The ground floor of the genealogy centre located at Buncrana's Shore Front was gutted by fire late on Sunday night last.

A large section of the records compiled by 80 year-old retired professor, Pat O'Dougherty over the past 40 years were burned in the blaze.

"Some of our rooms were gutted and a lot of records were lost - we lost around 400,000 records on the Doherty's.
"I've been working on this stuff for about 40 years and its very important to me and the O'Doherty clan. Most what's been lost in the fire are records of Doherty's in the States, Australia and Canada," he said.

However, Mr O'Dougherty is hoping that many of the files burned in the blaze had also been stored on computers which were not damaged in the fire at the centre.

"I do hope that much of the information is on the computers which were stored in a part of the house which didn't catch fire. I havn't had time to check yet," he said as he continued a clean-up of his home on Wednesday.

Mr Dougherty said he believed the fire started due to an electrical fault.

'Saddened'

As a member of the famous Inishowen clan himself, Buncrana's Mayor, Joe Doherty, said he was deeply saddened by the loss of the records.

"So much in-formation has been collected on the Doherty name and other names, not only in the Inishowen area, but nationally and all over the world.

It's so sad for Pat and all of the Doherty clan to lose such important records. The genealogy centre is a very important part off Buncrana and I'm deeply saddened by the damage caused to it," he said.

A former professor of horticulture at Oakland University in the American state of Michigan, Mr. Dougherty moved to Inishowen in 1984 to research the history of his family name and the various spellings of it.

After spending a number of years in Inch House, he then moved to Buncrana where he set up the O'Doherty centre. He has since organised a number of major clan gatherings, bringing O'Dohertys from all over the world to their ancestral home of Inishowen.

"I first came to Inishowen in 1977 because my two sons and five daughters wanted to know about our name and where it came from. I retired here in 1984 after 35 years of teaching."

Mr O'Dougherty is now planning to return to his previous residence in Inishowen and make Inch House the new base of the O'Doherty clan.

"The fella I sold it to, Tony Johnston, has invited me back to set up an office and living quarters in the house and that's where I plan to continue my work."