Kilbrittain
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Kilbrittain or Killbrittain () is the name of a village,
townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...
and
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
in
County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...
,
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 ...
. The village lies about southwest of Bandon, and near
Courtmacsherry Courtmacsherry (), often referred to by locals as Courtmac, is a seaside village in County Cork, on the southwest coast of Ireland. It is about 30 miles southwest of Cork, and 15–20 minutes drive east from the town of Clonakilty. The village co ...
and
Timoleague Timoleague () is a village in the eastern division of Carbery East in County Cork, Ireland. It is located along Ireland's southern coast between Kinsale and Clonakilty, on the estuary of the Argideen River. Nearby is the village of Courtmacs ...
. The coastal route around the edge of the parish is the
R600 road The R600 road is a regional road in County Cork in Ireland. From west to east, it starts in the north of Clonakilty, going through Timoleague, Ballinspittle, Kinsale, Belgooly, and ending at Cork Airport, where the road continues as the N27 to ...
. The village itself is around inland from the coast.


Local estates

Kilbrittain Castle is reputed to be one of the oldest inhabited castles in Ireland. The castle is thought to date from 1035 where the original fortress may have been built by the O'Mahony clan. Known to have been in the hands of the Norman family of de Courcey and possibly extended in the 13th century, Kilbrittain Castle was the principal seat of MacCarthy Reagh family,
Princes of Carbery The Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach (anglicised ''MacCarthy Reagh'') dynasty are a branch of the MacCarthy dynasty, Kings of Desmond, deriving from the Eóganacht Chaisil sept. History The Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach seated themselves as kings of Carbery ...
and
Kings of Desmond The following is a list of monarchs of the Kingdom of Desmond. Most were of the MacCarthy Mór ("great MacCarthy"), the senior branch of the MacCarthy dynasty. 12th century MacCarthy MacCarthy claimants O'Brien claimants MacCarthy 13th ce ...
, from the early 15th century. The castle was extensively restored and enlarged by the Stawell family in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was partially burned in 1920 and restored in 1969 by inventor Russell Winn. Kilbrittain Castle is now the home of the Cahill-O'Brien family. Howes Strand is a beach in Kilbrittain with the ruin of a
Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
station that overlooks the beach, built in 1910 and burnt down in 1920. Coolmain Castle was originally built by the de Courcey family in the early 15th century, but they lost it to the MacCarthy Reaghs the following century. Over the years it passed through the hands of a number of families, including that of the
Earls of Cork Earl of Cork is a title in the Peerage of Ireland, held in conjunction with the Earldom of Orrery since 1753. It was created in 1620 for Richard Boyle, 1st Baron Boyle. He had already been created Lord Boyle, Baron of Youghal, in the County o ...
. In the middle of the 17th century,
Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
acquired the property. In the early 1900s it was owned by the novelist
Donn Byrne Donn Byrne (born Brian Oswald Patrick Donn-Byrne, ; 20 November 1889 – 18 June 1928) was an Irish novelist. Biography He was born in New York City in the United States where, he claimed, his Irish parents were on a business trip at the time ...
, and was bought by
Roy E. Disney Roy Edward Disney KCSG (January 10, 1930 – December 16, 2009) was an American businessman. He was the longtime senior executive for the Walt Disney Company, which was founded by his father, Roy O. Disney, and his uncle, Walt Disney. At the ti ...
in the 1990s.


Sport

Kilbrittain GAA Kilbrittain GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club based in the parish of Kilbrittain, County Cork, Ireland. The club fields teams in Gaelic football and Hurling, but is primarily known for hurling. The club participates in Cork GAA competit ...
club fields
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
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 ...
teams and is affiliated with
Cork GAA The Cork County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Contae Chorcaí) or Cork GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Cork and the C ...
and
Carbery GAA Carbery GAA is a Gaelic football and Hurling division in the south-west area of County Cork, Ireland. The division is one of eight divisions of the Cork County Board and a division is responsible for organising competitions for the clubs within ...
. The club was founded in 1904. The club won the Cork Minor C Football Championship in 2008 beating Castletownbere in the final at
Páirc Uí Chaoimh Páirc Uí Chaoimh ( ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is the home of Cork GAA. The venue, often referred to simply as The Park, is located in Ballintemple, Cork, Ballintemple and is built near to ...
.


Education

There are two primary schools in Kilbrittain. Gurraneasig National School is located near to Howes Strand and (as of 2009) had approximately 60 pupils enrolled. Kilbrittain National School is a co-educational school which is located in the village, close to the church. As of 2011, Kilbrittain National School had over 150 pupils enrolled. Both schools take part in GAA leagues called ''Sciath na Scol''. Kilbrittain NS have won it with both the boys and girls team on several occasions.


Culture and events

Each summer, the owners of Burren House, which overlooks
Courtmacsherry Courtmacsherry (), often referred to by locals as Courtmac, is a seaside village in County Cork, on the southwest coast of Ireland. It is about 30 miles southwest of Cork, and 15–20 minutes drive east from the town of Clonakilty. The village co ...
Bay, hold an open-air opera to raise funds in aid of the Courtmacsherry Lifeboat. Annually in August, Kilbrittain hosts a family festival. Kilbrittain Festival has been running since 2004. In 2011, a short film, ''The Blow-Ins'', was shot in Kilbrittain and Courtmacsherry; the film was released in 2012.


Kilbrittain whale

On 15 January 2009, an 18-metre (59 ft)
fin whale The fin whale (''Balaenoptera physalus''), also known as finback whale or common rorqual and formerly known as herring whale or razorback whale, is a cetacean belonging to the parvorder of baleen whales. It is the second-longest species of cet ...
became stranded and subsequently died on a beach in Courtmacsherry Bay. Efforts were made by Courtmacsherry Lifeboat to get the whale back into the sea, but its size and weight meant that attempts to save the whale's life were unsuccessful. The whale was featured in a
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
documentary ''Inside Nature's Giants'' which showed autopsies of large mammals. There was some dispute as to whether Kilbrittain or Courtmacsherry had the claim to the whale and local songwriter, Michael O'Brien of Butlerstown, composed and recorded a humorous song on the topic titled "The Kilmacsherry Whale". The skeleton of the whale is now on display in a small park to the east of Kilbrittain village.


Book of Lismore

It is believed that the
Book of Lismore The Book of Lismore, also known as the Book of Mac Carthaigh Riabhach, is a late fifteenth-century Gaelic manuscript that was created at Kilbrittain in County Cork, Ireland, for Fínghean Mac Carthaigh, Lord of Carbery (1478–1505). Defective ...
was compiled in the 15th Century to commemorate the marriage of the Gaelic prince Finghin Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach, of Kilbrittain Castle, to Caitilín, daughter of the seventh Earl of Desmond. The medieval manuscript contains 166 large vellum folios of material that a learned person of the time would have been expected to know. It later became known as Leabhar Mhic Cárthaigh Riabhaigh. MacCarthy was patron of the friary at Timoleague, and some of the book's pages were copied there in 1629 by the scribe Mícheál Ó Cléirigh. During a raid on Kilbrittain in 1642, the book was taken by Lewis, Lord Kinalmeaky, of Lismore who sent it back to his father, with a letter, at Lismore Castle. The book remained there until it was discovered behind a wall at the castle in 1814, during rebuilding works. The Book of Lismore is written in Irish, but not the modern version spoken today. It is written on vellum, made from calfskin, an expensive material at the time of the book's writing, in the 15th century. The Book of Lismore contains many important texts, including a cosmological work, the Ever-new Tongue; the most extensive account of the lives of the saints in an Irish-language medieval manuscript; an Irish translation of the travels of Marco Polo; and one of the greatest compositions of the Fenian Cycle, Acallam na Senórach, or The Conversation of the Old Men. The illustrated capitals are thought to have been added in the 19th century by Donnchadh Ó Floinn, an Irish-language scribe living on Shandon Street in Cork.


People

*
Donn Byrne Donn Byrne (born Brian Oswald Patrick Donn-Byrne, ; 20 November 1889 – 18 June 1928) was an Irish novelist. Biography He was born in New York City in the United States where, he claimed, his Irish parents were on a business trip at the time ...
- poet * Roy Disney - nephew of Walt Disney, former owner of Coolmain Castle *
Charlie Hurley Charles John Hurley (born 4 October 1936) is an Irish former footballer who played mainly in the Center Back position. Hurley is best known for his long career at Sunderland, where he was named the Black Cats' "Player of the Century" by th ...
- Irish republican volunteer * Florence MacCarthy - Irish prince * Thaddeus MacCarthy - Bishop of Ross, Cork and Cloyne * Dorothy Price - who contributed to the elimination of childhood TB; worked here as a dispensary doctor during the
War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements * List of civil wars * List o ...
* Patrick Scott - architect and artist * Eoin Sexton - Irish sportsman. He played Gaelic football with
Kilbrittain Kilbrittain or Killbrittain () is the name of a village, townland and parish in County Cork, Ireland. The village lies about southwest of Bandon, and near Courtmacsherry and Timoleague. The coastal route around the edge of the parish is the R6 ...
and the
Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
senior inter-county team * Richard Townsend - English soldier and politician who lived at Kilbrittain Castle * John P. Walsh - Irish businessman, Nationalist MP in the House of Commons *
Bob Willoughby Robert Hanley "Bob" Willoughby (June 30, 1927 – 18 December 2009) was an American photographer. ''Popular Photography ''Popular Photography'', formerly known as ''Popular Photography & Imaging'', also called ''Pop Photo'', is a monthly Amer ...
- Hollywood photographer who lived at Coolmain Castle


See also

* List of towns and villages in Ireland


References

{{Reflist


External links


Kilbrittain Parish websiteKilbrittain GAA Website (archived)Kilbrittain Festival Gallery
Towns and villages in County Cork Beaches of County Cork MacCarthy dynasty