Kilkeel

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:[6]

• 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.[7]

"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.

On 30 May 1918 a fleet of Kilkeel fishing boats was sunk by the U-boat UB-64 under the command of Otto von Schrader. The boats sunk, 12 miles off the coast of County Down, included the Jane Gordon, Cyprus, Never Can Tell, St Mary, Sparkling Wave, Lloyds, Marianne Macrum and the motor vessel Honey Bee. Only two boats, Moss Rose and Mary Joseph, were not sunk and the crews returned to port on those boats.[8] The Mary Joseph (N55) is now in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra.

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.[9]

• Fishing is a major industry in Kilkeel, with Kilkeel Harbour the home port for the largest fishing fleet in Northern Ireland.
• There are fish-processing factories around the port, pleasure angling off the piers and lobster farming along the coastline.
• Whitewater Brewery (established in 1996) brews and sells Belfast Ale.
• In recent years Rockwell Collins (previously known as BE Aerospace and Collins Aerospace) has become the largest employer in the area. Its Kilkeel facility, which manufactures aircraft seats for a worldwide customer base, employs over 800 people.[10]

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

Robert Hanna VC

Robert Hill Hanna (1887–1967), born near Hanna's Close, was an immigrant Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was a Company Sergeant-Major in the 29th (Vancouver) Bn., Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I when on 21 August 1917, he led a courageous action at Hill 70 Lens, France.

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.[5] 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 in a 'Protestant and Other Christian (including Christian related)' religion and 40.99% belong to or were brought up in the Christian Catholic denomination ;
• 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).

Religion

The town of Kilkeel has a strong Unionist heritage. In 2001, the ward of Kilkeel Central was recorded as 69% Protestant (21% Catholic, 10% other), and the ward of Kilkeel South was 37% Protestant (55% Catholic, 7% other).

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 district 44.31% 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

• Brackenagh West Primary School
• Grange Primary School
• Holy Cross Primary School
• Gaelscoil na mBeann is a bilingual primary school that uses the Irish language as its primary medium of instruction while English is introduced at Primary 3.[11] The school teaches the Northern Ireland curriculum. It was established in 2010 by a group of local people and parents who wanted Gaelic-medium education for their children. The school gained recognition and funding from the Department of Education in 2012.
• Kilkeel High School
• Kilkeel Primary School
• Mourne Independent Christian School
• St Colman's Primary School
• St. Columban's College
• St. Louis Grammar School
• Mourne Grange Village School

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

There are five Gaelic Athletic Association clubs in the local area which include An Ríocht, Longstone, Atticall, Ballymartin, and Glasdrumman. Each club boast impressive facilities including playing fields, sports halls, fitness suites, bar facilities and cater for a wide range of cross community activities above and beyond GAA sporting activities. These include Youth clubs, Mens Sheds (Pensioners), Walking clubs, Yoga, Basketball (Kilkeel Elks' home court is in An Ríocht Hall) and many more. All five teams have a strong presence in the Down GAA calendar through the various leagues and field teams at every age group from U6 through to senior level.

One of the most recognised sports teams in the town is Kilkeel Hockey Club. They play at McAuley Park, fielding three men's teams and two ladies' teams. Kilkeel is the only hockey club in Mourne, drawing players from the whole of the Mourne area, with Annalong providing a considerable number of its players. The Men's 1st team have just recently been awarded the Anderson Cup in the Anderson Cup final at the Stormont pitches in Belfast which was a great achievement for the club and also for the town.

The most senior football team is Valley Rangers F.C. of the Mid-Ulster Football League. Other local teams include Ballyvea, Kilkeel, Kilkeel Athletic and the Mourne Rovers. With the exception of Kilkeel Athletic, the local football clubs play in the SK Holmes Newcastle League.

There are two local golf courses, Kilkeel Golf Course and Cranfield Pitch and Putt.

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.[12] It is named after the town of Kilkeel.[12] The full title and designation of the barony is "Baron Kilkeel, of Kilkeel in the County of Down".[13]

• Kilkeel (civil parish)
• Tullaghmurray Lass
• List of towns and villages in Northern Ireland
• List of localities in Northern Ireland by population
• List of RNLI stations

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kilkeel.