Toormakeady or Tourmakeady (, the official name) is a
Gaeltacht in south
County Mayo
County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...
in the west of
Ireland. It is located between the shores of
Lough Mask and the
Partry Mountains, and covers 66.51 square miles. As at the time of the 2011 census, Toormakeady had a total population of 1,007, having dropped from 1,150 in 1991.
Toormakeady is also the name of the principal village in the area.
Those parts of Ballinchalla Electoral District in Toormakeady and the whole of the Owenbrin Electoral District in Toormakeady together comprise nearly half of the land area of Toormakeady and were previously parts of County Galway. In 1898 they were transferred to County Mayo.
From the time of the
Great Famine of the mid-1840s onwards, the Toormakeady area has experienced a high level of emigration. Many descendants of emigrants return every year to find their roots. The genealogical records for this area have been computerised at the South Mayo Family Research Centre in nearby
Ballinrobe to make the task of tracing roots easier.
On 3 May 1921, during the
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...
the
Irish Republican Army south Mayo
flying column of around 30 men together with a small number of men from east Mayo mounted an ambush at Toormakeady. The events of this day have been written about in Donal Buckley's book ''The Battle of Tourmakeady''.
The English actor
Robert Shaw, best known for his work in ''
From Russia with Love'', ''
Jaws'' and ''
The Sting'', lived in Drimbawn House, Toormakeady until his death in 1978. Television producer
Máire Ní Thuathail was born in Toormakeady in 1959.
See also
*
Connacht Irish
*
List of towns and villages in the Republic of Ireland
*
Thomas Plunket, 2nd Baron Plunket
References
External links
Toormakeady website Toormakeady Community websiteAudio podcast
excerpt from Michael John Casey's Heritage Tour of Toormakeady.
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Gaeltacht places in County Mayo
Towns and villages in County Mayo
Gaeltacht towns and villages
Waterfalls of the Republic of Ireland