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Ardfert

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"ARDFERT, a decayed borough and market-town and a parish, in the barony of CLANMAURICE, county of KERRY, and province of MUNSTER, 5 miles (N. N. W.) of Tralee, and 144½ (S. W. by W.) from Dublin; containing 3,585 inhabitants, of which number, 717 are in the town.
This is a declining town, without either trade or manufacture, and presents only the appearance of a village. It has always been considered a borough by prescription, there being no charter of incorporation on record. "

[From A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland by Samuel Lewis (1837)]

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Census

The household returns for the 1901 and 1911 census have been scanned and made available on the National Archives of Ireland's genealogy website.

The returns for each townland can be accessed via the following links: 

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Church History

The Church of Ireland cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1649, and remains as a roofless shell. It is a national monument owned by the Office of the Public Works Heritage Section and is open to the public. The OPW website for Ardfert Cathedral is here.

Part of the cathedral was kept in repair as a parish church. It was reroofed in 1831, and continued in use until 1871. James Pain made drawings of the building which can be seen on the Representative Church Body (RCB) Library architectural drawings website here, here and here.

A new parish church was built to the designs of William Atkins just to the west of the cathedral graveyard. It was consecrated as St Brendans' Church on 18 August 1871. In 1922 Ardfert parish was united to Tralee and the church was demolished prior to the Second World War. The Representative Church Body Library has architectural drawings of the site of the new church and elevations, plans and cross sections drawn up in 1868: here, here, here, here and here

The Roman Catholic parish of Ardfert has long been united with that of Kilmoyly (or Kilmoyley), and the parish name has sometimes been given as 'Ardfert and Kilmoyley'. One townland, Kilfenora, became part of the new parish of Spa in 1859.

St Brendan's Church, Ardfert, was begin in 1853 to the designs of J J MacCarthy and consecrated on 16 May 1855. The building is described in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. The Church of the Sacred Heart, Kilmoyley, was built between 1871 and 1873.

The ruins of a pre-reformation Franciscan Friary also lie near the town of Ardfert. Founded in the thirteenth century, the friary was dissolved in 1584. There is information on the Monastic Ireland website.

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Church Records

Church of Ireland parish registers: three volumes of parish registers, comprising baptisms 1804-1917, marriages 1806-1843 and burials 1808-1918, were destroyed in the fire in the Public Records Office of Ireland in 1922. The following surviving parish registers were deposited in Representative Church Body Library in 1993:

  • P.0455.03 Register of Marriages 1847-1926
  • P.0455.04 Register of Burials 1920-1973

The contact details for the library can be found here.

Roman Catholic registers have been filmed and are available to view at the National Library of Ireland Catholic Registers website.

The following registers survive:

  •  Microfilm 04272/03

    Baptisms 4 March 1819 - 4 October 1819

    Baptisms 19 July 1824 - 6 September 1824

    Baptisms 8 February 1835 – 2 October 1846

    Marriages 15 March 1825 - 25 January 1826

    Marriages 10 January 1835 - 24 February 1846

 

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Civil Registration

From 1863 Ardfert was part of the Tralee Registration District. See the Registration Districts page.

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Description & Travel

You can see pictures of Ardfert which are provided by:

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Gazetteers

The transcription of the section for this parish from the National Gazetteer (1868), provided by Colin Hinson.

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Maps

A Map showing the Townlands of Ardfert from Rootsweb


[Last updated: 04-Aug-2004 03:38 PM - Laurence Jones]

You can see maps centred on OSI grid reference Q7869421347 (Lat/Lon: 52.330771, -9.780177), Ardfert which are provided by: