A fever hospital operated in Castleisland during the Famine. At a meeting of the Tralee Union in December 1847, Captain Fairfield of Mount Eagle raised concerns about its management.1 Research material in the collection relates to the fever hospital at a later period, 1878 (in which year a temporary hospital was erected) to 1894,…… Continue Reading
The Moonlighters in Castleisland
A number of pithy essays by Michael O’Donohoe sit among the vast quantity of papers in the collection. Topics covered are wide in variety, for example, the GAA, Lord Headley, local streets and lanes, Sir Richard Griffith and the Moonlighters. The Moonlighters, transcribed below, provides an informative sketch of the organisation from…… Continue Reading
Creamery Lane, Castleisland
A number of pithy essays by Michael O’Donohoe sit among the vast quantity of papers in the collection. Topics covered are wide in variety, for example, the GAA, Lord Headley, the Moonlighters, the House of Progress, Sir Richard Griffith and Creamery Lane.1 Creamery Lane, transcribed below, is an affectionate reminder of times…… Continue Reading
Evictions in Castleisland
Material relating to nineteenth century eviction in Kerry forms a large part of the O’Donohoe archive. Much of it relates to the period of the Irish National Land League, gathered during Michael’s study of the Kerry Sentinel newspaper. One document, entitled simply Evictions, reads like a roll call of the period 1878 to 1887,…… Continue Reading
Dooneen Water Supply
The great public protest of recent years over Uisce Éireann would have been water off a duck’s back to Michael O’Donohoe. His archive included a study of the supply of water to Castleisland. As far back as 1874, the public was far from content with the idea of paying for the utility. At…… Continue Reading
Church of St Stephen and St John, Castleisland
The Michael O’Donohoe archive contains a study of Castleisland parish church, Church of St Stephen and St John. In 1878, Most Rev Dr M’Carthy, Bishop of Kerry, spoke of the ‘great want’ of a parochial church in Castleisland during a visitation there.1 The church that then existed was described as ‘very seedy looking’…… Continue Reading
Castleisland Schools: Presentation Convent Girls
‘They shall shine like stars for all eternity in the Kingdom of His saints’ – Very Rev Monsignor Tobias Kirby, Rector of the Irish College, Rome, congratulating the Presentation nuns on founding a convent at Lixnaw in 1877 A 102-pg registration book for Castleisland Convent School Girls dating from the 1860s to 1947 forms…… Continue Reading
Patrick O’Keeffe
The approaching annual autumnal Patrick O’Keeffe Festival in Castleisland provides opportunity to present material on this subject from the collection. The foundation of the festival, now in its 23rd year, was sketched by John Reidy: Noted piper, Peter Browne arrived in Castleisland late in 1992 and began researching the life and times of O’Keeffe for RTE…… Continue Reading
Gaeilge
Céad slán chun na hÉireann, ‘si mo léan í go dubhach, Is chun Caisleáin Ghriaghaire, ní him aonar bheinn annsúd; Is mó óigbhean mhilis mhaorga do shilfeadh braon ós mo chionn ‘Gus nár ró-bhreagh an bás é seachas é dh’fhagháil i mBellvue. Céad slán chun na hÉireann was composed in the nineteenth century by…… Continue Reading
Irish National Land League
Castle Island … a village which has attained the unenviable notoriety of being considered about the worst in the country1 During the Land War, a reporter for the Illustrated London News stated there were ‘four roads going out of Castle Island, on every one of which a man has been shot within the last four…… Continue Reading