Cushendun ()Place Names NI
/ref> is a small coastal

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

. It sits off the A2 coast road between

Cushendall Cushendall (), formerly known as Newtownglens, is a coastal village and townland (of 153 acres) in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is located in the historic barony of Glenarm Lower and the civil parish of Layd, and is part of Causewa ...

and Ballycastle. It has a sheltered

harbour A harbor (American English), harbour (British English; see spelling differences), or haven is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be docked. The term ''harbor'' is often used interchangeably with ''port'', which is ...

and lies at the mouth of the River Dun and Glendun, one of the nine

Glens of Antrim The Glens of Antrim,Logainm.ie
( Mull of Kintyre The Mull of Kintyre is the southwesternmost tip of the Kintyre Peninsula (formerly ''Cantyre'') in southwest Scotland. From here, the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland is visible on a calm and clear day, and a historic lighthouse, the second ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

is only about 15 miles away across the

North Channel North Channel may refer to: *North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland) *North Channel (Ontario), body of water along the north shore of Lake Huron, Canada *North Channel, Hong Kong *Canal du Nord The Canal du Nord (, literally ''Canal of the N ...

and can be seen easily on clear days. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 138 people. It is part of

Causeway Coast and Glens Ulster Scots: ''Causey Coast an Glens'' , settlement_type = Borough , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_shield = , shield_size ...

district. The hamlet of Knocknacarry is nearby.

History

Bridge over Glendun River, Cushendun, Co

Cushendun is where Shane O'Neill, chief of the Tyrone

O'Neill dynasty The O'Neill dynasty ( Irish: ''Ó Néill'') are a lineage of Irish Gaelic origin, that held prominent positions and titles in Ireland and elsewhere. As kings of Cenél nEógain, they were historically the most prominent family of the North ...

, was killed by the MacDonnells in 1567. Cushendun village was designed for Ronald McNeill, the Conservative MP and author, later Lord Cushendun, in the style of a Cornish village by the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Clough Williams-Ellis Sir Bertram Clough Williams-Ellis, CBE, MC (28 May 1883 – 9 April 1978) was a Welsh architect known chiefly as the creator of the Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales. He became a major figure in the development of Welsh architec ...

. He is buried in the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second l ...

graveyard near his nationalist cousin Ada or Ide McNeill,

Roger Casement Roger David Casement ( ga, Ruairí Dáithí Mac Easmainn; 1 September 1864 – 3 August 1916), known as Sir Roger Casement, Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish people, Irish I ...

's friend and admirer who died in 1959. The

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

has owned most of the village and the parkland around Glenmona since 1964. Cushendun was designated as a conservation area in 1980, due to its architectural history and location within the Antrim Coast and Glens Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

People

*Poet

Moira O'Neill Moira O'Neill was the pseudonym of Agnes Shakespeare Higginson (1864–1955), a popular Irish-Canadian poet who wrote ballads and other verse inspired by County Antrim, where she lived at Cushendun. In 1895, she and her husband Walter Skrine l ...

's home was across the bay from Cushendun. She was the mother of Molly Keane, the noted Irish writer.

Robert Emmets GAC

In 1904 Dominic Quinn, Daniel Black and Willie McLaughlin founded the first

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

(GAA) club in Cushendun known as the Brian Boru's. The club participated in the first Feis-na-nGleann in 1904 and, after defeating

Glenarm Glenarm () is a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It lies on the North Channel coast north of the town of Larne and the village of Ballygalley, and south of the village of Carnlough. It is situated in the civil parish of Tickmacreva ...

, lost to Carey in the final of the “Shield of Heroes”. In 2004 the club celebrated its centenary in a large marquee located in the grounds of Glenmona House.

Nicky Brennan Nicholas "Nickey" Brennan (born 3 December 1953) is an Irish former hurler, manager and Gaelic games administrator. He played as a right wing-back at senior level for the Kilkenny county team. More recently, he served as the 35th president o ...

(then president of the GAA) and other GAA dignitaries from throughout Ireland joined in the celebrations. During most of their existence Cushendun has been a junior

hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of pla ...

club but on a few occasions has moved up to the senior ranks. The club played

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by ki ...

in 1934 and 1972 but history and tradition in a small parish meant that the game was never popular and it failed to flourish for any significant period of time. The pinnacle of the club's achievements has been the winning of the All County Senior Championship in 1931. Since that date the Intermediate Championship has been won on three occasions-1973, 1992 and 2007. The

Junior Championship Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

was also secured in 1963 and again in 2018, along with several Feis competitions and leagues.

Camogie Camogie ( ; ga, camógaíocht ) is an Irish stick-and-ball team sport played by women. Camogie is played by 100,000 women in Ireland and worldwide, largely among Irish communities. A variant of the game of hurling (which is played by men only ...

has been played with a fair degree of success during several periods throughout the past century but has always been difficult to maintain. One of the major highlights of the club's history was the construction of the new pitch in 1967/68 followed by the building of the new pavilion which was officially opened by then president of the GAA Jack Boothman in 1995. A second floodlit pitch was added to the complex at Lig-na-Arigid Park in 1999.

Media

The nearby caves of Cushendun have been used as backdrop in the TV series ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the firs ...

''.

References

External links

Cushendun websitehttp://www.cushendungac.com/
{{authority control Villages in County Antrim Planned communities in Northern Ireland