Islands of Ireland: King of kings on Dinish

Dan MacCarthy on the rather exotic story of one of the scant few Kerry islands on the Beara Peninsula

Mon, 23 Nov, 2020 - 13:00

The last two weeks have featured two Deenish islands and this week it’s the turn of their near homonym Dinish. This Dinish Island is one of at least three in the country. The Co Kerry island includes in its name the superfluous word ‘island’ which is already included in the Irish name. Nothing wrong with a bit of superfluity, though.

It is one of a scant few Kerry islands on the Beara Peninsula. There are a few more around Lough Inchquin and a few others at Kilmackillogue Harbour. Dinish Island is neighbour to a couple of archipelagoes in the Greenane Islands and the Dunkerron Islands but they are on the more northerly Iveragh Peninsula. The narrowness, and the shallowness of the Kenmare River at this point is attested by hardy swimmers who occasionally link the two peninsulas in a swim that is scarcely 3km across.

At 27 acres Dinish Island is a sizeable, flat island and is strongly fortified on its western flank by an enormous rock wall from the battering of the sea. Eleven people lived there in 1841.

The island lies between two spectacular mountain ranges. To the south, the misty any mystical Caha Mountains and across the bay to the north, the Dunkerron Range which gives the islands their name. A little further inland are the indomitable MacGillycuddy’s Reeks which include in their number most of Ireland’s highest mountains.

Dinish Island hit the headlines in 1922 when Kenmare was taken by the Anti-Treaty forces during the Civil War. The Evening Echo of December 11 reported that: “Kenmare was occupied by National Troops at 1.15am December 6. Dublin Guards under Brigadier Daly landed at Dinish Island and advanced from the south. A detachment of the 1st Western Division Troops under Colonel Comdt Hogan advanced from Killarney on the north side while forces under Comdt Griffin operated along the northern shore of the Kenmare River.” It is unclear why it took five days for the incident to be reported but it is clear that Dinish Island was an important bridgehead for the army, under Richard Mulcahy, to retake Kenmare and ultimately defeat de Valera’s forces.

In keeping with many of our islands, Dinish Island also had an early Christian Church whose Franciscan monks were affiliated to the friary at Muckross in Killarney in the 14th century. In the 19th century, Dinish Island was the property of the Herbert family who owned the extensive Muckross House and Estate, its ownership being part of the estate’s compass.

The island was later sold to British MP Robert Armitage in 1910. The MP’s eldest daughter Georgina worked as a nurse and in a posting to Uganda in the 1920s meet her future husband Alfred Schofield. So began the curious connection between the landlocked African country and Dinish Island.

The bukama (king) of Buganda, a province of Uganda including the capital Kampala, was a friend of the Schofields from their time in the east African country. The bukama and his wife visited their friends at Dinish Island several times in the 1940s and 50s. On one of his visits the bukama was presented with a shillelagh at a reception in Dublin. He had earlier lain a wreath in memory of his fallen countrymen at the war memorial in Islandbridge.

In 1960 the Kerryman newspaper reported that the family hosted another distinguished visitor from the British ruled country. This time it was the turn of the omukama (ruler) of the Kingdom of Toro, another protectorate of Uganda. In the Bantu language this ruler is regarded as the king of kings and the omukama who visited Dinish Island and Kenmare was feted along with Princess Elizabeth and Prince Stephen who were students at Cambridge University.

Uganda gained its independence from the UK in 1962. Since then a procession of despots have ruled including the infamous Idi Amin Dada. Current presidential elections have thrust the popular Bobi Wine into the picture but with election violence again occurring, the future of the country is uncertain.

Dinish Island has change hands several times in the intervening years and is still in private ownership.

How to get there: www.kerry-tour.com; the island is privately owned.

Other: A History of Modern Uganda, Richard J Reid, Cambridge University Press