The Crossroads

As you turn east towards Knockerra you come to a Y crossroads. Many old stories or songs in Irish culture start with the meeting at the crossroads and this crossroad is no different than any others. Its the meeting of three townlands – Trellig, Carhuefree and Knockerra. This Y splits the main Kilrush Kildysart road so that the high road (which is actually much narrower) leads you to Kilmurry McMahon and the low road continues onto Labasheeda and Kildysart.

Like other significant places in the parish it originally began with a fort, which still exists to this day.

This spot would have been very well known as a meeting point for sports meetings, in particular athletics around 1970s and early 1980s. These sports meetings would have had people coming from all over Ireland to compete. The competitions would include 100m, 200m, 400m, long jump, high jump, 1 mile, 2 mile and relay races as well as juvenile events. It also held tug of war competitions and what was unique was one year they held a ladies tug of war! The four mile championship of Ireland was ran in c.1970s in this field. The cross was also the starting point of all of the road races. The local athletes would have had an slight advantage having trained there regularly and would have also started and finished their training each night from here.

This field was also one of those used to train the local football team before there was a proper field down in Donogrogue. The 1969 and 1971 football teams who won the leagues and lost the championships would have trained here regularly. There was one set of goals if the cows hadn’t them knocked! Your jerseys could also have a funny smell going home after it!

The tug of war team would also have trained there and had many a successful day out.