Scartaglin, December 1923: A Month of Tragedy
‘If you shall take me into your service I shall do all in my power to do my duty faithfully and well’ – James Woods to the Irish Civic Guards, 25 October 1922 From the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty at 2.30am on the morning of Tuesday December 6th 1921, up until the official end […]
‘It is not our intention to bore you’: Some Recent Additions to Castleisland District Heritage
Scartaglin Parish News Scartaglin Parish News for the years 1977-1981 have been added to the archive of Castleisland District Heritage. The first carries a foreword by Fr John J Scanlan, CC, Scartaglin: It is the first time in the history of Scartaglin that a newssheet has been issued locally. Those who scripted it […]
Fitzgerald of Adraval and Knockrower
Adraval (spelling varies), near Scartaglin, was once a residence of the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Desmond. There is no local memory of the property and its precise location has not yet been ascertained.[1] John Galvin of Adraval describes the townland as follows: Adriville (the Central Village) is in the centre of Scartaglin Parish being […]
Purcell’s Castle: An Earlier Chapter in the Unending Tale of the Colleen Bawn
A copy of The Colleen Bawn (2018) by Patrick T Fitzgerald has been added to the archive of Castleisland District Heritage. It synthesises over two hundred years of research and literature relating to the mysterious and tragic tale of Ellen Hanly, better known as ‘The Colleen Bawn.’[1] In 1819, a badly decomposed corpse bound […]
Unholy Christmas! The Tale of the Priest and the Presbyterian
My Irish-preaching was very successful at first, but greatly opposed afterwards In 1863, Rev Henry MacManus, the first Irish Missionary of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, published Sketches of the Irish Highlands.[1] He discoursed on the development of spreading the gospel in the Irish tongue in pre-famine Ireland: Preaching […]
The Twiss Family of Ballahantouragh, Co Kerry
Has justice been done? Well, a day shall come When a different judge shall try … Ballahantouragh, a townland in Kerry, lies near the village of Scartaglen, a few miles outside Castleisland.[1] John Twiss of Cordal, Castleisland, hanged in 1895 for the murder, in 1894, of James Donovan, was descended from a branch of Twiss […]
Poff and Barrett: Final Hours
‘A universal belief in the innocence of the prisoners prevails in this county’ On Tuesday 23 January 1883, the day of the execution of Sylvester Poff and James Barrett, the shops in Castleisland remained closed all day, as a mark of sympathy with the condemned men. The situation was the same in Tralee, the town […]
