Editing Clonakilty (section)

==History==
[[File:Clonakilty big cross statue.jpg|thumb|upright|A statue in Clonakilty commemorating the [[Battle of the Big Cross]]]]
[[Image:Iarthair Chorcaí 116.jpg|thumb|upright|A monument to [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]]]]

The Clonakilty area has a number of ancient and pre-Celtic sites, including [[Lios na gCon]] ringfort.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.discoveringcork.ie/lios-na-gcon-restored-ancient-fort/ |title=Lios-na-gCon, Restored Ancient Fort – Discovering Cork |date=8 December 2009 |publisher=Discoveringcork.ie |access-date=21 September 2017 |archive-date=21 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921193207/http://www.discoveringcork.ie/lios-na-gcon-restored-ancient-fort/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Normans in Ireland|Norman settlers]] built castles around Clonakilty, and a number of Norman surnames survive in the [[West Cork]] area to the present day.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.corkbeo.ie/culture/family-kids/arundel-wycherley-corks-most-unusual-17490159 | website = corkbeo.ie | title = From Arundel to Wycherley – Cork's most unusual surnames and where they came from | date = 31 December 2019 | access-date = 10 December 2021 | quote = another Cork name that goes back to the Norman Conquest and the Lord Arundels who built major castles around the Clonakilty area. Descendents[sic] are still there today }}</ref> In 1292, Thomas De Roach received a charter to hold a market every Monday at Kilgarriffe (then called Kyle Cofthy or Cowhig's Wood), close to where the present town now stands.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}} In the 14th century, a ten-mile strip of fallow woodland called {{lang|ga|Tuath na gCoillte}} (the land of the woods) divided the [[Ibane and Barryroe|barony of Ibane (Ardfield) and Barryroe]] and reached the sea at Clonakilty Bay. Here a castle called Coyltes Castell was recorded in a 1378 plea roll. This was subsequently referred to as Cloghnykyltye, one of the many phonetic spellings for {{lang|ga|Cloch na gCoillte}} (meaning the castle of the woods, from {{lang|ga|cloch}}, the Irish for stone or stone building, and {{lang|ga|coillte}} meaning woods).<ref name="logainm"/>

The lands around Clonakilty were owned by [[Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork]], and it was Lord Cork ('the Great Earl') who obtained its charter from [[James VI and I|James I]] in 1613,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.clon.ie/text/clients/mdltour.htm | website = clon.ie | title = Tour – The Earl of Cork's plan for West Cork | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20021002043523/http://www.clon.ie/text/clients/mdltour.htm | archive-date = 2 October 2002 }}</ref> with the right to return members to the [[Irish House of Commons]]. The [[Clonakilty (Parliament of Ireland constituency)|borough of Clonakilty]] returned two members from 1613 to 1801; it was disfranchised when the [[Acts of Union 1801|Act of Union]] came into force in January 1801. It also had a part-time judge, the [[Recorder of Clonakilty]], who held a weekly court of [[Petty session]]. The estate lands at Clonakilty were later purchased by the [[Earl of Shannon|Earls of Shannon]], another branch of the Boyle dynasty. They remained the main landlords of the town from the eighteenth century until the early twentieth century.<ref>''Lord Shannon's Letters to his Son'', Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 1982. Introduction, pp xxviii-xxvix</ref>

During the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]], [[Plantations of Ireland|Protestant settlers]] in Clonakilty fled to [[Bandon, County Cork|Bandon]], and much of Clonakilty was burned by [[Confederate Ireland|Catholic rebels]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/default/files/2019-05/clonakilty_historic_map_2019.pdf | website = corkcoco.ie | publisher = Cork County Council | title = Clonakilty Historic Map | access-date = 12 September 2020 | archive-date = 24 May 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190524154554/https://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/default/files/2019-05/clonakilty_historic_map_2019.pdf | url-status = live }}</ref><ref name="lewis1837">{{cite book | chapter-url = https://www.libraryireland.com/topog/C/Clonakilty-East-Carbery-Cork.php | chapter = Clonakilty | title = [[A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland]] | publisher = Lewis | first = Samuel | last = Lewis | date = 1837 | access-date = 12 September 2020 | archive-date = 18 January 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210118033913/https://www.libraryireland.com/topog/C/Clonakilty-East-Carbery-Cork.php | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.failteromhat.com/clonhistory.php | title = History of Clonakilty and Surrounding Districts | last = Collins | first = John T. | access-date = 12 September 2020 | archive-date = 25 September 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210925001942/https://www.failteromhat.com/clonhistory.php | url-status = live }}</ref>  On October 1642, a Protestant force led by the then [[Lord Forbes]] reoccupied the town. Forbes left two companies from the Lord Forbes' Regiment and one company from the Bandon Foot to [[garrison]] Clonakilty before leaving the town to relieve [[Castlefreke#Castle|Rathbarry Castle]], which was under siege by rebel forces. However, almost immediately after Lord Forbes left Clonakilty, a large force of Catholic rebels attacked the town; the two Scottish companies refused to retreat and were killed to a man, while the Irish company fought their way out of the town to an abandoned [[ringfort]] near [[Rosscarbery]], where they were relieved by Lord Forbes who had returned from [[Rathbarry]].<ref name="Townsend">{{Cite book|first=Dorothea|last=Townsend|title=Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society|year=1895|publisher=Cork Historical and Archaeological Society}}</ref>{{failed verification|reason=Which page or section of the 1895 JCHAS is this piece by Townsend? I can't find it...|date=December 2022}} The reunified force returned to Clonakilty and drove out the rebels, who fled towards the island of [[Inchydoney]], where roughly six hundred of them drowned at high tide. Lord Forbes' men returned to the town and freed a large number of men, women and children imprisoned in Clonakilty's market house.<ref name="Townsend"/>{{failed verification|reason=Which page or section of the 1895 JCHAS is this piece by Townsend? I can't find it...|date=December 2022}}

The town was also the site of a battle in 1691 during the [[Williamite War in Ireland]].<ref name="lewis1837"/> During the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798]], [[Shannonvale, County Cork|Shannonvale]] near Clonakilty was the site of the [[Battle of the Big Cross]]. It was described as "the only place in all [[Munster]] where a blow of some sort had been struck during the Rising of '98".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.failteromhat.com/southernstar/page17.php | title = The Battle of the Big Cross where one hundred Irish died | author = C.O. Ruairc | website = failteromhat.com | access-date = 12 April 2012 | archive-date = 8 March 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120308064953/http://www.failteromhat.com/southernstar/page17.php | url-status = live }}</ref> There is a commemorative statue celebrating the Battle of the Big Cross in Asna Square in the centre of Clonakilty.

[[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]], who was the Director of Intelligence for the [[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) during the [[Irish War of Independence]], lived in Clonakilty and attended the local boys' national school. Collins later served as Chairman of the [[Provisional Government of Ireland (1922)|Provisional Government of Ireland]] and was instrumental in the founding of the [[Irish Free State]]. Collins was killed in an ambush by the [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|Anti-Treaty IRA]] during the [[Irish Civil War]]. He gave several orations from O'Donovan's Hotel on the Main Street of Clonakilty. On Emmet Square, where Collins lived for a period, is a statue of him, erected and dedicated in 2002, and a museum, opened in 2016.

In April 1943, an American [[Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress]] was travelling to England when it was forced to land at a marsh just outside Clonakilty.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22042258 | work = BBC News | publisher = BBC | title = Statue for Tojo, the monkey who dropped in for a drink | date = 5 April 2013 | access-date = 12 September 2020 | archive-date = 7 November 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201107230652/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22042258 | url-status = live }}</ref> The crew (who were uninjured) thought they had been flying over German-occupied [[Norway]].<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30590450.html | work = Irish Examiner | title = Clonakilty honours crash-landing monkey with statue | date = 7 April 2013 | access-date = 12 September 2020 | archive-date = 11 November 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201111201858/https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30590450.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Kennedy Gardens at [[Robert Emmet|Emmet]] Square (formerly [[Earl of Shannon|Shannon]] Square) in the centre of town is named after [[John F. Kennedy]]. In June 2012, Clonakilty was damaged by flooding.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2012/0630/ireland/community-pulls-together-to-ensure-its-business-as-usual-in-clonakilty-199290.html | title = Community pulls together to ensure it's business as usual in Clonakilty | work = Irish Examiner | date = 30 June 2012 | access-date = 19 July 2012 | archive-date = 6 May 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160506145914/http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2012/0630/ireland/community-pulls-together-to-ensure-its-business-as-usual-in-clonakilty-199290.html | url-status = live }}</ref> Clonakilty was founded on 5 May 1613, and on 5 May 2013, [[President of Ireland|President]] [[Michael D. Higgins]] and his wife visited the town to commemorate 400 years since it obtained its original charter.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.southernstar.ie/Community/Clonakilty/Public-service-acknowledged-by-President-at-Clonakilty-Town-Council-civic-reception-09052013.htm | website = southernstar.ie | title = Public service acknowledged by President at Clonakilty Town Council civic reception | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131013084324/http://www.southernstar.ie/Community/Clonakilty/Public-service-acknowledged-by-President-at-Clonakilty-Town-Council-civic-reception-09052013.htm |archive-date=13 October 2013 | publisher = [[The Southern Star (County Cork)|Southern Star]] }}</ref><ref name="pres2013">{{cite web|url = https://president.ie/en/media-library/speeches/remarks-by-president-higgins-at-the-clon-400-anniversary-celebrations-clona | publisher = Office of the President of Ireland | website = president.ie | title = Selected Speeches – Remarks at the 'Clon' 400 Anniversary Celebrations | date = 5 May 2013| access-date = 10 December 2021 }}</ref>
[[File:Clonakility Town Hall, Kent Street - geograph.org.uk - 2193089.jpg|thumb|Clonakility Town Hall (since demolished)]]
Councillors decided to demolish the 200-year old Clonakilty Town Hall in 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.southernstar.ie/news/clonakiltys-200-year-old-town-hall-is-beyond-repair-cllrs-told-4177227   |title=Clonakilty's 200-year-old Town Hall is ‘beyond repair', Cllrs told|date=22 July 2019|newspaper=The Southern Star|access-date=12 April 2025}}</ref>