Kinvara
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Kinvara or Kinvarra (Template:Irish place name)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is a sea port village in the southwest of County Galway, Ireland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is located in the civil parish of Kinvarradoorus in the north of the barony of Kiltartan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kinvarra is also an electoral division.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Geography
The village lies at the head of Kinvara Bay, known in Irish as Template:Lang (or more recently Template:Lang), an inlet in the south-eastern corner of Galway Bay, from which the village took its name. It lies in the north of the barony of Kiltartan, near the Burren.
The townland of Kinvarra lies in the civil parish of Kinvarradoorus.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This civil parish is bounded on the north by Galway Bay, on the east by the parishes of Ballinderreen (Killeenavarra) and Ardrahan, on the south by the parishes of Gort (Kilmacduagh) and Boston (Kilkeedy) and on the west by the parishes of Carron and New Quay (Abbey and Oughtmama). It is roughly coextensive with the Ó hEidhin territory of Coill Ua bhFiachrach (wood of the Uí Fhiachrach),Template:Citation needed and this name was still in use in the mid-19th century as recorded by John O'Donovan in his Ordnance Survey letters.Template:Citation needed
History
Early history
Evidence of ancient settlement in the area include a number of promontory fort and ring fort sites in the surrounding townlands of Dungory West, Ballybranagan and Loughcurra North.<ref name="RMP1997">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> There are similar sites, as well as the ruins of lime kiln and 18th century windmill, within Kinvarra townland itself.<ref name="RMP1997"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Dunguaire Castle
Dunguaire Castle (Template:Langx [lit, the Castle of Guaire]), a 16th-century towerhouse of the Template:Lang (O'Hynes) clan, is located to the east of the village.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> A Fearadhach Ó hEidhin (Faragh O'Hynes) is recorded as the owner of the castle in a 1574 list of castles and their owners covering County Galway. This list was thought to have been compiled for the use of the Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney who planned the composition of Connacht.Template:Citation needed
Mass rock
The Poulnegan Altar, a Mass rock located near Kinvara, is known in Connaught Irish as Poll na gCeann ("chasm of the heads") and is said to have been the location of a massacre by the soldiers of Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army. Historian Tony Nugent states that, "According to local tradition, there was a college nearby and some of the student monks were killed there by Cromwellian soldiers while attending Mass and their heads were thrown into a nearby chasm".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Terry Alts
The Terry Alts, an Irish agrarian secret society of the early 19th century, was active in the Kinvara area.Template:Citation needed In 1831, a large group of Terry Alts gathered between Kinvara and New Quay on Abbey Hill in County Clare, and challenged government troops to battle. The group dispersed before the troops arrived. They also unsuccessfully attempted to ambush a detachment of soldiers at Corranroo in the west of the parish, which led to the death of one of their members.Template:Citation needed
Population
The Great Famine in the 1840s, and a series of emigrations that continued until the 1960s, reduced the population of the village – once a thriving port and exporter of corn and seaweed – to no more than a few hundred people.Template:Citation needed
In the 25 years between the 1991 and 2016 census, the population of Kinvara increased by 70%, from 425 to 734 people.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Religion
In the Catholic Church, the ecclesiastical parish of Kinvara is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Churches within Kinvara parish include Saint Colman's Church (built 1819) and Saint Joseph's Church (built 1877).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Saint Joseph's Presbytery, formerly a convent, dates to Template:Circa.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Kinvara lies within the Church of Ireland united Diocese of Limerick and Killaloe.
Festivals
Kinvara is home every year to two festivals, Template:Lang ("cuckoo festival") an Irish traditional music festival at the start of May and the Cruinniú na mBád ("gathering of the boats") in mid August.<ref name="Music">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Boat">Template:Cite web</ref>
Sports
Kinvara is home to Kinvara GAA, a Gaelic Athletic Association club. The club is almost exclusively concerned with hurling but also plays Gaelic football at Junior level.
Notable people
- Ailbhe of Ceann Mhara, 9th century cleric.Template:Citation needed
- Coman of Kinvara, early medieval saint.Template:Citation needed
- Francis Fahy, composer and poet, wrote the song "Galway Bay."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Celia Lynch, politician.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- P. J. Mara, public affairs consultant and senator, was buried in Kinvara.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Peter Martyn, judge.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Eoghan Ó hEidhin, died 1340, King of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne.Template:Citation needed
- John Prine, American country folk singer-songwriter, had a home in Kinvara.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Mathilda Twomey, Chief Justice of the Seychelles, first female holder of that office.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
- Conor Whelan, hurler.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Máire Whelan, judge and 30th Attorney General of Ireland from 2011 to 2017; first woman to hold this position.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
See also
References
Template:Roman Catholic Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora