Illaunataggart got its name in a time when saying mass or speaking Irish meant punishment and death

This 'Island of the Priest' references a time when to practice the Catholic religion was to risk a death sentence or at least castration for the priests. Hence the many locations around the country where the religion survived by holding masses in woods, mountains, caves and islands, far from the reach of the authorities and inevitable consequences

The Dunkerron Islands, including Illaunataggart. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

Our placename records are a very deep resource for understanding our geographic heritage, whether physical or social. Yet again in the case of Illaunataggart in Kerry's Kenmare Bay, we see evidence of our storied history. The ‘Island of the Priest’ references a time when to practice the Catholic religion was to risk a death sentence or at least castration for the priests. Hence the many locations around the country where the religion survived by holding masses in woods, mountains, caves and islands, far from the reach of the authorities and inevitable consequences.

The Penal Laws were introduced in the early 18th century as a means of wresting control of Catholic lands and expunging the last vestiges of Gaelic power. So repressive was the system that “both the lord chancellor and the lord chief justice declared at one time that ‘the law does not’ presume any such person to exist as an Irish Roman Catholic”. Among its more punitive and brutal laws were the denial of the right to vote or even to speak Irish. Tough luck if you were monolingual. You could not even own a horse worth more than £5. The repression of Catholicism was not just synonymous with the early 18th century of course. In 1653 Cromwellian forces beheaded Brathair Francis Rua na Scairbhe as he said mass at the end of the Iveragh Peninsula on Scarriff Island.