Kilkeel

Kilkeel
Irish: Cill Chaoil
Kilkeel  Kilkeel shown within County Down
Population	6,338 (2001 Census)
District	Newry, Mourne and Down
County	County Down
Country	Northern Ireland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	NEWRY
Postcode district	BT34
Dialling code	028
Police	Northern Ireland
Fire	Northern Ireland
Ambulance	Northern Ireland
EU Parliament	Northern Ireland
UK Parliament	South Down
List of places UK Northern Ireland Down

Coordinates: 54°03′32″N 5°59′31″W / 54.059°N 5.992°W

Kilkeel (from Irish: Cill Chaoil, meaning "church of the narrow")^[1][2] is a small town, civil parish and townland (of 554 acres) in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies within the historic barony of Mourne.^[3] Kilkeel town is the main fishing port on the Down coast, and its harbour houses one of the largest fishing fleets in Ireland. It had a population of 6,887 people according to the 2011 Census. The town contains the ruins of a 14th-century church and fort, winding streets and terraced shops.

Geography

Kilkeel town sits on a plain south of the Mourne Mountains, west of where the Kilkeel River flows south into the North Channel. The town is centred in the townland of Magheramurphy (from Irish Machaire Mhurchaidh, meaning "Murphy's plain"), and extends into the neighbouring townlands of:^[4]

• Derryoge (from Irish Doire Ríóg, meaning "Ríog's oak wood")
• Drumcro (from Irish Druim Cró, meaning "ridge of the fold/enclosure")
• Dunnaman
• Kilkeel (from Irish Cill Chaoil, meaning "narrow church/church of the narrows")

Altogether there are 69 townlands in the civil parish and barony.^[5]

History

Picture of "Narrow Church"

Kilkeel takes its name from the old church overlooking the town, it being the anglicised version of the Gaelic 'Cill Chaoil' meaning "Narrow Church" or "The Church of/in the Narrow Place." The name may be drawn from the church location on a narrow site above the town. The church was constructed in 1388 and dedicated to "St Colman Del Mourne." It was thought to be the principal Church in a group which included Kilmegan and Kilcoo despite the fact that Kilkeel was very sparsely populated in the Middle Ages. There are references to Kilkeel as a Christian settlement as far back as the 11th century. Kilkeel is the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Mourne.

The cemetery attached to the church was used for burials until 1916. The last burials at the cemetery were victims of a collision between two steamers the Retriever and the SS Connemara in Carlingford Lough.

On 30 May 1918 a fleet of Kilkeel fishing boats was sunk by the U-boat UB-64 under the command of Otto von Schrader. The boats sunk, 12 miles off the coast of County Down, included the Jane Gordon, Cyprus, Never Can Tell, St Mary, Sparkling Wave, Lloyds, Marianne Macrum and the motor vessel Honey Bee. Only two boats, Moss Rose and Mary Joseph, were not sunk and the crews returned to port on those boats.^[6] The Mary Joseph (N55) is now in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

A Local History Group that covers both the town of Kilkeel and the Mourne region was set up in the 1980s producing a set of seven periodicals called "The 12 Miles of Mourne". A book on Hanna's Close, a clachan of houses in Aughnahoory townland 1 mile outside of Kilkeel, that covers the history of the region up to 1798 was self-published in 2008.^[7]

Economy

• Fishing is a major industry in Kilkeel, with Kilkeel Harbour the home port for the largest fishing fleet in Northern Ireland.
• There are fish-processing factories around the port, pleasure angling off the piers and lobster farming along the coastline.
• Whitewater Brewery (established 1996) brews and sells Belfast Ale.
• In recent years BE Aerospace has become the largest employer in the area. Its Kilkeel facility, which manufactures aircraft seats for a worldwide customer base, employs over 800 people.^[8]

People

• The town is also known as the location where William Hare died.
• Robert Hill Hanna (1887–1967), born near Hanna's Close, was an immigrant Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was a Company Sergeant-Major in the 29th (Vancouver) Bn., Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I when on 21 August 1917, he led a courageous action at Hill 70 Lens, France.
• Gerald O'Donovan, novelist
• Robert Nugent, Brigadier General, commander of Union Army's Irish Brigade, US Civil War.

2011 Census

Kilkeel is classified as a small town by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (i.e. with population between 4,500 and 14,000 people). On Census day (29 April 2011), there were 6,887 people living in Kilkeel. Of these:

• 26.2% were aged under 16 years and 18.2% were aged 60 and over;
• 48.4% of the population were male and 51.6% were female; and
• 3.5% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed.

Religion

The town of Kilkeel has a strong Unionist heritage. But while, in 2001, the ward of Kilkeel Central was recorded as 69% Protestant (21% Catholic, 10% other), the ward of Kilkeel South was only 37% Protestant (55% Catholic, 7% other).

Religious breakdown of wards in and around Kilkeel -from 2001 census data

Kilkeel now sits within the administrative area of Newry and Mourne, which is recorded in the 2001 census as being 80.6% Catholic. For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service

Education

• Gaelscoil na mBeann is a bilingual primary school that uses Irish Gaelic as its primary medium of instruction while English is introduced at Primary 3.^[9] The school teaches the Northern Ireland curriculum. It was established in 2010 by a group of local people and parents who wanted Gaelic-medium education for their children. The school gained recognition and funding from the Department of Education in 2012.
• Naíscoil na mBeann is an Irish-medium Pre-school which takes children aged 3+ years to prepare them to enter primary school. It was founded in 2008 and lead to the inception of Gaelscoil na mBeann, the Irish-medium Primary school in Kilkeel.
• Brackenagh West Primary School
• Grange Primary School
• Holy Cross Primary School
• Kilkeel High School
• Kilkeel Primary School
• Mourne Independent Christian School
• St. Colman's Primary School
• St. Columban's College
• St. Louis Grammar School
• Mourne Grange Village School

Sport

Most popular sports in the Kilkeel area include Association football, fishing, Gaelic football, golf, hockey, hurling, and swimming.

Kilkeel Hockey Club plays at McAuley Park, fielding three men's teams and two ladies' teams. Kilkeel is the only hockey club in Mourne, drawing players from the whole of the Mourne area, with Annalong providing a considerable number of its players.

The most senior football team is Valley Rangers F.C. of the Mid-Ulster Football League. Other local teams include Ballyvea, Kilkeel, Kilkeel Athletic and the Mourne Rovers. With the exception of Kilkeel Athletic, the local football clubs play in the SK Holmes Newcastle League.

G.A.A. clubs include An Riocht, Atticall, Ballymartin, Longstone and Glasdrumman.

There are two local golf courses, Kilkeel Golf Course and Cranfield Pitch and Putt.

See also

• Kilkeel (civil parish)
• Tullaghmurray Lass
• List of towns and villages in Northern Ireland
• List of RNLI stations

References

1. Placenames Database of Ireland
2. Placenames NI
3. "Kilkeel". IreAtlas Townlands Database. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
4. "Northern Ireland Placenames Project". Retrieved 12 June 2010.
5. "Cill Chaoil/Kilkeel". Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
6. O'Sullivan, Aidan; Breen, Colin (2007). Maritime Ireland. An Archaeology of Coastal Communities. Stroud: Tempus. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-7524-2509-2.
7. Hanna, R.K. (2008). Hanna of the Close - from Scottish Origins to 1798. Sheffield: Self Published.
8. "B/E Aerospace workers given pledge over US sale plan". Belfast Telegraph. May 7, 2014. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
9. "Information". Gaelscoil na mBeann. 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2013.