page_title: Achill Island
section_title: Achill Mission
hierarchical_section_title: Achill Island / History / Specific historical sites and events / Achill Mission
caption_attribution_description: Sounding a little ominous (perhaps somewhere Patrick McGoohan might have spent some time), today we visit "The Colony" on Achilll island. Depending on when French captured this image, it's likely that Nangle's mission was all but closed by this time.... Photographer: French, Robert (1841-1917) Contributors: Lawrence, William (1840-1932) Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection Date: 1880-1900 NLI Ref: L_ROY_00168 You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie
context_page_description: Achill Island in County Mayo is the largest of the Irish isles, and is situated off the west coast of Ireland. It has a population of 2,700. Its area is 148 km². Achill is attached to the mainland by Michael Davitt Bridge, between the villages of Gob an Choire and Poll Raithní. A bridge was first completed here in 1887, replaced by another structure in 1949, and subsequently replaced with the current bridge which was completed in 2008. Other centres of population include the villages of Keel, Dooagh, Dumha Éige, Dún Ibhir, The Valley and Dugort. The parish's main Gaelic football pitch and secondary school are on the mainland at Poll Raithní. Early human settlements are believed to have been established on Achill around 3000 BC. A paddle dating from this period was found at the crannóg near Dookinella.
  The island is 87% peat bog. The parish of Achill consists of Achill Island, Achillbeg, Inishbiggle and the Corraun Peninsula.
context_section_description: One of Achill's most famous historical sites is that of the Achill Mission or 'the Colony' at Dugort. In 1831 the Church of Ireland Reverend Edward Nangle founded a proselytising mission at Dugort. The Mission included schools, cottages, an orphanage, an infirmary and a guesthouse. The Colony gave rise to mixed assessments, particularly during the Great Famine when charges of 'souperism' were leveled against Edward Nangle. For almost forty years Edward Nangle edited a newspaper called the Achill Missionary Herald and Western Witness which was printed in Achill. Nangle expanded his mission into Mweelin in west Achill where a school, church, rectory, cottages and a training school were built. Edward's wife Eliza suffered poor health in Achill and died in 1852; she is buried with six of the Nangle children on the slopes of Slievemore in North Achill. The Achill Mission began to decline slowly after Nangle was moved from Achill and was finally closed in the 1880s. When Edward Nangle died in 1883 there were opposing views on his legacy.
caption: View of the "Colony", prior to 1900.
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