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

national secondary road A national secondary road ( ga, Bóthar Náisiúnta den Dara Grád) is a category of road in Ireland. These roads form an important part of the national route network but are secondary to the main arterial routes which are classified as national ...

in County Kerry,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. 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, and on the lower course of the

River Ferta The River Ferta or Fertha is a river in County Kerry in Ireland. It flows from the southwestern MacGillycuddy Reeks above Teeromoyle and travels ten miles before flowing into Valentia Harbour. The principal town in the region, Cahersiveen ...

. It is the principal settlement of the

Iveragh Peninsula The Iveragh Peninsula () is located in County Kerry in Ireland. It is the largest peninsula in southwestern Ireland. A mountain range, the MacGillycuddy's Reeks, lies in the centre of the peninsula. Carrauntoohil, its highest mountain, is als ...

, near

Valentia Island Valentia Island () is one of Ireland's most westerly points. It lies off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry. It is linked to the mainland by the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge at Portmagee. A car ferry also departs from ...

, and is connected to the Irish road network by the N70 road.

History

Cahersiveen was where the first shots of the

Fenian Rising The Fenian Rising of 1867 ( ga, Éirí Amach na bhFíníní, 1867, ) was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). After the suppression of the ''Irish People'' newspaper in September 186 ...

were fired in 1867.

Railway

Cahersiveen was served from 1893 to 1960 by the Cahersiveen railway station on the Great Southern and Western Railway.

Mentions in literature

Patrick O'Brian Patrick O'Brian, CBE (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and cent ...

's novel ''

Post Captain Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) addressed as captain ...

'' gives Cahersiveen as the location of the character

Stephen Maturin Stephen Maturin () is a fictional character in the Aubrey–Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. The series portrays his career as a physician, naturalist and spy in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, and the long pursuit of h ...

'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"

Places of interest

The Catholic church in the town is the only one in Ireland named after a layperson,

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

. The decommissioned

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ga, Constáblacht Ríoga na hÉireann; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the country was part of the United Kingdom. A separate ...

barracks, dating to the 1870s and now a heritage centre, was built in the distinctive "

Schloss ''Schloss'' (; pl. ''Schlösser''), formerly written ''Schloß'', is the German term for a building similar to a château, palace, or manor house. Related terms appear in several Germanic languages. In the Scandinavian languages, the cognate ...

" 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 and

Leacanabuaile Leacanabuaile is a stone ringfort (cashel) and National Monument in County Kerry, Ireland. Leacanabuaile is immediately northwest of Cahergal, northwest of Cahirciveen. History The cashel was built around the 9th century AD as a defended farm ...

stand close to each other a short distance from the town. The ruins of

Ballycarbery Castle Ballycarbery Castle is a castle {{convert, 3, km, mi, 0 from Cahersiveen, County Kerry, Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated fr ...

are near to Cahergall and Leacanabuaile. The town falls within the

Kerry International Dark-Sky Reserve The Kerry International Dark-Sky Reserve (KIDSR; ) is a dark-sky preserve in County Kerry, Ireland. It was designated Ireland's first International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). Kerry International Dark-Sky ...

, 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

. An t-Aonad Lán-Ghaeilge is the local

Gaelscoil A Gaelscoil (; plural: ''Gaelscoileanna'') is an Irish language-medium school in Ireland: the term refers especially to Irish-medium schools outside the Irish-speaking regions or Gaeltacht. Over 50,000 students attend Gaelscoileanna at primary an ...

- 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 CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

* Jerry Grogan * Daniel O'Connell (The Liberator) * Monsignor

Hugh O'Flaherty Hugh O'Flaherty (28 February 1898 – 30 October 1963), was an Irish Catholic priest and senior official of the Roman Curia, and a significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism. During World War II, O'Flaherty was responsible for savi ...

(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