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KILMEEDY

CO. LIMERICK · IE

Kilmeedy
Cill m'Íde, Co. Limerick

The West Limerick
STOP 07 / 07

Cill m'Íde · Co. Limerick

A five-road crossroads in west Limerick named for St Ita, with a church, a community shop and a vintage rally once a year.

Kilmeedy does not announce itself. It is a parish village in the rolling farming country of west Limerick, on the R519 between Ballingarry and Dromcollogher, and its defining feature is the crossroads at its heart - five roads radiating off one small junction. The 1911 census counted 274 people in the village; the wider Feenagh-Kilmeedy parish runs to around 900. It is a working rural place, not a destination, and it is honest about that.

The name is the most interesting thing about it, and it is genuinely interesting. Kilmeedy is Cill m'Íde - "the church of my Ita" - named for St Ita, the early Christian abbess of Munster whose main foundation lies a few miles south at Killeedy. The my in the name is the old affectionate possessive that early Irish Christians used for the saints they claimed as their own. A church has stood on this ground for a very long time. The present St Ita's, blessed in 1942, is the latest in a line that reaches back through a 1665 Protestant church in the old graveyard to a medieval foundation recorded as Moyalthi in 1302.

There is no reason to make a special trip to Kilmeedy. But if you are working your way through west Limerick - the country between Newcastle West, Dromcollogher and the Cork border - it is a real village with a real history, a community shop where you can get a cup of tea, and a vintage rally in late summer that brings the back roads to life for a day. Stop if you pass. The quiet is genuine, and so is the saint.

Population

~270 (parish of Feenagh-Kilmeedy around 900)

Founded

Medieval parish; church site dedicated to St Ita

Coords

52.3978° N, 8.8839° W

01 / 07

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 name

Cill m'Íde - the church of my Ita.

Not a generic founder. Kilmeedy carries the name of St Ita, the early Christian abbess whose main foundation is at Killeedy a few miles south. The Irish is Cill m'Íde, "church of my Ita" - the my is an affectionate possessive the early Irish used for their own saints. The village grew up around a church on her ground.

Stories & lore → 02 The crossroads

Five roads radiate from one small junction.

Kilmeedy sits on the R519 between Ballingarry and Dromcollogher, and five roads meet at the village. That is its whole shape: a crossroads with a church, a graveyard, a community shop and café, and the farming country of west Limerick spreading out in every direction.

Getting there →

02 / 07

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
Kilmeedy Community Shop & Café	Community-run shop and café, village centre	€	The village shop and the place to get a cup of tea. Community-run, warm and unfussy - the kind of counter where you find out what is happening locally as much as you buy anything. This is the one reliable stop in the village itself; do not expect a restaurant scene, because there is not one.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

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

Cill m'Íde, the church of my Ita

St Ita and the church on her ground

St Ita was one of the great early female saints of Munster, an abbess remembered for fostering and teaching - tradition makes her a foster-mother of saints. Her principal foundation is at Killeedy, a few miles south, but the name Kilmeedy carries her too: Cill m'Íde, "the church of my Ita." A medieval church stood on the site, recorded as Moyalthi in 1302. A Protestant church was built in the old graveyard in 1665 and restored by the local Protestant parishioners by the 1830s. The present Catholic church of St Ita, in the centre of the village, was blessed by Bishop David Keane on 11 October 1942 - a streamlined Romanesque building the National Inventory rates as a regional piece of Limerick's church heritage.

Penal-era worship in the open air

The mass rock and the holy wells

A little to the north of the village there is a mass rock, used for illegal Catholic mass during the Penal Laws and still used for outdoor mass on some ceremonial occasions. The parish also keeps a memory of two holy wells: Toberbreedia, St Brigid's Well in Cloonpasteen townland, said never to run dry and once visited for cures for blindness; and Toberhoran near the River Deel, an overgrown well believed to cure sore eyes. These are the older layers of the place, below the village you see at the crossroads.

Blue and white, one senior title

Feenagh-Kilmeedy and the 1963 hurlers

The parish GAA club, Feenagh-Kilmeedy, was founded in 1955, though Gaelic games had been played around here long before that. The club has one Limerick Senior Hurling Championship to its name, won in 1963 - newly promoted, they beat Emmets 3-06 to 3-01 in the final. The colours are blue and white. For a small west Limerick parish, a senior county title is the kind of thing that stays in the conversation for generations.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

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

The village and graveyard There is no waymarked trail here - this is a working farming parish, not a walking centre. But the village itself is worth a slow turn: St Ita's church in the centre, the old graveyard with its 1665 Protestant church site, and the five roads off the crossroads, each heading into different country. Boots if it has been wet.

Short strolldistance

20-30 minutestime

The back roads toward Cloncrew The townland of Cloncrew, about a mile off the main road, holds two gable walls of a ruined medieval church Westropp recorded as dedicated to St Bartholomew, destroyed in warfare in 1302. There is no formal access or signage - it is field-edge country - so treat it as a quiet lane wander rather than a heritage attraction, and respect that the land is farmed.

Quiet lane walkingdistance

As long as you liketime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

West Limerick greens up and the back roads are quiet and easy. Good light over the farming country. Nothing is busy because nothing here ever is.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

The best window if you want to catch the annual vintage rally, held in the later summer months - vintage vehicles and old trades brought out for the day. Long evenings on the back roads.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Harvest country at its most characterful, and the GAA championship in full swing in the parish. Soft light, few people.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and the back roads can be wet and dark. The church and the shop keep going, but there is little to draw you here in the cold months.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

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

Expecting a pub crawl

Kilmeedy is a small parish village. Research turns up the community shop and café, the church and the GAA club - not a row of pubs. If you want an evening out, Dromcollogher and Newcastle West are the nearer towns with the bars and the choice. Come to Kilmeedy for the saint, the crossroads and the quiet, not for nightlife.

Confusing Kilmeedy with Killeedy

They are different places with the same saint. Killeedy, a few miles south, is St Ita's principal monastic foundation and burial place. Kilmeedy - Cill m'Íde - is the village at the crossroads on the R519. Both carry her name; do not put one's history on the other.

Hunting for a castle

There is no standing castle here to visit. The heritage is ecclesiastical and field-bound - the church, the old graveyard, the mass rock, the holy wells, the ruined gable walls at Cloncrew. Set your expectations to a quiet parish, not a fortress.

Getting there.

By car

Kilmeedy sits at a five-road crossroads on the R519 between Ballingarry to the east and Dromcollogher to the west. Newcastle West is about 20 minutes northwest; Limerick city is around 50 minutes northeast. Dromcollogher and the Cork border are minutes to the southwest.

By bus

No regular bus service through the village. Local Link Limerick runs rural routes in west Limerick that serve nearby Dromcollogher and Newcastle West; from either, a local taxi. Bus Éireann route 333 (Limerick-Tralee) runs the N21 corridor via Newcastle West, the nearest scheduled stop.

By train

No station, and no line near. The nearest railway is at Limerick (around 50 minutes by car) on the Limerick-Limerick Junction-Dublin services.

By air

Shannon Airport is about an hour north. Kerry Airport is roughly an hour southwest.