We didn’t choose which side to be on, as almost no one did in that war – Spanish Civil War Baby[1] Castleisland District Heritage is hardly the place where you would expect to find a memoir about the Spanish Civil War. A copy of the recently published Spanish Civil War Baby, however, has been kindly…… Continue Reading
Snakes and Shamarogs: St Patrick in History and Art
Castleisland District Heritage has recently acquired a set of photographs of the St Patrick’s Day Parade in Cahersiveen which date to circa 1998.[1] Among the clowns on bicycles, the village blacksmith and the parading musicians are floats promoting Iveragh Sports Complex, the Cahersiveen Celtic Music Festival and the Daniel O’Connell Walking Festival.[2] The…… Continue Reading
Scott’s Country to Tralee: Lives of the Chestnuts
Castleisland District Heritage has recently acquired a copy of The Chestnut Tree (1976), a genealogical work about the family of Reverend William Wallace Chestnut (1818-1888) the longest serving minister of Tralee Presbyterian Church.[1] Its author, Norah (‘Chuni’) Henderson, was granddaughter of Rev Chestnut. Norah records how her grandmother, Elizabeth, daughter of James Stewart, was…… Continue Reading
‘Go to bed, you fools!’ – A Tribute to Fr Patrick Joseph Hartigan (1878-1952)[1]
‘He is the right settler’s poet. If he has not yet been called the Australian Kipling, he will be’ – Montrose Standard, 1922[2] This year (2021) marks the centenary of Around the Boree Log, a collection of verse by Irish-Australian poet Fr Patrick Joseph Hartigan (1878-1952) parish priest of Narrandera, New South Wales, whose…… Continue Reading
Project Main Street, Castleisland: The Island Centre
Project Main Street is a collection of digital photographs of Main Street, Castleisland and its outskirts taken by Castleisland District Heritage on 6 July 2020 as part of an initiative to document the history of the buildings that line the famous ‘street between two fields.’[1] The project is a work in progress. In August…… Continue Reading
An overview of the ‘Castleisland District Archaeological Survey’ 1985-1995
In 1983, Castleisland & District Development Association, established in 1967, initiated a Job Creation Survey.[1] The purpose of the survey was to identify the extent of unemployment in the region, and opportunities available for job creation.[2] As a result of the survey, two projects presented, the Castleisland District Archaeological Survey and Job Creation and Enterprise…… Continue Reading
Gayer’s Beacons: Signposts to Dingle Harbour
The Beacon Towers Rev Gayer had nearly finished are, as it were, his own tombstones[1] Long before Fungi the dolphin put Dingle Harbour on the map in the 1980s, this particular stretch of water was more renowned for its treacherous conditions and shipwrecks. Newspapers of the time carried reports of disasters and…… Continue Reading
Tears and Smiles: Killarney Memoir has Castleisland links
Big Boys Don’t Cry, a book by Ted O’Shea of Muckross, Co Kerry, has just been added to the archive of Castleisland District Heritage.[1] The work provides information on O’Shea genealogy with interesting links to the Ahern family of Castleisland. It traces how the author’s great grandfather, James O’Shea, went as a teenager to…… Continue Reading
Castleisland: Mapped and Measured 180 Years Ago
About the year 1836, a young man named John O’Donovan was despatched by the office of the Ordnance Survey to visit in succession every county in Ireland with the object of noting and recording all existing remains of antiquity: By the direction of the Ordnance, O’Donovan visited, we may say, every townland in Ireland,…… Continue Reading
The Republican Monument, Kilbannivane, Castleisland
We publish below brief references to the thirteen men commemorated on the Kilbannivane Republican Monument, Castleisland. Michael O Brosnacain / Michael Brosnan (1900-1920) Son of Cornelius Brosnan and Margaret (née Collins) Brosnan of Close, Castleisland. Michael Brosnan was shot by Black and Tans on 8 November 1920. Account of incident in Dying for…… Continue Reading