CahersiveenPlacenames Database of Ireland
/ref> (), sometimes Cahirciveen, is a town on the N70 national secondary road in

County Kerry County Kerry ( gle, Contae Chiarraí) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and forms part of the province of Munster. It is named after the Ciarraige who lived in part of the present county. The population of the co ...

, Ireland. As of the 2016 CSO census, the town had a population of 1,041.

Geography

Cahersiveen is on the slopes of 376-metre-high

Bentee Bentee or Benatee ()''Iveragh NW Area - Beentee'MountainViews.ie/ref> is a hill overlooking the town of Cahersiveen in County Kerry, Ireland. Geography The hill has a height of , providing good views of the surrounding area, Valentia Island, ...

, and on the lower course of the River Ferta. It is the principal settlement of the Iveragh Peninsula, near Valentia Island, and is connected to the Irish road network by the N70 road.

History

Cahersiveen was where the first shots of the Fenian Rising were fired in 1867.

Railway

Cahersiveen was served from 1893 to 1960 by the

Cahersiveen railway station Cahersiveen railway station was on the Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) which ran from Farranfore to Valentia Harbour in the Republic of Ireland. The station served Cahersiveen in County Kerry. History The station was opened on 12 S ...

on the

Great Southern and Western Railway The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) was an Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland from 1844 until 1924. The GS&WR grew by building lines and making a series of takeovers, until in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the ...

Mentions in literature

Patrick O'Brian's novel '' Post Captain'' gives Cahersiveen as the location of the character Stephen Maturin's childhood home in Ireland. :At present two Highlanders were talking slowly to an Irishman in Gaelic ... as he lay there on his stomach to ease his flayed back. 'I follow them best when I do not attend at all,' observed Stephen, 'it is the child in long clothes that understands, myself in Cahirciveen." Cahirciveen is the central city in Brian Moore's futuristic novel "

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Places of interest

The Catholic church in the town is the only one in Ireland named after a layperson, Daniel O'Connell. The decommissioned Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, dating to the 1870s and now a heritage centre, was built in the distinctive " Schloss" style favoured by its architect, Enoch Trevor Owen. Because of this, it is often claimed to have been mistakingly built from the plans for a British barracks in India – a common myth heard in many Irish garrison towns. The stone forts of

Cahergall Cahergall is a stone ringfort (cashel) and National Monument located in County Kerry, Ireland. Location Cahergall is located immediately southeast of Leacanabuaile, northwest of Cahirciveen Cahersiveen (), sometimes Cahirciveen, is a tow ...

and Leacanabuaile stand close to each other a short distance from the town. The ruins of Ballycarbery Castle are near to Cahergall and Leacanabuaile. The town falls within the Kerry International Dark-Sky Reserve, the first Gold Tier Reserve in the northern hemisphere and one of only four Gold Tier Dark-Sky Reserves on earth.

Education

The town's primary school, Scoil Saidbhín, opened in September 2015. This is an amalgamation of Scoil Mhuire, a boys' primary school and St Joseph's Convent, a girls' primary school. There are four primaries in the parish of Cahersiveen, including those in the town's hinterland: Aghatubrid National School, Coars National School, and Foilmore National School. Aghatubrid was established in 1964 and as of 2019 had about 75 students. Coláiste Na Sceilge is the town’s co-educational secondary school. Over 530 pupils attend from all around the Iveragh Peninsula. An t-Aonad Lán-Ghaeilge is the local Gaelscoil - an all

Irish-speaking Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was th ...

class for 1st to 3rd-year students, where students do all their learning through Irish.

Notable people

* Donie O'Sullivan, journalist working for CNN *

Jerry Grogan Jerry Grogan is an Irish stadium announcer known as "the voice of Croke Park". Croke Park is both the principal national stadium of Ireland and the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). As well as to spectators, Grogan's voice ...

* Daniel O'Connell (The Liberator) * Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty (The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Gallery

Image:Cahirciveen.jpg, Gate to Holy Well on New Street File:Cahersiveen Barracks.jpg, Cahersiveen Barracks File:Cahersiveen.jpg, Main Street File:Cahersiveen 2.jpg, Corner of Main Street and O'Connell Street File:Cahersiveen 3 - Cahirciveen.jpg, O'Connell Street File:Cahirsiveen West Main Street.jpg, West Main Street

References

{{County Kerry 9 'The Kerry Foot' from BLOODROOT (Doire Press, 2017) by poet Annemarie Ni Churreain republished b
Summer 2017 The Stinging Fly
Towns and villages in County Kerry Iveragh Peninsula Cahersiveen