View source for Dunquin

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox settlement
|name                   = Dunquin
|native_name            = {{lang|ga|Dún Chaoin}}
|native_name_lang       = ga
|settlement_type        = Village
|motto                  =
|image_skyline          = Blasket Harbour.jpg
|image_caption          = Dún Chaoin pier
|pushpin_map            = Ireland
|pushpin_label_position = right
|pushpin_map_caption    = Location in Ireland
|subdivision_type       = Country
|subdivision_name       = [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]
|subdivision_type1      = [[Provinces of Ireland|Province]]
|subdivision_name1      = [[Munster]]
|subdivision_type3      = [[Counties of Ireland|County]]
|subdivision_name3      = [[County Kerry]]
|established_title      =
|established_date       =
|unit_pref              = Metric
|area_footnotes         =
|area_total_km2         =
|population_as_of       = 2011
|population_footnotes   =
|population_total       = 160
|population_density_km2 = auto
|coordinates            = {{coord|52.133488|-10.454521|dim:100000_region:IE|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
|elevation_footnotes    =
|elevation_m            =
|blank_name             = [[Irish grid reference system|Irish Grid Reference]]
|blank_info             = {{iem4ibx|Q320008}}
|website                =
|footnotes              = Dún Chaoin is the only official name.
}}
'''Dún Chaoin''' ([[Irish language|Irish]], meaning 'pleasant fort {{IPA-ga|ˌd̪ˠuːn̪ˠ ˈxiːnʲ|}}), unofficially [[anglicized]] as '''Dunquin''', is a [[Gaeltacht]] village in west [[County Kerry]], [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]]. Dunquin lies at the most westerly tip of the [[Dingle Peninsula]], overlooking the [[Blasket Islands]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dingle-peninsula.ie/dunquin.html |title=Dún Chaoin |publisher=Dingle Peninsula Tourism |access-date=14 April 2017}}</ref> At 10°27'16"W, it is the [[Extreme points of Ireland|most westerly settlement]] of Ireland and of Eurasia, excluding Iceland. Nearby [[Dunmore Head]] is the most westerly point of mainland Ireland. The town is linked to Dingle via the [[R559 road (Ireland)|R559 regional road]]. It is also part of the [[Civil parishes in Ireland|civil parish]] of the same name.<ref name=logainm>{{cite web | url = https://www.logainm.ie/en/1166311 | title = Dún Chaoin/Dunquin | work = [[Placenames Database of Ireland]] | access-date = 17 January 2024}}</ref> In summer a ferry connects the village with the main island of the Blasket Islands.
There is dramatic cliff scenery, with a view of the Blasket Islands, where [[Peig Sayers]] lived.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sayers |first=Peig |title=Peig |date=1936 |publisher=Talbot Press |year=1936 |isbn=0-8156-0258-8 |location=Dublin, Ireland |language=GA}}</ref> A museum in the village tells the story of the Blaskets and the lives of the people who lived there including the well-known writers of the island, which includes Sayers, [[Tomás Ó Criomhthain]], and [[Muiris Ó Súilleabháin]].  In 1588, when the [[Spanish Armada]] [[Spanish Armada in Ireland|returned via Ireland]] many ships sought shelter in the Blasket Sound &mdash; the area between Dún Chaoin and the Islands &mdash; and some were wrecked there.  A memorial stands on the cliffs overlooking the site. Dunquin is located on the Dingle Way, which is a 179&nbsp;km circular walking trail which takes in much of the Dingle peninsula.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.irishtrails.ie/maps/DW%20-%20Map%207%20Cill%20Mhic%20an%20Domhnaigh%20to%20Dun%20Chaoin%20and%20Baile%20an%20Fheirtearaigh.pdf |title=Dingle Way: Map 7 |publisher=Irish Trails |access-date=18 April 2017 |archive-date=26 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171126151210/http://www.irishtrails.ie/maps/DW%20-%20Map%207%20Cill%20Mhic%20an%20Domhnaigh%20to%20Dun%20Chaoin%20and%20Baile%20an%20Fheirtearaigh.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== The Village ==
A documentary film, titled ''The Village'', was made during 1967-68 by [[Paul Hockings]] and Mark McCarty. It was shot almost entirely in Dunquin and the Great Blasket. It was the first film to be completed in the style that came to be known as "observational cinema".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/thevillage_20160715|title=The Village|publisher=UCLA Program in Ethnographic Film|access-date=27 December 2021}}</ref>
== Ryan's Daughter ==
Scenes from the [[1970 in film|1970]] film ''[[Ryan's Daughter]]'', based on a screenplay by [[Robert Bolt]] and directed by [[David Lean]], were shot at Coumineole Beach and Ceathrú (Caharhoo) in Dunquin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Irish Story: On the trail of "Ryan's Daughter" & "Far and Away" |url=https://www.in70mm.com/news/2006/ireland/index.htm |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=www.in70mm.com}}</ref>  The town's then-struggling economy was largely revived by the production of this film and subsequent tourism.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lucey |first=Anne |date=2015-12-05 |title=Calls to preserve ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ schoolhouse in Dunquin |url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-20369820.html |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=Irish Examiner |language=en}}</ref> Its marginal condition beforehand had been documented in the 1968 ethnographic film "The Village".
== Scoil Dhún Chaoin ==
Scoil Náisiúnta Naomh Gobnait, Dún Chaoin was first opened in 1914. Before that, the school was located across the road in Baile Bhiocáire. During the 1970s Scoil Dhún Chaoin was the subject of a countywide and national campaign which featured protest marches, sit-ins and arrests.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1971 |title=Brúidiúlacht? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20553063 |journal=Comhar |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=3–3 |issn=0010-2369}}</ref>  A government decision to close the school was strongly opposed by the local community and following almost three years of closure, the school was reopened in 1973.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/localnotes/scoil-dn-chaoin-celebrates-landmark-in-its-history-27369613.html |title=Scoil Dún Chaoin celebrates landmark in its history |year=2003 |publisher=Irish Independent |access-date=18 April 2017}}</ref>
== CAMRA ==
The British [[Campaign for Real Ale]] (CAMRA) was founded in Kruger's bar in Dunquin in 1971.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.camra.org.uk/camrahistory |title=Key Events in CAMRA's History |publisher=Camra.org.uk |access-date=2012-09-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120919234946/http://camra.org.uk/camrahistory |archive-date=2012-09-19 }}</ref>
==People==
* [[Peig Sayers]] (1873-1958) [[Irish language]] [[memoirist]] and [[seanchaí]].
* [[Cáit Feiritéar]] (1916-2005) folklorist and seanchaí.
* Folklorist [[Seosamh Ó Dálaigh]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rte.ie/archives/2017/0220/854027-shrove-tuesday-customs-in-dun-chaoin/ |title=Hasty Weddings And Bachelors Beware 1982 |publisher=RTÉ |access-date=18 April 2017}}</ref>
* [[Monsignor]] [[Pádraig de Brún]] (1889-1960), [[Roman Catholic priest]] and [[Irish-language]] scholar.
* [[Máire Mhac an tSaoi]] (1922-2021), [[Irish-language]] poet. Mhac an tSaoi spent much of her childhood visiting her uncle, [[Monsignor]] [[Padraig de Brún]], and chose to use Dún Chaoin's dialect, folksongs, and folklore as the literary basis for her own poetry and poetics. While assigned to the Irish [[embassy]] in [[Madrid]] shortly after [[World War II]], Mhac an tSaoi discovered the poetry of [[Federico Garcia Lorca]], which inspired her to belatedly introduce [[Literary modernism]] into [[Irish poetry]] in the [[Irish-language]].
* [[Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh]] (b. 1978), award-winning [[Sean-nós singing|seán-nos singer]] and performer of [[Irish traditional music]], was born in the [[Aran Islands]], but grew up in Dún Chaoin. She was the lead singer for [[Danú]], and from 2016 on she has been half of the [[electronica]] duo [[Aeons (duo)|Aeons]]. Nic Amhlaoibh has both performed and recorded Irish language songs from the Dún Chaoin area, including at least one song from [[Great Blasket Island]].
==Gallery==
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
File:Blasket Centre.jpg|The Blasket Centre with the Blasket Islands visible in the distance
File:Replica Blasket Cottage.jpg|Replica of a traditional Great Blasket cottage
File:Dunquin Coastline.jpg|Jagged coastline near Dunquin pier
</gallery>
==See also==
* [[Munster Irish]]
* [[List of towns and villages in the Republic of Ireland|List of towns and villages in Ireland]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061021232802/http://www.irelandscape.com/display_location.php?location_id=429 Dún Chaoin Entry on the Irelandscape Web Site]
{{County Kerry}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Towns and villages in County Kerry]]
[[Category:Civil parishes of County Kerry]]
[[Category:Gaeltacht places in County Kerry]]
[[Category:Gaeltacht towns and villages]]
[[Category:Dingle Peninsula]]
{{Kerry-geo-stub}}