In May 2019, Castleisland District Heritage contacted the National Archives of Ireland in respect of material held there relating to the case of John Twiss. At that time, application had been made for the Presidential Pardon of John Twiss. However, due to Covid-19 and a series of unfortunate events, information about the material was…… Continue Reading
Literary Kerry: Recent Donations to Castleisland District Heritage
Collected Essays of Con Houlihan More than a game Selected sporting essays (2003), which includes the article ‘Knocknagoshel has its own Place in Racing History,’ and A Harvest New, rare and uncollected essays (2005, 2007) by Castleisland’s Con Houlihan number among recent literary donations to Castleisland District Heritage.[1] The books contain reproductions of…… Continue Reading
‘Castleisland’s Best’: Mundy Prendiville (1900-1968), Archbishop of Perth
Redmond Garrett Prendiville, otherwise Mundy Prendiville, was born on 11 September 1900[1] at Glanlarehan, Cordal, Castleisland.[2] He was the youngest of sixteen children of Garrett Prendiville and Hannah Sullivan.[3] He was educated at the local National School and St Brendan’s College, Killarney, subsequently at All Hallows College, Dublin from where he was expelled for…… Continue Reading
Annals of Kerry BC 1695 to AD 1668
The Manor de Insula (Castleisland), 1299 Extent of the lands of Thos FitzMaurice, who died June 4 1298. The manor is surrounded by a stone wall, and there is in it a hall constructed of pales with an earthen wall and thatched, a kitchen of planks, a chamber with a cellar built of stone and…… Continue Reading
Coolcurtoga: A Story of Ireland
‘We walk on their ground’ On 29 April 1892, the Casey family of Coolcurtoga, near Glenflesk, Co Kerry were evicted.[1] One hundred and thirty years on, the story of this family is told by Mary O’Donoghue of Coolcurtoga who lives and farms there with her husband Sean. Mary, who is now a grandmother,…… Continue Reading
Fitzgerald of Adraval and Knockrower
Adraval (spelling varies), near Scartaglin, was once a residence of the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Desmond. There is no local memory of the property and its precise location has not yet been ascertained.[1] John Galvin of Adraval describes the townland as follows: Adriville (the Central Village) is in the centre of Scartaglin Parish being…… Continue Reading
The Iron Church, Darrynane and the Earls of Dunraven
Darrynane Church of Ireland, Co Kerry, was dedicated in September 1915.[1] It was a portentous year in which to embark on a church building project, as events of the following year proved: Archdeacon John Fahy, Protestant Rector, Waterville, applied for £10 by reason of the Protestant Church at Darrynane being maliciously injured on the…… Continue Reading
Twiss leads way for Pardon for Poff and Barrett
On Thursday 16th December 2021, formal application was submitted to the Department of Justice in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, for the Presidential Pardon of Sylvester Poff and James Barrett. As with the recent Posthumous Pardon of John Twiss, application was made to the Department by Castleisland District Heritage, formerly the Michael O’Donohoe Memorial Heritage Project,…… Continue Reading
Purcell’s Castle: An Earlier Chapter in the Unending Tale of the Colleen Bawn
A copy of The Colleen Bawn (2018) by Patrick T Fitzgerald has been added to the archive of Castleisland District Heritage. It synthesises over two hundred years of research and literature relating to the mysterious and tragic tale of Ellen Hanly, better known as ‘The Colleen Bawn.’[1] In 1819, a badly decomposed corpse bound…… Continue Reading
Unholy Christmas! The Tale of the Priest and the Presbyterian
My Irish-preaching was very successful at first, but greatly opposed afterwards In 1863, Rev Henry MacManus, the first Irish Missionary of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, published Sketches of the Irish Highlands.[1] He discoursed on the development of spreading the gospel in the Irish tongue in pre-famine Ireland: Preaching…… Continue Reading