Kilflynn

Coordinates: 52°21′02″N 9°37′31″W / 52.3505°N 9.6253°W / 52.3505; -9.6253
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Kilflynn
IST (WEST))
Irish Grid ReferenceQ895239

Kilflynn (Irish: Cill Flainn)[2] is a village and a civil parish in north County Kerry, Ireland. It is 11 km north-east of Tralee just off the N69 road from Tralee to Listowel.

Etymology

The origin of the place name Cill Flainn is unknown. Two suggestions are commonly circulated. ‘Cill’ in

Virgin Mary, who offered to restore his ailing sight. Flainn declined, asking for the miraculous power to be transferred to others via a local well (now Tobar Flainn, well or spring of Flainn). Some refer to this person as ‘St Flainn,’ but no such person was canonised. There is possible confusion with St Flannan, originally from Killaloe in County Clare.[5][6]
The alternative suggestion is that the name derives from the 'O’Flannan tribe': in August 1931, in the Proceedings of the
Ciarraighe, and which later became County Kerry some time between 1222 and 1229.[8]

Different anglicised spellings appeared over the years. In William Petty's Down Survey of Ireland (1655-1656) the parish appears as 'Kilfloinie Parish'.[9] Charles Smith wrote it as 'Kilflin' in 1756,[10] as did William Wilson 30 years later.[11] In Taylor and Skinner's road maps of 1777[12] it is spelt 'Kilftyn', likely a transcription error.

A detail from Taylor and Skinner's book of 1777 showing the road from Tralee to Listowel. Kilflynn ('Kilftyn'), Abbeydorney ('Abbydorney'), Lixnaw and Crotto (seat of the Ponsonby family at the time) are clearly shown.

Samuel Lewis wrote it 'Kilflyn' in 1840[13] and this spelling is extant in places like official Ordnance Survey Ireland maps or on new road signs (particularly the one on Shanow Bridge near Abbeydorney). Locally, and in most documentation, it is spelt Kilflynn.

Geography

The village lies in the southern part of the Listowel or Kerry plain. The rocks underlying the village area are typically Namurian sandstone and shale[14] which formed between 326 and 313 million years ago during the Carboniferous period and cover 27% of County Kerry. The centre of Kilflynn is actually on the edge of this area.

The basic bedrock of North Kerry centred on Kilflynn. The bedrock contours were adapted from the Geological Survey of Ireland 1:1 000 000 scale map, 2003
More detailed bedrock, from sheet 162 (Tralee) centred on Kilflynn, from the 1:63 620 scale Geological Survey of Ireland map of 1883, surveyed by Frederick J. Foot; key adapted from original.

Immediately to the north and west the bedrock is limestone (later to be sourced from nearby Lixnaw and Abbeydorney for use in lime kilns). These rocks, as part of the Western Irish Namurian Basin (or Clare Basin) were formed in a sub-equatorial tropical environment, due to the deposition of fine particles in a delta, likely from a river flow to the south-west on a continental mass formed from what are now North America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Africa.[15] This area is thus part of the Iapetus Suture, that is a region where the ancient Iapetus Ocean closed up. The Atlantic Ocean had yet to form.

The area was subject to

ice ages. The glacial meltwater evidence coincides with an area to the south and east of Kilflynn and the N26 road, broadly in line with the edge of the hills facing the north-west. The ice sheet that covered Ireland split about 19,000 years ago, along a corridor that included the area where Kilflynn lies and going down past Banna Strand (the sea level was lower then) towards the Atlantic. The main ice sheet retreated northwards, separated from the Kerry-Cork ice cap to the south which disappeared approximately 1000 years later.[16]

Kilflynn centre is currently 59m above

coastal areas (on exposed land). This is still favourable compared to areas further inland.[19]
The agricultural land surrounding the village is regarded as good and mostly unspoilt.

Surface

dippers and what are locally called 'cranes' (grey herons, which were caught and eaten historically). Since then, the river life has been affected by pollution
.

commuters [into Tralee and Listowel] while impressing the need to retain its peaceful character.[21]

History until 1900

The first known human presence in Ireland after the last ice age has been determined as c.10,500 years B.C.[22]

When the original

copper mining and metallurgy
in Kerry.

In 2011,

mediaeval activity in the townlands of Gortclohy and Cloonnafinneela. The Gortclohy dig provided evidence for tool usage from the Beaker period; alder charcoal from the site was carbon-dated to between 2132 and 1920 B.C. This is the most northerly evidence for the Beaker folk in County Kerry. The first Cloonnafinneela dig provided evidence of early mediaeval iron-working, with oak and alder charcoal carbon-dated to between 432 and 595 A.D. and further evidence of pit-kiln charcoal production 200–300 years later. A second dig at Cloonafinneela gave up evidence of various plants as burnt roofing thatch including rushes, cereals, hazel, oak and willow charcoal, the hazel dated to between 1450 and 1635 A.D.[26]

Kilflynn is in the middle of the area settled in the first century by the

mediaeval tribe (from which the county name Kerry is derived) and claimed descendants of Ciar the son of the mythological queen Medb of Connacht and one of her lovers, king Fergus mac Róich of Ulster.[27][28]

The parish of Kilflynn ('Kilfloinie') detailed in The Barony of Clanmaurice ('Clan Morris') from William Petty's Down Survey of Ireland, 1656-1658
A map of the civil parish of Kilflynn indicating its sixteen townlands.

Prior to this the Velabri

Érainn, in Irish tradition, may be the name for the same group of people as there are linguistic links.[31]

Kilflynn was a historical

FitzMaurice barons.[33][34]

Kilflynn has sixteen constituent townlands: Ballyconnell, Cappagh, Castletown, Cloghaneleskirt, Cloonnafinneela, Crotta, Fahavane, Glanballyma, Gortclohy, Kilflynn (village), Knockbrack East, Knockbrack West, Knocknahila, Rea, Stack's Mountain and Tooreen.

The Stack family, also of Norman heritage, had their seat at Crotto (later known as Crotta) just north of Kilflynn and also owned surrounding townlands.

Crotta House, drawn by John Preston Neale, 1823
Crotta House, in 1902, already in disrepair.

Kilflynn had been known as Stackstown, and the name remains geographically in

Cromwellian forces after the English Civil War resulted in the Act for the Settlement of Ireland of 1652 which required a survey for the redistribution of land (hence Sir William Petty's survey) often to invading soldiers in lieu of wages. Henry Ponsonby, the younger brother of Sir John Ponsonby (a colonel of horse in the New Model Army), was the recipient of most of the Stacks' (and others') confiscated land - much of which was profitable. This was reconfirmed in 1666, after the Acts of Settlement.[36][37][38][39] Part of the Down's Survey was Pender's Census, taken between 1654 and 1659. The census refers to 'The Barony of Clanmorice', the townland of 'Crottoe' and the 'Tituladoe' as Henry Ponsonby Esq. The population for the whole of Clanmaurice is given as 1126, of whom 86 are English and 1040 Irish. There are 17 with the surname 'Stack' and 17 with 'FitzMorrice and MacMorrice'.[40][41]

Ponsonby built Crotta House in 1669. The house was sold in 1842 by Thomas Carrique Ponsonby (later resident in

Field Marshal of the British Army and Minister for War for Great Britain, who spent most of his youth at Crotta. The mostly derelict remains of the house itself collapsed or were demolished in the 20th century.[43]

The young Horatio Herbert Kitchener on his mother's lap in 1851, with his older brother and sister

From 1840 the

Poor Law Union plans (as basic administrative division) of Listowel[44] replaced the Norman Clanmaurice barony and civil parish boundaries (although the latter continued to be used to make comparisons) after the act of 1838.[45]

Kilflynn was on the main road from

election districts (Kilflynn and Kilfeighny) so these figures may not be entirely representative.[21]

History from 1900

Kilflynn people joined the Irish Volunteers, were involved in the War of Independence and the Civil War.

The Kilflynn

IRA members: hundreds of men were imprisoned in Ballyheigue
Castle, including just one IRA man.

After two previous failures, the IRA succeeded in blowing up the bridge over the Shannow where the road to Kilflynn joins the Abbeydorney-Lixnaw road (R557). Units from Kilflynn and Abbeydorney lay in wait for Crown forces and opened fire. There were injuries on both sides and a British officer was killed attempting to cross the river.[53]

Flying Column, 1922.Back (L to R): Denis O'Connell (Lixnaw), Stephen Fuller
(Kilflynn), William Hartnett (Mountcoal), Tim Twomey (Kilflynn).Front (L to R): Terry Brosnan (Lixnaw), John McElligott (Leam, Kilflynn), Danny O'Shea (Kilflynn), Timothy (Aero) Lyons (Garrynagore), Tim Sheehy (Lyre), Pete Sullivan (Ballyduff), Paddy Mahony (Ballyegan, Battalion O.C.).

Kilflynn

coup-de-grâce shooting and bombing. A fabricated explanation of the event, blaming Irregulars for the mine, was given official approval.[54][55] An investigation by Free State Lieutenant Niall Harrington
referred to the report as "totally untrue." The killings came to represent a defining event in modern Irish history.

Fuller later became a Fianna Fáil TD for North Kerry.

Modern-Day Village

In recent decades, especially in the surrounding farmland, migration of youth for better financial prospects has kept a smaller, ageing population present, as is typically reflected elsewhere in rural villages of Ireland.[56] However, a number of new houses have been built and the local school, Scoil Treasa Naofa (St.Teresa's National School)[57] (first sited at Castletown in 1821, just north of the village), has had increased admissions.[21]

Kilflynn has two pubs, a fast food restaurant and a beauty parlour. The Catholic Church is St.Mary's

Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Earl of Khartoum, the former British Field Marshal and Secretary of State for War, who was born in Ballylongford and spent most of his youth at nearby Crotta House. A few outbuildings are all that remain of the original estate.[43]

Kilflynn and Abbeydorney are the two villages in which church services are held in the modern Roman Catholic parish of Abbeydorney,

Raymond Anthony Browne
.

The local

Teachtaí Dála (TDs) to the Dáil Éireann. The current TDs are Norma Foley (Fianna Fáil), Pa Daly (Sinn Féin), Brendan Griffin (Fine Gael), Danny Healy-Rae (Independent) and Michael Healy-Rae (Independent).[62]

Images of the parish of Kilflynn: click to view
  • Kilflynn village, looking north.
    A view of the main road through the village, looking north, August 2022.
  • St.Teresa's National School, Kilflynn.
    Scoil Treasa Naofa (St.Teresa's National School), townland of Castletown.
  • File:St. Columba's heritage centre, Kilflynn.
    St. Columba's heritage centre, formerly a protestant church erected c.1810-11 on the site of a ruinous former church. A belltower was added in 1840. Restoration was completed in 1993. The graveyard contains protestant and catholic burials.
  • Interior of St. Columba's heritage centre.
    The interior of St. Columba's heritage centre, an active village hall containing accounts of the local history around the walls.
  • Kilflynn village, looking north.
    The Republican plot at St. Columba's, grave of George O'Shea, Timothy Tuomey and Timothy Lyons, the former two of Kilflynn killed in the Ballyseedy massacre, the latter of Garrynagore killed at Clashmealcon caves.
  • The grave of Stephen Fuller.
    The grave at St. Columba's of Stephen Fuller, sole survivor of the Ballyseedy massacre and later a T.D. for Fianna Fáil.
  • St. Mary's RC church.
    St. Mary's Roman Catholic church. Dated 1849, it was extended in 1935 and renovated in 1979.
  • Gate lodge, Crotta, Kilflynn.
    A gate lodge at the northern edge of the old Crotta estate, built c.1850. This is the only extant whole structure of the estate. Crotta House was finally demolished in the 20th century.
  • Tobar Flainn.
    The shrine constructed around Tobar Flainn - the holy well of St.Flainn - by Muintir na Tíre in 1953. The issue was formerly from some stones near the Rae, a tributary by the well that joins the Shannow.
  • Panorama across the Listowel plain.
    Panorama made from the road between Kilflynn village and the N69, looking across the Listowel plain from the townland of Glanballyma.
  • The waterfall at Gortclohy.
    Part of the waterfall of the River Shannow between the townlands of Gortclohy and Glanballyma. The vertical drop of the whole falls is about 20 metres.

See also

References

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  2. ^ Placenames Database of Ireland (see archival records)
  3. ^ Go Kerry. "Welcome to Kilflynn". GoKerry.ie. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  4. ^ Parker's Pub. "Parker's Pub". Parker's Pub. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
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