placenamesCordal
Cordal West’s nineteenth-century churches preserve contrasting designs, while the local GAA club’s purchase of a pitch marked a later community milestone.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Cordal · Irish · main form · validated name
- Cordal · English · main form
Place & story
The Church of the Immaculate Conception
Cordal’s Catholic church opened in 1872. Rough limestone walls and stepped buttresses enclose a six-bay nave, with smoother stone framing the pointed windows. Inside, an exposed scissor-truss roof covers the main body, while a pointed arch leads into the lower chancel. Stained-glass panels were added around 1900. The stone gate piers and wrought-iron gates belong to the church’s nineteenth-century setting, although porches and a sacristy were altered later. [2]
The Church of Ireland building
The nearby Church of Ireland church, also identified as Ballincuslane church, dates from around 1850. Its Gothic Revival design uses carefully worked limestone, a bellcote and pointed windows with iron lattice glazing. Groups of narrow lancets and quatrefoil openings decorate the end walls. The architectural survey records it within a tree-lined churchyard, but already disused and partly derelict when surveyed in 2005. [3]
Securing a football ground
A retrospective published in 2001 identified 1986 as a decisive year for Cordal GAA. After years without its own pitch, the club bought nine acres and soon afterwards defeated Rathmore to win the county junior championship. A playing field, community hall and changing facilities followed. The account also recalls Cordal winning both the first Castleisland District League in 1941 and the competition’s final title in 1970. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Cordal. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, NIAH 21304001 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Cordal Church, Ballincuslane, NIAH 21304002 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- 1986 was a defining year in the history of Cordal GAA, 29 March2001 · The Kerryman; Irish Independent archive
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.