| Castleisland Oileán Chiarraí
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|---|---|
| — Town — | |
| Main Street, Castleisland, Co. Kerry | |
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Castleisland
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| County | County Kerry |
| Elevation | 32 m (105 ft) |
| Population (2006)[1] | |
| • Total | 2,300 |
| Irish Grid Reference | Q998099 |
| Historical populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1821 | 1,539 | — |
| 1831 | 1,569 | +1.9% |
| 1841 | 1,687 | +7.5% |
| 1851 | 2,582 | +53.1% |
| 1861 | 1,702 | −34.1% |
| 1871 | 1,767 | +3.8% |
| 1881 | 1,466 | −17.0% |
| 1891 | 1,559 | +6.3% |
| 1901 | 1,497 | −4.0% |
| 1911 | 1,333 | −11.0% |
| 1926 | 1,269 | −4.8% |
| 1936 | 1,325 | +4.4% |
| 1946 | 1,427 | +7.7% |
| 1951 | 1,491 | +4.5% |
| 1956 | 1,654 | +10.9% |
| 1961 | 1,718 | +3.9% |
| 1966 | 1,673 | −2.6% |
| 1971 | 1,929 | +15.3% |
| 1981 | 2,226 | +15.4% |
| 1986 | 2,281 | +2.5% |
| 1991 | 2,207 | −3.2% |
| 1996 | 2,233 | +1.2% |
| 2002 | 2,162 | −3.2% |
| 2006 | 2,300 | +6.4% |
| [2][3][4][5][6] | ||
Castleisland (Irish: Oileán Chiarraí) is a town and commercial centre in County Kerry in south west Ireland. The town is renowned for the width of its main street. Castleisland has a population of 2,170.[7]
Castleisland was described by one of its most well-known citizens, journalist Con Houlihan, as "not so much a town as a street between two fields".
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Castleisland was the centre of Desmond power in Kerry. The village got its name, Castle of the Island of Kerry, from a castle built in 1226 by Geoffrey Maurice (or de Marisco), who was the Lord Justice of Ireland during the reign of King Henry III.[8] The island was created by turning the waters of the River Maine into a moat around the castle.
Sometime in the 120 years after its construction the castle was taken by the forces of the Earl of Desmond. It is known that in 1345 the castle was being held for the Earl of Desmond by Sir Eustace de la Poer and other knights when it was captured by Sir Ralph Ufford, Lord Justice of Ireland. Sir Eustace and the other knights were captured and executed.[8] Little is known of the further history of the castle and few ruins are left of it today. The main ruin is the de Marisco tower, located behind some private houses at the western end of the town, on the Killarney Road.
The Black and Tans and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) were active in Castleisland during the Irish War of Independence in the 1920s. On 9 May 1921, two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) men were shot by the IRA outside Castleisland Parish Church;[9] one of the men died. On 10 July in the same year, five IRA men and four British soldiers were killed during a gunfight in the town.
Castleisland is often considered the Gateway to Kerry, as the main road to all towns in Western and Southern Kerry passes through here. The N21 from Limerick continues on to Tralee while the N22 goes to Killarney and other towns in Southern Kerry.
The Glenaruddery mountains to the north and the Stacks to the west define the beginning of the 'Vale of Tralee', at the mouth of which Castleisland is situated. Most of the land around Castleisland is pasture for dairy stock, with bogland located at various locations around the town, particularly to the east and south. It is in the barony of Trughanacmy.
Castleisland railway station opened on 30 August 1875. It closed for passenger traffic on 24 February 1947 and for goods traffic on 3 November 1975, finally closing altogether on 10 January 1977.[10][10]
Since the 1990s traffic congestion had been an issue of great concern to the people of Castleisland and its hinterland. This was because the main road linking most of Co. Kerry with large urban centres, such as Limerick and Dublin, passed through the centre of the town. As a result, the main street through Castleisland dealt not only with local traffic and commercial traffic for the Castleisland area, but also with traffic destined for other Kerry towns such as Tralee and Killarney. Likewise traffic originating in other parts of Kerry was forced to pass through the centre of Castleisland. This resulted in chronic traffic congestion in Castleisland, and on most of its approach roads. During peak traffic times, and particularly at bank holiday weekends, delays of over half an hour were common for traffic passing through Castleisland.
It also caused great inconvenience for local people over many years, and eventually the local community decided that action was needed. In 2007 with a General election looming, a committee was formed and an organised campaign was formally started, to lobby for a bypass in Castleisland. The campaign was successful and a promise of funding for the new road was obtained from the National Roads Authority.
After over a year of planning, construction of the new road was started in May 2009 with a projected completion date of December 2010. The project involved creating two major new sections of road and one smaller section. It consists of a 3.4 km dual carriageway linking the Limerick road roundabout north of Castleisland to the Tralee road west of the town, and a 1.6 km single carriageway continuing south from the roundabout on the Tralee road to meet the Killarney road roundabout southwest of the town. At the Limerick road end, there is also a smaller section consisting of 0.4 km of single carriageway plus climbing lane. This minor section links the newly constructed Limerick road roundabout to the pre-existing N21 Limerick road.
On the 22nd of October 2010, the bypass was officially opened by the then Minister for Defence, Tony Killeen. This was two months ahead of the original target completion date.
Castleisland is twinned with the town of Bannalec in France.[1]