page_title: Blennerville
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Blennerville / History
caption_attribution_description: Photograph take between 1880 and 1900. Format: glass negative Part of: National Library of Ireland Lawrence Collection. For more photographs in this collection see National Library of Ireland catalogue: catalogue.nli.ie Reference number: L_ROY_06663
context_page_description: Blennerville is a small village and now a suburb of Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland. It is approximately 1 mile west of the town centre on the N86 road to Dingle, where the River Lee enters Tralee Bay. The village was formerly Tralee's port, and is connected to the town centre by the Tralee Ship Canal. Part of Blennerville electoral division falls within the area of Tralee Town Council, and at the 2011 census had a population of 141. The remaining portion, outside the urban boundaries, had a 2011 population of 556.
context_section_description: Blennerville was originally called Cathair Uí Mhóráin (anglicised as Cahermoraun or Cahirmoreaun), and it has been speculated that it was the ancient site of the Tramore ford, the only escape route afforded to the 15th Earl of Desmond from Tralee towards the south, before his capture and execution in 1583.
  Whether the old Tramore ford was at the spot where the bridge has been erected, or on the firmer sands further down towards Tralee Spa, is not certain, but the ancient name of Blennerville, (before Sir Rowland Blennerhassett, 1st Baronet made it his residence and elevated it into a village after his name,) being Cahirmoreaun i.e. the cahir on the great river, renders it probable that the passage was there, and that a ferry house or some such place was the nucleus round which the hamlet originally grew.
  — A. B. Rowan, The Last Geraldyn Chief of Tralee Castle
  A bridge was built at the site in 1751, and in 1783 Sir Rowland Blennerhassett renamed it Blennerville after his family. Blennerville Windmill, Ireland's only commercially operating windmill, was built in 1800. The port at Blennerville was used through most of the 19th century as a gateway from Kerry to North America by emigrants wishing to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The Jeanie Johnston was the most famous of these ships that transported emigrants, and throughout its service no passenger ever died. By 1846, however, the Tralee Ship Canal was opened, replacing Blennerville as Tralee's port and the village went into decline with the windmill falling into ruins and closing by the mid-19th century.
  In 1891 the Tralee and Dingle Light Railway opened connecting Tralee with Dingle along one of Europe's most western railway lines at the time. A station operated at Blennerville until the line closed in 1953. Blennerville National School was built in 1932, and according to its website has an enrolment of 168 students.
caption: Blennerville in the late 19th Century
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