Killala
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2010) |
Killala
Cill Ala | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 | |
  Killala Location in Ireland | |
| Coordinates: 54°12′00″N 9°13′00″W / 54.2°N 9.2166°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Connacht |
| County | County Mayo |
| Population (2016)[1] | |
| • Total | 562 |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (WET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-1 (IST (WEST)) |
| Irish Grid Reference | G206286 |
Killala (Irish: Cill Ala, meaning 'the mottled church'[2]) is a village in County Mayo in Ireland, north of Ballina. The railway line from Dublin to Ballina once extended to Killala. To the west of Killala is a Townsplots West (known locally as Enagh Beg), which contains a number of ancient forts.
History
Killala was the site of the first battle of the French force of General Humbert in the 1798 Rebellion, which landed at nearby Kilcummin Harbour and quickly seized the town. The town was also the site of the last land battle of the rebellion on 23 September 1798 when the British army defeated a rebel Irish force in Killala. Killala was used as the major location for the 1981 multi-million-pound television series The Year of the French (based on the novel by Thomas Flanagan). In 1989 sculptor Carmel Gallagher unveiled a bust of General Humbert in the area to mark the then upcoming bicentennial of the 1798 Rebellion.[3] In 1998 Killala celebrated the bicentenary of this event by twinning with the commune of Chauvé in France and Killala has established itself as a popular location for historians.[4]
Ecclesiastical history
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Killala (Alladenis in Latin) is one of the five suffragan sees of the ecclesiastical Province of Tuam, comprising the north-western part of the County Mayo with the Barony of Tireragh in the County Sligo. In all there are 22 parishes, some of which, bordering on the Atlantic Ocean, consist mostly of wild moorland, sparsely inhabited. Lewis's Topographical Dictionary sets down the length of the diocese as 45 miles, the breadth 21 miles, and the estimated superficies as 314,300 acres (1,272 km2) — of which 43,100 acres (174 km2) are in the County Sligo and 271,200 acres (1,098 km2) in the County Mayo.
The foundation of the diocese dates from the time of St. Patrick, who placed his disciple St. Muredach over the church called in Irish Cell Alaid. In a well that still flows close to the town, beside the sea, local legend tells that Patrick baptized in a single day 12,000 converts, and on the same occasion, in presence of the crowds, raised to life a dead woman whom he also baptized. Muredach is described as an old man of Patrick's family, and was appointed to the Church of Killala as early as 442 or 443. His feast-day is on 12 August. It is probable that he resigned his see after a few years, and retired to end his life on the lonely island in Donegal Bay which has ever since borne his name, Inishmurray. At Killala Patrick baptized the two maidens whom he met in childhood at Focluth Wood by the western sea, and whose voices in visions of the night had often pathetically called him to come once more and dwell amongst them. He came, baptized them and built them a church where they spent the rest of their days as holy nuns in the service of God.
Little is known of the successors of Muredach in Killala down to the twelfth century. Of the sainted Bishop Cellach, for example, we learn merely that he came of royal blood, flourished in the sixth century and was murdered at the instigation of his foster-brother.[citation needed] His name is mentioned in Irish martyrologies. The people of Killala recall that John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam, was a child of their diocese.[citation needed] He was born at Tubbernavine on 6 March 1791; became Coadjutor Bishop of Killala in 1825, bishop in 1834, and later in the same year was transferred to Tuam. He died on 7 November 1881, and is buried in the sanctuary of Tuam′s cathedral. After him came Dr Finan, a Dominican priest unfit, owing to his continental training, to direct the affairs of an Irish diocese.[why?] On his resignation in 1838, a parish priest of the Archdiocese of Tuam, Rev. Thomas Feeney, who had formerly been professor and president of St. Jarlath's College at Tuam, was chosen for the task of repairing the injury that ecclesiastical discipline had suffered during his thirty-five year tenure.[citation needed]
Along the left bank of the river are the ruins of several monasteries. Rosserk, a Franciscan house of strict observance, was founded in 1460. The Abbey of Moyne still stands on a site just over the river, and further on, north of Killala, was the Dominican Rathfran Friary. On the promontory of Errew running into Lough Conn another monastery existed as such till comparatively recent times. A round tower in Killala itself, still preserved, indicated the ancient celebrity of the place as an ecclesiastical centre.[citation needed]
Killala also has a Church of Ireland Cathedral, a stone building dedicated to St Patrick.
People
- Patrick McHale, recipient of the Victoria Cross
- Sarah McElroy of Barrack Street Killala, a trained nurse, in 1915 married Alexander Fleming who in 1928 discovered Penicillin. This was the most important discovery in the history of medical science - certainly responsible for the saving of countless millions of lives worldwide.
Transport
Harbour
Killala has a harbour at the south end of Killala Bay.
Roads
The R314 road connects Killala south to Ballina (and the N26 and N59 roads) and north to Ballycastle.
Railway
A railway line between Ballina and Killala existed between 1893 and 1934.[5] This line was built under the Light Railways (Ireland) Act of 1889.[6]
Bus
Bus Éireann route 445 serves Killala a few times a day on weekdays with service to Ballina and Ballycastle.[7]
Industry
Asahi manufactured acrylic fibre from acrylonitrile which was transported to Ballina railway station by rail from Dublin Port. The former Midland Great Western Railway line to Killala had been dismantled and built over prior to the factory's establishment south of the village in the 1970s so the remainder of the journey was completed by road. This facility closed in 1997.[8] A proposal to handle asbestos waste at the Asahi site was withdrawn in 2005 due to strong local opposition.[citation needed]
A 50MW combined heat and power plant using biomass fuel is planned for the former Asahi site.[9]
A transatlantic communications cable is expected to come ashore at Killala in 2013 en route to Northern Ireland as part of Project Kelvin.[10]
See also
Notes
- ^ "Census 2016 Sapmap Area: Settlements Killala". Central Statistics Office (Ireland). Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ^ "Cill Ala/Killala". Placenames Database of Ireland. Government of Ireland - Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Dublin City University. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ^ "STATUES - HITHER & THITHER. Killala/Cill Ala Seaview Terrace".
- ^ See Guy Beiner, Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory (University of Wisconsin Press, 2007); Stephen Dunford in collaboration with Guy Beiner, In Humbert's Footstep's: Mayo 1798(Fado, 2006).
- ^ Erris Railways – Midland Great Western Railway Stations. Mgwr.weebly.com. Retrieved on 19 June 2013.
- ^ The Institution of Engineers of Ireland. Realizedvision.com. Retrieved on 19 June 2013.
- ^ http://www.buseireann.ie/inner.php?id=247#Mayo
- ^ Tom Shiel and Tom Kelly (16 July 1997) 'Decommissioning' of Asahi plant to begin. Mayo-ireland.ie. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
- ^ Construction of Killala plant expected to begin in November. Mayonews.ie (5 July 2011). Retrieved 19 June 2013.
- ^ Transatlantic fibre optic cable to come ashore in Mayo. Mayonews.ie (6 December 2011). Retrieved 19 June 2013.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Killala". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
External links
- . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). 1911.
- Community development in the west of Ireland: twenty years on in the Killala area. Community Development Journal 2007; 42: 330–347. Author: M.A. Brennan.
- Killala.ie – Official website for the Killala community.
- Five Pubs of Killala.
- Family history and headstones around Killala, Co. Mayo.
