An Teampall Nua · Co. Kerry
Kenmare's quiet next-door neighbour - a pier, a parish, and a GAA club that punches three weight classes above its roll.
Templenoe is the parish you drive through on the way out of Kenmare. Four miles west on the N70 - the Ring of Kerry road - on the north shore of the Kenmare River where it widens out toward the open Atlantic. The name means "the new church," though the church it referred to is long gone and the present one is a chapel of ease for Kenmare. Population about 250. There is no village in the High-Street sense. There is a pier, a GAA pitch, two castle ruins in the fields, and a stretch of road.
What you do in Templenoe is leave Kenmare. The town next door is the kitchen and the hotel and the Wednesday market, and Templenoe is the quiet bit twenty minutes out the back of it. The Beara Peninsula starts pulling away to the south across the water. The Iveragh hills rise on the inland side. Dromquinna Manor - the old Mahony hunting lodge, now a glamping-and-weddings outfit with manicured grounds - sits on the shore at the eastern end of the parish. The pier is at the western end. Most things in between are sheep.
It is a small place that produces big footballers. The Spillane brothers - Pat, Mick and Tom, with sixteen All-Ireland senior medals between them - were born here. Tadhg Morley plays for Kerry now and trained on the same pitch. The 2016 All-Ireland Junior Club final, won by Templenoe in Croke Park, is the proudest day the parish has had in living memory. Drive past the pitch on a winter evening and the floodlights will be on and a half-dozen kids will be doing drills in the rain. That is the village. The rest is scenery.
