Kilkeel

Kilkeel (from Irish: Cill Chaoil, meaning 'church of the narrow')[2][3] is a small town, civil parish and townland (of 554 acres and 6521inh) in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is the southernmost town in Northern Ireland. It lies within the historic barony of Mourne.[4] Kilkeel town is the main fishing port on the Down coast,[5] and its harbour is home to the largest fishing fleet in Northern Ireland.[6] It had a population of 6,633 people at the 2021 Census.[1] The town contains the ruins of a 14th-century church and fort, winding streets and terraced shops. It lies just south of the Mourne Mountains.

Kilkeel
Kilkeel Harbour and Mourne Mountains
Kilkeel is located in County Down
Kilkeel
Kilkeel
Location within County Down
Population6,633 (2021 Census)[1]
District
County
CountryNorthern Ireland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townNEWRY
Postcode districtBT34
Dialling code028
PoliceNorthern Ireland
FireNorthern Ireland
AmbulanceNorthern Ireland
UK Parliament
NI Assembly

Geography

Kilkeel town sits on a plain south of the Mourne Mountains, west of where the Kilkeel River flows south into the North Channel. The town is centred in the townland of Magheramurphy (from Irish Machaire Mhurchaidh 'Murphy's plain'), and extends into the neighbouring townlands of:[7]

  • Derryoge (from Irish Doire Ríóg 'Ríog's oak wood')
  • Drumcro (from Irish Druim Cró 'ridge of the fold/enclosure')
  • Dunnaman
  • Kilkeel (from Irish Cill Chaoil 'church of the narrow place')

Altogether there are 69 townlands in the civil parish and barony.[8]

History
'Narrow Church'
Kilkeel c.1907

Kilkeel takes its name from the old church overlooking the town, it being the anglicised version of the Gaelic 'Cill Chaoil' meaning "church of the narrow place". The name may be drawn from the church's location on a narrow site between the Aughrim and Kilkeel rivers.[3] The church was built in 1388 and dedicated to "St Colman Del Mourne". It was thought to be the principal church in a group which included Kilmegan and Kilcoo despite the fact that Kilkeel was very sparsely populated in the Middle Ages. There are references to Kilkeel as a Christian settlement as far back as the 11th century.

The cemetery attached to the church was used for burials until 1916. The last burials at the cemetery were victims of a collision between two steamers, the Retriever and the SS Connemara, in Carlingford Lough.

The Mary Joseph (N55) is now in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra.[9][10]

A local history group, set up in the 1980s and covering both the town of Kilkeel and the Mourne region, has produced a set of seven periodicals called The 12 Miles of Mourne. A book on Hanna's Close, a clachan of houses in Aughnahoory townland one mile outside of Kilkeel, that covers the history of the region up to 1798, was self-published in 2008.[11]

Economy
  • Fishing is a major industry in Kilkeel, with Kilkeel Harbour the home port for the largest fishing fleet in Northern Ireland.[6]
  • There are fish-processing factories around the port, pleasure angling off the piers and lobster farming along the coastline.
  • In recent years Collins Aerospace (previously known as BE Aerospace and Rockwell Collins) has become the largest employer in the area. Its Kilkeel facility, which manufactures aircraft seats for a worldwide customer base, employs over 800 people.[12]

People

The town is also known as the location where the 19th-century serial killer William Hare died.

Prince Harry , Duke of Sussex ,Grandson of the Late Queen Elizabeth II and son of King Charles III of UK was granted the title 'Baron Kilkeel' along with The Duke of Sussex and The Earl of Dumbarton.

Robert Hanna VC

Demography

2011 Census

On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 6,541 people living in Kilkeel (2,557 households), accounting for 0.36% of the Northern Ireland total.[13] Of these:

  • 21.27% were aged under 16 years and 15.15% were aged 65 and over;
  • 51.49% of the usually resident population were female and 48.51% were male;
  • 54.00% belong to or were brought up as Protestants and 40.99% belong to or were brought up as Catholics;
  • 54.67% indicated that they had a British national identity, 27.60% had a Northern Irish national identity and 20.29% had an Irish national identity (respondents could indicate more than one national identity);
  • 35 years was the average (median) age of the population;
  • 8.93% had some knowledge of Ulster-Scots and 8.82% had some knowledge of Irish (Gaelic).

2021 Census

On Census day (21 March 2021) there were 6,633 people living in Kilkeel.[1] Of these:

  • 50.82% belong to or were brought up as Protestants and 40.60% belong to or were brought up as Catholics.[14]
  • 49.28% indicated that they had a British national identity,[15] 32.22% had a Northern Irish national identity[16] and 23.55% had an Irish national identity[17] (respondents could indicate more than one national identity).

Religion


Religious breakdown of wards in and around Kilkeel -from 2001 census data

Kilkeel now sits within the administrative area of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council which is recorded in the 2011 census as being 72.32% from a Catholic religious background and 23.91% from a Protestant religious background. In the 2021 Census, 72% of district residents were from a Catholic background while 22% were from a Protestant background.[18] In 2011 44.31% of persons in the administrative area indicated that they had an Irish national identity, 30.39% had a Northern Irish national identity and 28.53% had a British national identity. For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service Archived 30 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine

Education

Sport

Most popular sports in the Kilkeel area include Gaelic football, football, hockey, fishing, golf, hurling, and swimming.

There are five Gaelic Athletic Association clubs in the area: An Ríocht, Longstone, Atticall, Ballymartin, and Glasdrumman, with associated bars, facilities and community activities. Kilkeel Elks Basketball Club is based at An Ríocht Hall.

Kilkeel Hockey Club play at McAuley Park, and is the only hockey club in Mourne.

The most senior football team is Valley Rangers Football Club of the Mid-Ulster Football League. Other local teams include Balleyvea FC, Kilkeel Athletic and the Mourne Rovers. There is a golf course at Kilkeel Golf Club and a pitch and putt course at Cranfield.

Peerage title

Baron Kilkeel is a title in the peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 19 May 2018 by Queen Elizabeth II as a substantive title for her grandson Prince Harry on the occasion of his marriage to Meghan Markle.[20] It is named after the town of Kilkeel.[20] The full title and designation of the barony is "Baron Kilkeel, of Kilkeel in the County of Down".[21]

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kilkeel.

References
  1. "Settlement 2015". NISRA. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  2. "Cill Chaoil/Kilkeel". Logainm.ie.
  3. "Place Names NI – Home". www.placenamesni.org. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  4. "Kilkeel". IreAtlas Townlands Database. Retrieved 15 April 2015.
  5. "Minister McIlveen shares desire for confident fishing industry". Northern Ireland Executive. 9 August 2016. Retrieved 23 January 2022. At Kilkeel, the largest fishing port...
  6. "Kilkeel Harbour". eOceanic.com. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  7. "Northern Ireland Placenames Project". Archived from the original on 1 October 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
  8. "Cill Chaoil/Kilkeel". Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
  9. O'Sullivan, Aidan; Breen, Colin (2007). Maritime Ireland. An Archaeology of Coastal Communities. Stroud: Tempus. p. 232. ISBN 978-0-7524-2509-2.
  10. "Mary Joseph". nationalhistoricships.org.uk. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  11. Hanna, R.K. (2008). Hanna of the Close – from Scottish Origins to 1798. Sheffield: Self-published.
  12. Weir, Claire (7 May 2014). "B/E Aerospace workers given pledge over US sale plan". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  13. "Census 2011 Population Statistics for Kilkeel Settlement". Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  14. "Religion or religion brought up in". NISRA. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  15. "National Identity (British)". NISRA. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  16. "National Identity (Northern Irish)". NISRA. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  17. "National Identity (Irish)". NISRA. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  18. "Newry, Mourne and Down". NISRA. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
  19. "Information". Gaelscoil na mBeann. 2012. Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  20. "Harry and Meghan appointed Baron and Baroness of Kilkeel". Belfast Telegraph. 19 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  21. Press Association (2017). "Baron of Kilkeel is Prince Harry's Northern Irish title". Windsor Observer. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
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