Portmagee
| Portmagee Irish: An Caladh | |
| County Kerry | |
|---|---|
| |
| Location | |
| Island: | Valentia Island |
| Grid reference: | V370730 |
| Location: | 51°53’8"N, 10°21’58"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 116 (2016) |
| Local Government | |
Portmagee is a village in County Kerry. The village is located on the Iveragh Peninsula south of Valentia Island, and is known locally as 'the ferry', in reference to its purpose as a crossing point to the island. Access to Valentia Island is now by way of the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge (R565 road) from Portmagee, which was built in 1970 and named in memory of a member of the IRA executed in 1942 for his part in the shooting dead of Detective George Mordaunt in Dublin.[1][2]
The name allocated to the village in the Irish language is An Caladh, meaning 'The ferry'.[3]
Name
The name Portmagee (Port Magee and Magee's Port as it was formerly known) comes from Captain Theobald Magee, a notorious 18th-century smuggler. Having served in the army of King James II as an officer, Magee 'retired' to a life of merchant shipping between France, Portugal and Ireland. Thanks to the many inlets around the South West coast, his trade in contraband spirits, textiles and tea and tobacco was hard to police and therefore very profitable. He married Bridget Morgell, the widow of a rich Dingle merchant and also the daughter of the then representative for Dingle, Thomas Crosbie.
There is some suspicion that Magee's death in a Lisbon monastery was due to some exile imposed by Crosbie, an influential MP. However, his wife and sons continued the family business of smuggling.
About the village
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The village serves as a departure point for tourists travelling to visit 'Skellig Michael', an island off the coast featuring a 6th-century monastic settlement. Skellig Michael (from Sceilig Mhichíl in the Irish language, meaning Michael's rock), also known as Great Skellig, is a steep rocky island in the Atlantic Ocean about nine miles from the coast of County Kerry. It is the larger of the two Skellig Islands. Probably founded in the 7th century, for 600 years the island was a centre of monastic life for Irish Christian monks. The Gaelic monastery, which is situated almost at the summit of the 230-metre-high rock became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.[4] It is one of Europe's better known but least accessible monastic sites. Since the extreme remoteness of Skellig Michael has until recently discouraged visitors, the site is exceptionally well preserved. The very spartan conditions inside the monastery illustrate the ascetic lifestyle practiced by early Irish Christians. The monks lived in stone 'beehive' huts (clochans), perched above nearly vertical cliff walls.
Another monastery, Illaunloughan, is located in the Portmagee Channel north of the town.
South of the town are the popular Kerry Cliffs.[5]
Sport
- Gaelic games: Skellig Rangers GAA, founded in 1895 (originally as Portmagee G.A.A, before adopting its present name in the 1930s)[6]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Portmagee) |
- Portmagee and Skelligs Coast Tourism Guide
- Portmagee Local Area Plan
- Poem by Brendan O'Neill - Landing Mackerel on the Pier Head at Portmagee
References
- ↑ Reidy, Marisa (27 April 2011). "TG4 documentary on O'Neill execution". https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/news/tg4-documentary-on-oneill-execution-27406582.html.
- ↑ "The 'unofficial' opening of Valentia bridge". 5 March 2014. https://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/lifestyle/the-unofficial-opening-of-valentia-bridge-30064718.html.
- ↑ Portmagee / An Caladh: Placenames Database of Ireland
- ↑ Brockman, Norbert (2011). Encyclopedia of Sacred Places, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. pp. 521. ISBN 9781598846546. https://books.google.com/books?id=JkSk4euA-TEC&q=%22Since+1996%2C+Skellig+Michael+has+been+on+the+UNESCO+World+Heritage+List%22&pg=PA521.
- ↑ Nugent, Patrick (9 December 2017). "Experience the Force: A guide to the Star Wars magic in Kerry". The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/ireland/experience-the-force-a-guide-to-the-star-wars-magic-in-kerry-1.3317637.
- ↑ "Club History". http://www.skelligrangers.gaa.ie/club-hist.