Kilfinane

Infobox Irish Place
name = Kilfinane
gaeilge = Cill Fhíonáin
crest

motto =
map

pin coords = left: 110px; top: 72px
north coord = 52.3602778 | west coord = 8.4930556 | irish grid = R680230
area = | elevation = 151 m
province = Munster
county = County Limerick
population = | town pop = 1100 | rural pop =
census yr = 2006
web = |

Kilfinane ("Cill Fhíonáin" in Irish) is a small market town in southeast County Limerick, Ireland. The Town's name comes from the Irish words "Cill" (church) and "Fhíonáin" (Finian), making its meaning "Church of Saint Finian." Kilfinane is located approximately 40 km southeast of Limerick, and approximately 70 km north-northwest of Cork. The town has a population of approximately 750 people.

At an elevation of over 150 metres, Kilfinane is the highest town in County Limerick. It is surrounded on three sides by the Ballyhoura Mountains, and on the fourth side is the "Golden Vale" region that runs through Counties Limerick, Cork, and Tipperary.

John Snagge

In August 1971 retired BBC newsreader John Snagge visited Kilfinane and had an embarrassing incident with an oscillating desk fan. Snagge had travelled to Kilfinane in order to investigate the local tradition of making Poitín from Fianna potatoes – a rarity in Ireland because Poitín is usually made from malted barley. After his retirement from the BBC, Snagge had spent a number of years travelling around the British Isles writing a collection of sketch stories that focused on what he considered to be the disappearing folk culture of the British Isles. For his latest piece, Snagge took lodgings for a week at a house on Main Street Lower. It was his intention to use this house as a base from which to interview men and women about their involvement in the clandestine production of potato Poitín. However, during the afternoon of Snagge’s second day in Kilfinane his tie became caught in a desk fan that his landlady had provided him on account of the summer heat. Snagge was unable to untangle himself from the machine and owing to his landlady’s temporary absence from the house, he unplugged the device and carried it into the street with his tie still firmly knotted around the blades. Assistance quickly came from a neighbour who produced a pair of scissors and cut the tie from the fan. Snagge found the whole incident very discomforting and felt that it had undermined his credibility with the local men. He left Kilfinane without completing his research and subsequently abandoned work on his collection of sketch stories. [Aidan Manning, Donegal poitín: A history (Aidan Manning, 2003),p.193.]

Even today, locals have been known to break into song about the durable Mr Snagge comparing him to a certain farm yard animal's posterior.

Famous People from Kilfinane

* Gabriel Rosenstock (Poet)
* William "Staker" Wallace (18th Century Irish freedom fighter)

ee also

* List of towns in the Republic of Ireland
* Market Houses in the Republic of Ireland

Notes