The focus here is mostly on the Dingle Peninsula of Kerry
Focus may be too strong a word, but I will stick with it. Not so very long ago I walked down that peninsula on a warmish winter day and back up the peninsula in the same day, so it was pretty long ago. It rained a bit, on and of, but I dried as I walked. The sun kept coming out and tried to stay for a while the air was clear and bright and often and had a lovely feel to it. I walked along the main road but there was little traffic. The idea here is that I have experienced the land a bit. So I got rained on some walking the length of the peninsula and was dry again before I got to the tip. I believe that it was an early December, it was a fine day often with a great sort of light, rare and lovely.
The Peninsula rightly has some famous history and as I learned later rightly has some fame for its rainfall. For me it ought to be famous for the light of its air.
By the look of things, people of Kerry liked to participate in the happenings of Ireland. By the 1920s Kerry men were being shot by Black and Tans. A crying shame. But then again they got in some proud licks. I recent centuries the Irish have been know to have been troubled more than than average. But then again they seem to have been troubled less than average for most of the time from the Mesolithic to through the Bronze Age. Things were a bit iffy during the Iron Age, but by the end of that age they were more Irish than ever. And now it is said, with some breath holding, they are doing pretty good, some would say darn good.
About the time I walked the Peninsula people in the south were doing well, but there was still a pretty brisk business in short lengths of metal pipe. When would that have been?
Kerry, somehow managed to a part in much Irish rebellion. Ross Castle, near, Killarney, held long. I don't remember the story. When would that have been? I have a lot to learn and these days I seem to be forgetting more than I am learning.
Kerry got hit hard by the Irish Famine of 1845 to 49. Irish like many great people, got everywhere. Seems like I have heard someone say "From Killarney to Kansas." The Irish part of my family was already settled in American heartland by this time, but not in Kansas. There was another nasty famine in Ireland not very long before this one, but not so well remembered. What famine is well. All English are not always sweethearts.
By say about 1610, most of Kerry nobility had lost their land to the English. By 1776 a great percent of the nobility had left the Island, I believe.
They were bettering the race in other lands. Good for the Irish. And no matter, they plenty of the good and better blood in the Island still alive.
By 1588 ships of the Spanish Armada were wrecked on islands near the tip of the Dingle Peninsula. I have heard it said that the Black Irish came to Ireland that way. I say that they may have arrived closer to 1588 BC than to 1588
AD. Still I admit that I tend to exaggerate at times to help another to get the point. I even say that they from father off than Spain.
I had meant to say earlier that the Hiberno-Norman Kerry Fitzgerald dynasty were called Geraldines. I meant to tell mi sister, Geraldine, that, but lost my chance.
Stone oratories in in the county seem to date back to 500 AD. I guess that by then Ireland was Christian enough to send missionaries to England, France, and Rome by then. I saw the oritorise in photos in a book rather than on my walk. I remember that I wondered about the quality of their acoustics.
I am not sure why, but I would like to learn more of a people called Ciar. They lived on the Peninsula and elsewhere in Kerry. I suspect that they were there when Bronze was popular. I do not remember where I got the information, but it seemed certain that they were a pre-Celtic people. They were "Black Irish." They were around long enough to have had two Irish apostoles among them. I had the fantasy that they had been around long enough to know Sheehan when we had another name or names.
I also read somewhere that a son of Fergus mac Roich was a Ciar. I would like to find out if Fergus himself was a Ciar. Maybe tomorrow I'll check to see could have anything about that.
Well, Ireland, Kerry, Munster and all are doing pretty well this days and these days it is not easy for everyone to do well.
I am pleased to have anyone correct my errors, pass on more info, ask a question, or anything that won't hurt my feelings much.
Thank you for reading.
Richard Carroll Sheehan
One would never know that I am Polish, German, Prussian, Norwegian, and who knows what.
This was to have been a draft, but I better start posting while I am able.