Sliabh Luachra

Sliabh Luachra was also the birthplace of the folklorist, poet and translator Edward Walsh (1805–1850), actor and storyteller, Eamon Kelly (1914–2001), Patrick S. Dinneen, who compiled Dineen's Dictionary, viewed as the "bible" of Irish language, and Tomás Rathaille, Superior General of the Presentation Brothers 1905–1925 who wrote two books of Irish poetry: An Spideog and An Cuaicín Draoidheachta.

This tradition of poetry continues to present day with Bernard O'Donoghue (now a lecturer in Oxford University) who won the prestigious Whitbread prize for a collection of poems in 1993/94.

Muiris Mac Ionrachtaigh, a Roman Catholic priest and the Rebel Earl's confessor and chaplain, was captured by Viscount Roche's Gallowglass upon Sliabh Luachra.

This uninhabited wet, marshy, rushy, mountain area of the old Kingdom of Luachra was first noted in the Annals of Inisfallen in 534 when the King of Luacar won a battle against Tuathal Moel nGarb.

His last hiding place, Teach an Iarla, can still be seen cut into a glen in the heart of the Sliabh Luachra mountains near the source of the river Blackwater.

Men, women and children were put to the sword and land and crops were burned, resulting in a great famine, impacting the area from Ventry to Cashel.

Many of the leaders of the movement hid in Sliabh Luachra, thereby creating British Government concern over the area's preponderance of outlaws and rebels.

It also pointed out that, in the summer, farmers from North Kerry and parts of West Limerick would transport butter on horseback via a mountain path through the Rockchapel to Newmarket, two firkins per horse.

Opinions differ as to the exact region of Sliabh Luachra, but it is generally accepted to refer to the mountainous, rush-filled upland that straddles the border area of Cork, Kerry, and Limerick, including the Kerry parishes of Ballymacelligott, Cordal, Brosna, Currow, Knocknagoshel, Barraduff, Gneeveguilla, Scartaglen and Rathmore, the Cork villages of Ballydesmond, Kiskeam, Rockchapel, Knocknagree, Cullen, Boherbue, Meelin, and Freemount, and the Limerick villages of Killeedy, Tournafulla, Templeglantine, Athea, Mountcollins and Abbeyfeale The name Sliabh Luachra means "a mountain of rushes".