POSTED FROM

KILCUMMIN

CO. KERRY · IE

Kilcummin
Cill Chuimín, Co. Kerry

STOP 06 / 06

Cill Chuimín · Co. Kerry

A small parish east of Killarney with a GAA club that won an All-Ireland.

Kilcummin is a parish village six kilometres north-east of Killarney, off the N72 to Mallow. Around six hundred people in the village itself and the wider parish strung out across the townlands behind it. A church, a school, a community centre, a pitch, and one pub at the crossroads. That is the village.

The headline is the football. Kilcummin GAA was founded in 1910 and spent most of the twentieth century being a useful East Kerry side without ever winning a county senior. Then the intermediate grade arrived and Kilcummin took it apart - Kerry Intermediate champions in 1997 and 2018, Munster champions in 2018, and All-Ireland Intermediate Club champions in 2019. Seán Kelly, the former GAA President and now MEP, is from the parish. Brendan Kealy played in goal for Kerry. The pitch is where the parish gathers.

The country around it is the soft, hedge-and-drumlin Kerry of the Killarney-Castleisland corridor. The MacGillycuddy's Reeks show themselves on a clear day if you turn the right way. The Sliabh Luachra music country is over the hills to the north-east, towards Gneeveguilla and Rathmore. Kilcummin sits on the fringe - close enough to claim the connection, far enough that the fiddle-and-polka tradition is somebody else's story.

Population

612

Founded

Mentioned in the King's History of Kerry, 1302

Coords

52.0981° N, 9.4697° W

01 / 06

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The club

All-Ireland Intermediate champions, 2019.

Kilcummin GAA was founded in 1910 and has won East Kerry, county, Munster and All-Ireland intermediate titles. Red and green. The pitch is the centre of gravity of the parish.

Stories & lore → 02 The parish

Our Lady of Lourdes, and a name from the seventh century.

Cill Chuimín - St Cummin's church. The parish is named for an early Christian saint and is first mentioned on paper in 1302. The current church is Our Lady of Lourdes.

Stories & lore → 03 The Killarney edge

Ten minutes from the lakes, a long way from the coaches.

Six kilometres north-east of Killarney off the N72 / Mallow road. Most visitors never see it. The people who live here like that fine.

Getting there →

02 / 06

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Village Inn

Locals, GAA on the telly

Village pub

The pub at the crossroads. Match days it fills with red and green. Other days it is a quiet pint and a chat with whoever is in.

03 / 06

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Founded 1910, All-Ireland 2019

Kilcummin GAA

The club was founded in 1910 and won the East Kerry Senior Championship in 1925 and again in 1973. The senior county title has eluded them - three finals, in 1903, 1913 and 2002, all lost. The intermediate grade told a different story. Kerry Intermediate champions in 1997 and 2018, Munster Intermediate champions in 2018, and All-Ireland Intermediate Club champions in 2019. Brendan Kealy was Kerry's senior goalkeeper in the early 2010s and is from the parish. Mike McCarthy, two-time All-Ireland senior winner with Kerry, is another. The colours are red and green.

From the pitch to Brussels

Seán Kelly

Seán Kelly was born in Kilcummin and went on to be President of the GAA from 2003 to 2006 - the man who got rugby and soccer into Croke Park while Lansdowne Road was being rebuilt. He has been a Member of the European Parliament for Ireland South since 2009. The club, the parish and the Killarney area generally are quietly proud of him. He still turns up to matches.

The name on the map

St Cummin's church

Cill Chuimín means the church of St Cummin - one of the early Christian saints whose name attached to a church site and stayed there for thirteen hundred years. The earliest documentary mention of the parish is in 1302, when the King's History of Kerry valued it for tithes at three shillings and fourpence. The current parish church, Our Lady of Lourdes, sits in the village. The dedication is twentieth-century; the site is older than anyone remembers.

Polkas over the hill

The Sliabh Luachra fringe

Sliabh Luachra - the rushy mountain - is the upland country that runs across the Kerry-Cork-Limerick borders, and it produced the slide-and-polka tradition that defined east-Kerry trad. Pádraig O'Keeffe taught half of Munster to play in the kitchen of a house near Gneeveguilla. Kilcummin sits on the western edge of all that. You can drive to the heart of it in twenty minutes. The village itself was always more a farming parish than a music one - but the music country starts at the next hill.

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

Club championship season warming up. The fields are green and the Reeks are still capped with snow on a clear morning.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and county championship football. If Kilcummin are at home in Killarney, the parish empties.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

County final season. The parish lives or dies by the fixtures list. A good time to pass through if you want to feel a Kerry village at full pitch.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Quiet. The pub and the church are doing the work. Killarney is ten minutes down the road if you need more.

◐ Mind yourself

05 / 06

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Coming here for the scenery alone

It is a fine, ordinary Kerry parish. If you want lakes and mountains, drive ten minutes south to Killarney National Park. Kilcummin is a place to feel a working village, not a place to take a postcard.

Looking for a session

This is not a music village. The Sliabh Luachra tradition is over the hills. For trad, drive to Gneeveguilla, Scartaglen or Killarney itself.

Getting there.

By car

Six kilometres north-east of Killarney. Take the N72 / Mallow road out of Killarney and turn left at the signpost. Ten minutes from Killarney town centre.

By bus

No regular bus service through the village itself. Killarney is the realistic transport hub - Bus Éireann and rail both serve Killarney, then it is a short taxi.

By train

Nearest station is Killarney, on the Mallow-Tralee line.