Islandmagee

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Islandmagee (in Irish: Oileán Mhic Aodha, ie Magee’s island/peninsula) is a peninsula on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, located between the towns of Larne and Carrickfergus. It is part of the Larne Borough Council area and is a sparsely populated rural community with a long history since the mesolithic period.

As part of an agricultural crop rotation programme of old beans were grown to supply nitrogen to the soil. "Bean Eaters" became a nick-name for the people of Islandmagee.

Settlements on the peninsula include Ballystrudder, Portmuck, Mill Bay and Ballykeel, while Brown's Bay is a popular tourist attraction. It is the site of Northern Ireland's main power station Ballylumford.

View of Islandmagee; on the left Portmuck Island, at the centre Ballylumford Power Station

1 History
2 Sport
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

In earlier times Islandmagee was known as the plain of Seimhne or Rihn Seimhne. It is recorded in The Annals of the Four Masters that in the year of the world 2859, Neimhidh led a colony into Ireland and created a fort named Rath-Cimbaeitch in Seimhne.

Islandmagee was also renowned for the slaughter that took place there in January 1642 when a number of local Catholics were thrown over the cliffs to their deaths, and systematically killed in their homes. A group of Protestant troops seeing their actions as acts of vengeance or retaliation in response to atrocities which took place only weeks earlier, during the Irish Rebellion of 1641, had been going from house to house murdering entire families. It also had a reputation for witchcraft and in 1711 a local woman was pilloried in the last trial of its kind in Ireland.

The Bissett family held the tenancy of the peninsula in Elizabeth I's reign, their rent being an annual offering of goshawks, birds which bred on the rugged white chalk cliffs nearby.

Islandmagee is the home of the Ballylumford Dolmen. Known locally as the "Druid's Altar", this dolmen could be 4000 years old, or could be the remains of an even earlier passage grave. The dolmen consists of four upright stones, with a heavy capstone and a fallenstone within the structure. This may have been put there to block the entrance to the tomb.^[1]

[edit] Sport

Islandmagee F.C. play at the highest level of amateur football in Northern Ireland, in the Northern Amateur Football League Premier Division.
Two golf clubs, Whitehead Golf Club (18 holes) and Larne Golf Club (9 holes) lie on the peninsula, as do two horseriding centres - Rainbow Equestrian Centre and Islandmagee Riding Centre.
Fishing continues to be the most common sport practiced in the region.