Ballyduff () is a village near

Listowel Listowel ( ; , ) is a heritage market town in County Kerry, Ireland. It is on the River Feale, from the county town, Tralee. The town of Listowel had a population of 4,794 according to the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census, the third large ...

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Located on the R551 road between

Ballyheigue Ballyheigue ( ), officially Ballyheige (), is a coastal town and civil parish in County Kerry, Ireland. It is northwest of Tralee along the R551 road. It is a scenic locale which forms part of the Wild Atlantic Way and has several miles of bea ...

and

Ballybunion Ballybunion or Ballybunnion () is a coastal town and seaside resort in County Kerry, Ireland, on the Wild Atlantic Way, from the town of Listowel. As of the 2022 census, Ballybunion had a population of 1,618. Name The Placenames Database of I ...

on hills above Cashen Bay where the

River Feale Image of beach fishing for salmon in the River Feale near the town of Ballybunion in 1975. The River Feale (''An Fhéil'' or ''Abhainn na Féile'' in Irish) rises near Rockchapel in the Mullaghareirk Mountains of County Cork in the southwes ...

flows to the sea at the mouth of the

River Shannon The River Shannon ( or archaic ') is the major river on the island of Ireland, and at in length, is the longest river in the British Isles. It drains the Shannon River Basin, which has an area of , – approximately one fifth of the area of I ...

History

Near Ballyduff at Rattoo, a

round tower A fortified tower (also defensive tower or castle tower or, in context, just tower) is one of the defensive structures used in fortifications, such as castles, along with defensive walls such as curtain wall (fortification), curtain walls. Castle ...

reaches a height of 29.56m, with a base circumference of 15m. This is the only complete round tower in Kerry, and has been dated to the late 11th century. In the mid-19th century, the tower sat on a raised earth causeway in what was then a swamp. The swamp was drained and the causeway removed in the late 19th century so the fields could be cultivated. On 1 November 1920, in

reprisal A reprisal is a limited and deliberate violation of international law to punish another sovereign state that has already broken them. Since the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (AP 1), reprisals in the laws of war are extremel ...

s for the killings and shootings of various RIC constables in the area, the

Black and Tans The Black and Tans () were constables recruited into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) as reinforcements during the Irish War of Independence. Recruitment began in Great Britain in January 1920, and about 10,000 men enlisted during the conflic ...

shot a local man (John Houlihan) dead, burned the local creamery to the ground, and then burned seven homes in the

Abbeydorney Abbeydorney () is a village in County Kerry, Ireland. Located north of the county town of Tralee, the village had a population of 418 as of the 2016 census of Ireland. Abbeydorney falls within the civil parish of O'Dorney, and is sometimes co ...

area. Of the area's three great houses, only two are still standing, Rattoo Great House and Bushmount House. Ballyhorgan House was burned in 1920 in disputed circumstances. There is a soup kitchen that was used during the Great Famine (1845–1847). There is a forge that was recently renovated.

Sport

Ballyduff GAA club plays both Gaelic football and hurling. The club won the

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship The GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship, known simply as the All-Ireland Championship, is an annual Inter county, inter-county hurling competition organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is the highest-tier competition for ...

final in 1891, when the team was trained by James McDonnell. This is the only time that the title was won by a Kerry team. Ballyduff is also home to the soccer team Rattoo Rovers who play in the Kerry District League.

Notable people

* Liam Boyle Snr, former Ballyduff hurler * Ronan O'Connor, Ballyduff Gaelic footballer

References

{{County Kerry Towns and villages in County Kerry Towers in the Republic of Ireland

History

Sport

Notable people

See also

References