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KNOCKNAGOSHEL

CO. KERRY · IE

Knocknagoshel
Cnoc na gCaiseal

STOP 06 / 06

Cnoc na gCaiseal · Co. Kerry

A small inland village with a heavy 1923 chapter still carried in the parish memory.

Knocknagoshel is a small village in inland north Kerry, in the foothills of the Stack's Mountains, on the R556 between Castleisland and the Limerick line at Abbeyfeale. About two hundred and fifty people in the village itself, around seven hundred in the wider parish. A square, a Catholic church, a school, a GAA pitch, a couple of pubs that have come and gone with the years. Stand in the square at noon on a Wednesday and the only sound will be a tractor working a field somewhere up the hill.

What makes the village worth knowing is what happened on the 6th of March 1923. An Anti-Treaty IRA party laid a mine in a dugout in Baranarigh Wood just outside the village. A Free State patrol from Castleisland — five men, three officers and two privates, one of them local — was led to it and killed. Within hours of the news reaching Tralee, Major-General Paddy Daly authorised the use of Republican prisoners to clear mined roads. Nine prisoners were tied to a mine at Ballyseedy crossroads outside Tralee that same week. Five more were killed the same way at Countess Bridge in Killarney. Five more again at Bahaghs near Cahirsiveen. Stephen Fuller alone survived Ballyseedy, blown clear by the blast, and lived to tell what had happened. The chain of events that put the worst of the Civil War on the front pages started in a wood outside this village.

Plan accordingly. There is no hotel, no restaurant beyond village fare, and the pubs keep village hours — when they keep any hours at all. Come for an afternoon. Stand at the 1891 Parnell-rally plaque on the wall — "Arise Knocknagoshel and take your place among the nations of the earth" — and walk out the road to where the wood was. Then drive on to Castleisland for a bed, or east to Abbeyfeale across the Limerick line. The village is a place to think about a thing, not a place to spend a weekend.

Population

~250 (parish ~700)

Walk score

A square, a church, a few roads off into the hills

Founded

Parish established 1916

Coords

52.3314° N, 9.3814° 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 Stack's Mountains

Inland Kerry, not coastal Kerry.

Knocknagoshel sits in the foothills of the Stack's Mountains — the upland country between the Feale and the plain that runs to Tralee. Bog, forestry, narrow boreens. The Atlantic is forty minutes away and feels like another county.

Walks & outings → 02 GAA

A small parish that holds its own.

Knocknagoshel GAA was founded in 1932 and has won the Castleisland District League and the North Kerry League over the decades. Eddie Walsh, half-back on the Kerry senior team, came out of here. The pitch is the centre of the parish in the way the church used to be.

Stories & lore → 03 March 1923

The mine, and what it set off.

On the 6th of March 1923, five Free State soldiers were killed by a booby-trapped mine in Baranarigh Wood outside the village. The reprisal killings at Ballyseedy and Countess Bridge followed within hours. One of the darkest weeks of the Civil War started here.

Stories & lore →

02 / 06

Stories & lore.

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

6 March 1923

The Knocknagoshel mine

An Anti-Treaty IRA column placed a booby-trap mine in a dugout in Baranarigh Wood, on the high ground above the village. A Free State patrol was led to it on the 6th of March 1923. Five men were killed in the explosion — three officers and two privates, one of them a local man, Lieutenant Pat O'Connor, who had known the country and the people in it. The attack was deliberate and the targeting was specific. By the standards of the Civil War in Kerry it was not unusual. What followed it was.

The reprisal week

Ballyseedy, Countess Bridge, Bahaghs

Within hours of the Knocknagoshel news, Major-General Paddy Daly — Free State commander in Kerry — authorised the use of Republican prisoners to clear suspected mines. On the same day, the 6th of March, nine prisoners from Ballymullen Barracks in Tralee were tied to a mine at Ballyseedy crossroads and the mine was set off. Eight died; Stephen Fuller was blown clear by the blast and survived to give the account that broke the official story. The next day, the 7th, five prisoners were killed the same way at Countess Bridge in Killarney. On the 12th, five more at Bahaghs near Cahirsiveen. Nineteen prisoners in a week. The events are remembered together because they belong together — and the chain ran from a wood outside this village.

Why the country was hard to police

The Stack's Mountains

The Stack's are not high — under five hundred metres at the top — but they are wide, boggy, and full of side roads that go nowhere obvious. Through 1922 and into 1923 the range was Anti-Treaty country in a way the lowlands around Tralee and Killarney were not. Dugouts in the woods, columns moving on bicycles, parishes that knew who was who. Knocknagoshel sits in the foothills of all that. The geography is half the explanation.

A small club, a Kerry footballer

GAA and Eddie Walsh

Knocknagoshel GAA was founded in 1932 — a decade after the events above, and not by accident; the parish was finding its feet again. The club has won Castleisland District Leagues in 1941, 1944 and 1946, North Kerry Leagues in 1978, 1983 and 1997, and contributed players to divisional sides that took county championships in 1950 and 1988. Eddie Walsh, half-back on the Kerry senior team, came from the parish. For a club this size in a parish this size, the record is the record.

03 / 06

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Baranarigh Wood The wood where the mine was laid in March 1923 sits on the high ground a short walk west of the village. Mixed forestry now, quiet, no signage. Go because of what happened here, not because of what is here to see.

Short walk from the villagedistance

30–45 mintime

Stack's Mountains foothills Boreens climb up out of the village onto bog and rough pasture. Big sky, not many people, the sound of larks in summer. Bring waterproof boots most of the year. Mark your turn-offs — the country closes in quickly in mist.

6–8 km loopsdistance

2–3 hourstime

The R556 to Castleisland by foot or bike Quiet single-carriageway road through farmland and small woods. The drop into Castleisland brings you to the Patrick O'Keeffe Festival town. Better as a cycle than a walk; arrange a lift back.

12 km one waydistance

Half a day on a biketime

04 / 06

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar–May

March is the anniversary of the mine and the reprisals. The parish marks it quietly. Come if you want to think; don't expect a programme of events.

◐ Mind yourself

Summer

Jun–Aug

The pattern festival on the 15th of August has gone on for generations — ribbon-twirling competitions, a parish day. The Nelius O'Connor Traditional Music Festival runs in July.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep–Oct

Bog colour on the hills, GAA county finals on the radio in any pub still open. Pair it with the Patrick O'Keeffe Festival in Castleisland the first weekend in October.

◐ Mind yourself

Winter

Nov–Feb

Quiet to the point of empty. The fire is on indoors and the road runs to nowhere in particular. If you are drawn to that, fine. If not, wait.

◐ 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.

Treating the 1923 sites as a tour stop

Baranarigh Wood, Ballyseedy, Countess Bridge and Bahaghs are places where people died. The parish remembers them as that. Visit if you have read enough to know what you are visiting; don't make a checklist of it.

Showing up expecting a session every night

The pubs in Knocknagoshel keep village hours and there are very few of them. For trad on a guaranteed schedule, drive twenty minutes east to Brosna for the Con Curtin weekend in June, or to Castleisland for the Patrick O'Keeffe Festival in October.

Booking accommodation in the village

There is no hotel and no B&B trade to speak of. Stay in Castleisland, Abbeyfeale or Listowel and drive in. None of them is more than half an hour away.

Confusing Pádraig O'Keeffe with Knocknagoshel

The schoolmaster-fiddler O'Keeffe was from Glountane Cross, near Castleisland — the same Sliabh Luachra musical world, but not this village. The Castleisland festival in October is the one named for him.

Getting there.

By car

Castleisland to Knocknagoshel is 15 minutes on the R556. From Newcastlewest in Limerick, take the N21 south-west to Abbeyfeale and then the local road south — about 30 minutes in total. Tralee is 40 minutes by road; Killarney about an hour.

By bus

Local Link runs a limited rural service linking Castleisland, Knocknagoshel and Abbeyfeale. Worth checking the day's timetable rather than planning a trip around it.

By train

Nearest station is Tralee, then bus or hire car. Mallow is the alternative if coming from Cork or Dublin.

By air

Kerry Airport (KIR) at Farranfore is 35 minutes by road. Cork is 1h 30m. Shannon is 1h 15m and is often the easiest from the US.