Castletownbere

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Castletownbere (Baile Chaisleáin Bhéarra in Irish) is a town in County Cork, Republic of Ireland. It is located on the southwest coast of Ireland, in West Cork, on Berehaven harbour near the entrance to Bantry Bay. It is also known as Castletown Berehaven. The name of the town comes from the no longer extant MacCarty Castle and not Dunboy Castle, which was home to the O'Sullivan-Bere family and latterly the Puxley family. The conflict between the Gaelic former ruling family and newly enriched interlopers formed the basis for Daphne du Maurier's novel "Hungry Hill" named for the mountain of the same name which is the highest peak in the Caha range.

The town has a population of around 875 in the 2002 census with a further 1,000 in the catchment area.

1 History
2 Local economy
3 Places of Interest
4 People
5 Amenities
6 External links

[edit] History

Image:Iarthair Chorcaí 203.jpg

The deep-water harbour was, up to the 19th century, much used by smugglers. From 1922 to 1938, Berehaven was one of three Treaty ports in the Irish Free State, UK sovereign bases maintained by the Royal Navy. The nearby golf course had been part of the Royal Naval base until 1938. Beside the golf course is Furious Pier. At this pier in March 1921 Private Chalmers was shot dead by the IRA. It was a reprisal for the execution by firing squad of several IRA men that day in Cork City.

[edit] Local economy

Castletownbere is currently one of the 5 main fishing ports on the island of Ireland.
The area has long attracted expatriate residents, with Dutch and German families long constituting membership of the local community and latterly a flux of Spanish and Eastern European economic migrants particularly Latvians and Poles.
The town has a Spanish consulate.

[edit] Places of Interest

Waterfall House - 3 miles east of the town - was the admiral's house. It was latterly owned by a Netherlander and now it is owned by the girlfriend of film director Neil Jordan.

[edit] People

Famous sons of the town include:

Timothy Harrington (died 1910) the Parnellite nationalist MP and sometime Lord Mayor of Dublin. He is commemorated by a statue at the east end of the town.

Standish James O'Grady (died 1928), the writer, was also born here where his father was the Church of Ireland clergyman. Curiously Castletownbere does nothing to honour O'Grady.

Dr Aiden MacCarthy (1914-1992) is celebrated for his great courage, resource and humanity while a prisoner of the Japanese during the second world war which he described in his book 'A Doctor's War'. Both his daughters live in the town. Nicky runs a restaurant and Adrienne runs the world famous McCarthy's bar on the square.

[edit] Amenities

Castletownbere boasts the Church of the Sacred Heart (Roman Catholic) and St Peter's Church (Church of Ireland). The latter has a usual attendance of nine parishioners^{[citation needed]}. There was a full-time Anglican clergyman in the town until shortly after the Second World War.