place

Toormakeady

Gaeltacht places in County MayoGaeltacht towns and villagesTowns and villages in County MayoUntranslated Irish place namesUse Hiberno-English from July 2015
Waterfalls of the Republic of Ireland
Waterfall at Toormakeady
Waterfall at Toormakeady

Toormakeady or Tourmakeady (Irish: Tuar Mhic Éadaigh, the official name) is a Gaeltacht in south County Mayo in the west of Ireland. It is located between the shores of Lough Mask and the Partry Mountains, and covers 172.26 square kilometres (66.51 sq mi). As at the time of the 2011 census, Toormakeady had a total population of 1,007, having dropped from 1,150 in 1991. Toormakeady is also the name of the principal village in the area. Those parts of Ballinchalla Electoral District in Toormakeady and the whole of the Owenbrin Electoral District in Toormakeady together comprise nearly half of the land area of Toormakeady and were previously parts of County Galway. In 1898 they were transferred to County Mayo. From the time of the Great Famine of the mid-1840s onwards, the Toormakeady area has experienced a high level of emigration. Many descendants of emigrants return every year to find their roots. The genealogical records for this area have been computerised at the South Mayo Family Research Centre in nearby Ballinrobe to make the task of tracing roots easier. On 3 May 1921, during the Irish War of Independence the Irish Republican Army south Mayo flying column of around 30 men together with a small number of men from east Mayo mounted an ambush at Toormakeady. The events of this day have been written about in Donal Buckley's book The Battle of Tourmakeady.The English actor Robert Shaw, best known for his work in From Russia with Love, Jaws and The Sting, lived in Drimbawn House, Toormakeady until his death in 1978. Television producer Máire Ní Thuathail was born in Toormakeady in 1959.The local sport clubs in Toormakeady include, CLG Thuar Mhic Éadaigh and Partry Athletic Football Club.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Toormakeady (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.656346 ° E -9.365735 °
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Address

L16022
F12 NX70 (Cappaghduff Electoral Division)
Ireland
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Waterfall at Toormakeady
Waterfall at Toormakeady
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Nearby Places

Killawalla

Killawalla or Killavally (Irish: Coill an Bhaile, meaning 'wood of the homestead') is a village located in County Mayo, Ireland, seven miles (10 km) from Westport on the R330 road to Ballinrobe. Saint Patrick is alleged to have passed this way en route to Croagh Patrick, and accordingly the local Catholic church is named after him. The village also contains a primary school and MacEvilly's pub established in 1968. The village post office closed in 2017. Killawalla is part of the parish of Carnacon and Ballintubber. Research carried out by NUI Maynooth showed Killawalla to have sustained the biggest population loss of any village in Ireland during the Great Famine. Between 1841 and 1851, the village lost two thirds of its population. The 1916 rising participant and sport administrator Seán O'Duffy who was heavily involved in the development of camogie in Ireland for 40 years, was born in the old barracks in Killawalla in 1886 according to a plaque erected on the wall of the school. This RIC barracks located in Kinury was one of those closed in the wake of the Tourmakeady ambush during the Irish War of Independence in May of 1921. Killawalla is also home to Pollatoomary cave, the deepest explored underwater cave in Britain and Ireland. The cave has been explored to a depth of 113 m in June 2018 by Michal Marek. This dive surpassed the previous record of 108 m also set here by Artur Kozłowski in 2008. The entrance to the cave is located in the townland of Ballyburke on private land.