Congel Cennemigher's son.

The farm landscape of Fanad as we know it today, with small individual holdings and regularised boundaries was imposed from the 1830s onwards, often against the wishes of the tenant farmers.

Ramelton contains some good houses and two small inns at which cars can be hired …… Rathmullan, in its single street, church, battery and some vestiges of ecclestical and castellated ruins offers but little to arrest the attention of the traveller ... Milford contains one or two public houses, a few shops, some respectable dwellings and in its vicinity a union workhouse ..… The village of Rosnakill will not detain the traveller, it chiefly consists of poor cabins but it contains the parish church, some small retail shops and one or two public houses ……. A good inn at Ballyvicstocker, one of the most lovely of all our sea bays and which is admirably suited to bathing, and where B. Barton Esq., the proprietor of the Greenfort Estate and one or two others have built comfortable villas, together with good roads from Ramelton and Rathmullan would tend to induce strangers to visit Fanad.

Leitrim held much of the northern part of Fanad, with holdings stretching from Glinsk to Doaghbeg.

In the decades that followed and with the passing of various Irish Land Acts, ownership of much of the land in Fanad passed from landlords to their tenant farmers.

A notable addition to the local infrastructure was the construction of a major road bridge at the northern end of Mulroy Bay in 2009, allowing for easy access from Fanad westwards to Carrigart, Downings and other towns and villages along the northern coast.

Other historians name them as Michael McElwee and Neil Sheils from Fanad.

On September 14, 1939, U-30 was attacked by loitering United Kingdom Fairey Swordfish naval bombers when she fired a G7a from her stern torpedo tube at the SS Fanad Head.

* Christy Conaghan, footballer with Finn Harps and Fanad United

At the northern extremities of the lough are Fanad Head with its famous lighthouse and Dunaff Head.

The landscape of Fanad has been shaped by geological processes which include the effects of periodic covering with ice sheets and glaciers as recently as 14, 000 years ago.

The tree-covered landscape of the Mesolithic period would have given way gradually to a more open countryside in arable areas, marking the beginning of the contemporary landscape of Fanad, with its mixture of arable land at lower levels, with scrub and gorse covered uplands, and bogs interspersed with occasional lakes and streams.

The power of the Sweeneys as Lords of Fanad ended with the Flight of the Earls in 1607 and the subsequent plantation of Ulster, though they continued to hold some lands in Fanad as proprietors until the 1641 rising, following which all remaining Sweeney lands were confiscated.

The 18th century saw the introduction into Fanad of rural industry with a corresponding improvement in infrastructure.

The second half of the 19th century was marked by the killing of Lord Leitrim, one of the major local landowners in Fanad and a man much reviled for his strictness in his dealing with his tenants.

The time of Leitrim ’ s death coincided with the Land War which ended the era of landlord domination of Fanad.

During the first half of the 20th century, Fanad, in common with other coastal areas of Donegal, settled into a pattern of subsistence farming.

Local rural industry had grown to some extent with fish farming in Mulroy Bay and in Lough Swilly as the main local source of employment, albeit for a time in the late 20th century and early 21st century, construction was arguably a major source of local income reflecting the boom in the provision of holiday homes and a general upgrading of the local housing stock and infrastructure both in Fanad and in other areas of Donegal.

At National Level Fanad United has also enjoyed considerable in both the FAI Senior Cup and the League cup.

McHugh scored and made his debut for Ballybofey-side, Finn Harps, against Fanad United in the League of Ireland Cup as just a novice 17 year old in August 1998.

Family names commonly recorded in Fanad since the mid-19th century include Callaghan, Cannon / Canning, Carr / Kerr, Coll, Coyle, Deeney, Doherty, Friel, Gallagher, Martin, McAteer / McIntyre, McConigley / McGunnigal, McGinley / McKinley, Sheil / Sheilds and Sweeney / McSwyne.

Despite the plantation, Fanad retained its majority native population and Gaelic ways and Irish remained the principal spoken language of the peninsula – a situation that remained generally unchanged until the mid 19th century.

He was educated locally at Tamney on the rugged Fanad Peninsula and later attended Saint Eunan's College in Letterkenny as a boarder.

* November 11-Neil Blaney, the longest serving member in the Dáil, is buried on the Fanad Peninsula.

Fanad ( official name: Fánaid ) is a peninsula that lies between Lough Swilly and Mulroy Bay on the north coast of County Donegal in Ireland.

The retreat of the ice sheet had a major impact on Fanad and surrounding areas.

Many of the beaches on the Fanad shoreline were formed at this time by glacial deposits which were subsequently reworked by the actions of waves and currents.

Evidence of ring forts has been found in 35-40 locations in Fanad, principally in coastal locations on both the Swilly and Mulroy coasts.

During this era, there are records of attacks by Vikings on Fanad – specifically in Mulroy Bay at Kinnaweer near Milford in 921 AD.

This parish, which comprises, according to the Ordnance survey, 27, 367¼: statute acres, of which 627¾ are water, is situated on the north-western coast ; it comprehends the greater part of the peninsular district of Fannet, or Fanad, extending northward into the ocean, and terminating in the points called Maheranguna and Pollacheeny.