Killeedy () is a
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
located south of
Newcastle West
Newcastle West () or simply Newcastle (''An Caisleán Nua'', formerly anglicized Castlenoe) is a town in west County Limerick, Ireland. It is the largest town in the county, excluding Limerick city, It is also the county town, and sits on the ...
in Co.
Limerick
Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...
in
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 ...
. This parish consists of two villages, Ashford and Raheenagh. The
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
of the parish varies from 1,184 ft. OS at Mauricetown and 1,082 ft. at Dromdeeveen to 200 ft. OS at Ballintubber. The parish is overlooked by the
Mullaghareirk Mountains
The Mullaghareirk Mountains (from ) is a range of hills in Ireland on the borders of County Cork, County Kerry and County Limerick. The area is also known as Sliabh Luachra (sometimes anglicised 'Slieve Logher'). The highest point is Baraveha ( ...
. The patron saint of Killeedy is
Saint Ita
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...
. Killeedy used to be known as Cluain Chreadhail but in later ages it had taken the name of Cill íde, the Church of Saint Ita, from a nunnery which was founded there in the sixth century. On 15 January of each year, the feast of St. Ita's Day is celebrated in Killeedy.
The villages
Located in Ashford is St. Ita's Church, a primary school, a Montessori and The Village Inn Pub. The Village Inn pub has had great success in Darts particularly in recent years winning the Desmond Darts League premier division two years in a row. They also host the annual James Kelly Memorial Darts tournament. The soccer pitch for St. Itas AFC is also in Ashford. The Ashford Queen of the West Festival was held during the summers from 1989 and throughout the 1990s as part of the local
Gaelic Athletic Association
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...
(GAA) club's fund raising activities.
In Raheenagh, there is St Ita's Church, Páirc íde Naofa (the GAA pitch), a primary school, the community centre, a sports complex, a shop, and a pub.
Sports
The sports played competitively in Killeedy are
hurling
Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...
,
camogie
Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities.
A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...
,
Gaelic football
Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...
and
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
. The local GAA club is Killeedy GAA. The club is heavily concentrated on the game of
hurling
Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...
and
camogie
Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities.
A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men onl ...
with a little
Gaelic football
Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...
also being played. They play in blue and white and their ground is called Páirc Íde Naofa and is located in Raheenagh village. The club has successfully hosted the Munster, Leinster and All-Ireland Junior B Club Hurling Series since 2005.
The Killeedy club has won numerous west and county championships over the years but the pinnacle of their success came in 1980 when they won the
County Senior Hurling Championship beating
Patrickswell
Patrickswell, historically known as Toberpatrick (), is a small town in County Limerick, Ireland. It is primarily a commuter village for people working in Limerick, particularly the nearby industrial suburb of Raheen. The population was 847 at ...
in the final. The following year, Killeedy man
Paudie Fitzmaurice
Paudie Fitzmaurice (born 16 November 1949) is a hurler from Killeedy in County Limerick, Ireland, who featured in Limerick hurling teams of the 1970s. Fitzmaurice was part of the Limerick county hurling team which won the All-Ireland in 1973 ...
(one of the Killeedy Fitzmaurice brothers, along with his brother
Willie Fitzmaurice
Willie Fitzmaurice (born 4 December 1946) was a hurler from Killeedy, south of Limerick, who played with the Limerick teams in the 1970s and 1980s
In 1998, he became a county team selector along with former teammates Éamonn Cregan and David ...
) captained GAA to win the
Munster Senior Hurling Championship
The Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship, known simply as the Munster Championship, is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition organised by the Munster GAA, Munster Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is the h ...
. Another Killeedy man, Donie Flynn, was joint manager of the Limerick senior hurlers from 1988 to 1991. Killeedy currently compete at the Junior A grade in Limerick.
Saint Ita's AFC are the local soccer club in Killeedy and were founded in 1990, Their pitch is located in Ashford village and they play in blue and white. The junior team competes in the Limerick Desmond League division one. St. Ita's joined at underage level for two seasons with neighboring club Feenagh AFC and went under the moniker of Bluebell United. St. Ita's greatest achievement thus far was their All-Ireland Women's Junior Cup victory in 2006 making them the first Limerick Desmond League side to achieve this. In that same year, their women's team also won the Division 1 title in a playoff against
Ballingarry A.F.C. and competed in the first ever Women's Desmond Cup final in which they lost out on penalties to Ballingarry. Their Junior team have had good success also with one of their finest achievements being them reaching the Quarter Final of the Munster Junior Cup in the 2005/06 season where they were beaten by Clonmel Town who would go on to win the competition. As well as this they have won back to back Richard Hogan cups, the Division 2 and Division 3 league titles and the Division 2 league cup.
Landmarks and history
Field Marshal Count
Peter Lacy
Peter Graf von Lacy (russian: link=no, Пётр Петро́вич Ла́сси, tr. ; en, Pierce Edmond de Lacy; ga, Peadar (Piarais Éamonn) de Lása; 26 September 1678 – 30 April 1751) was an Irish-born soldier who later served in the I ...
was born in Killeedy in 1678. After fighting at the
Siege of Limerick in 1691, he emigrated first to France with the
Wild Geese, then
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and finally
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
where he became a
Field Marshal
Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...
and served as governor of
Livonia
Livonia ( liv, Līvõmō, et, Liivimaa, fi, Liivinmaa, German and Scandinavian languages: ', archaic German: ''Liefland'', nl, Lijfland, Latvian and lt, Livonija, pl, Inflanty, archaic English: ''Livland'', ''Liwlandia''; russian: Ли ...
. His son
Franz Moritz (Francis Maurice) von Lacy was a Field Marshal in Austrian service.
In 1916,
Thomas Shaughnessy
Thomas George Shaughnessy, 1st Baron Shaughnessy, (6 October 1853 – 10 December 1923) was an American-Canadian railway administrator who rose from modest beginnings as a clerk and bookkeeper for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad (a prede ...
was created the 1st
Baron Shaughnessy
Baron Shaughnessy, of the City of Montreal in the Dominion of Canada and of Ashford in the County of Limerick, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1916 for the Milwaukee born businessman Thomas Shaughnessy, preside ...
of the City of
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
in the Dominion of Canada and of Ashford (in Killeedy) in the
County of Limerick. His father Tom Shaughnessy, who was a policeman and detective in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
was a native of Ashford in Killeedy.
Notable landmarks in Killeedy include St. Ita's Monastery and Cemetery, Killeedy Castle, the
Mass Rock
Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a Physical object, physical body, until the discovery of the atom and par ...
, Glenduff Castle,
Glenquin Castle, Lough O'Ge and Ballagh Post Office.
Kantoher
Kantoher creamery was a major source of income for the parish. It was established in 1904 as a local Co-operative processing milk, and finding markets for by products such as cream, cheese, butter and later casein. The cooperative continued to diversify, opening up opportunities for its suppliers by setting up processing facilities for pigs, turkeys, ducks and later poultry. In 1991, Kantoher Creamery was taken over by locally based multinational Kerry Group. Kerry grew the business further but by 2005 decided to cease operations at the poultry plant, its final processing facility there, with the loss of over 300 jobs directly and a further 500 indirectly. Kerry Group continued to process the majority of the milk produced locally in Listowel. Kerry Group maintained support to network of local poultry producers in securing a processing co-operation with Western Brand in Mayo. It also provided support to the newly formed voluntary organisation, Kantoher Development Group, set up to provide sustainable employment for the local community.
Kantoher Enterprise Park currently has six companies operating out of the site providing over 80 jobs directly and another 40 indirectly. The companies based there include BHSL (which has grown a business out of poultry manure and fluidised bed technology), McMahon Ecofuel (leveraging the 6,000 acres of trees planted locally), Tara Cladding (which originally supplied cladding for the building needs of the local farming community and now provides bus shelters with automatic battery recharging), Strand Foods (a chicken processing plant), Pet Vet (a veterinary practice), MEHS (an environmental group that provides consultancy services), FÁS/SOLAS (provides employment to over 12 people), and Killeedy Group Water Scheme (the local water group).
References
External links
Killeedy ParishKilleedy GAA Club
{{Roman Catholic Diocese of Limerick
Civil parishes of County Limerick