3 minute read
Pitch Perfect: Duhallow Youth and Public Speaking
By NOLLAIG MURPHY Development Officer, IRD Duhallow
Following on from IRD Duhallow’s recent Public Speaking for National School event, as promised, we are delighted to present our second instalment from the excellent speeches, we heard at our closing ceremony in October.
Some of our participants chose to speak on the topic of local places; In this issue, we will hear about Meelin Village by Megan Field.
Meelin Village And Its History
By MEGAN FIELD, Meelin National School
Meelin is a small rural village in North Cork with a population of approximately 600. It is known as the highest village in Ireland at 251 metres above sea level with some parts of the village even higher.
In 1963, three oil companies joined sources and drilled to a depth of 5547 feet but no oil was discovered only limestone. This is the reason for the present location of the village as the Limestone quarries were at the time the main source of employment in the area. These quarries have not been in use since 1987.
The limestone from these quarries was used in the building of the Cathedrals in Killarney and Cobh.
In the village there was a lime kiln, which has been recently restored. There were two uses for the lime that came from the kiln, 1 – it was used as fertiliser to spread on land and 2 – for whitewashing houses. Not like today we just go to a shop to buy our paint. There is a cave about half a mile from the village and was discovered by a local man Tom Callaghan in 1976. It is said that the cave was used as a Burial Chamber for a person of high status. I’m not sure if you can enter the cave now but in 1990 my mother was in it with her brother.
There was also a Blessed Well in Meelin where Mass was celebrated in the 18th Century and a smaller well nearby. Nowadays these two wells have been linked up and taken over by Irish Water and supply all the water to the North Cork region.
There’s more history in our village but I’d need many pages to tell you about it all. I hope you all enjoyed reading about the History of Meelin.
