Dingle (Irish : An Daingean or Daingean Uí Chúis , meaning Fort or "O'Cuis's Fort") is a town in County Kerry in Ireland on the Atlantic coast some west-south-west of Tralee and west-north-west of Killarney. The town is situated on a natural harbour below Slievanea mountain on the large Dingle peninsula, which lies south of the River Shannon and north of the Ring of Kerry. Principal industries in the town are tourism, fishing and farming. In 2006 Dingle had a population of 1,920. [1] Dingle is situated in a Gaeltacht region.

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Places of interest

Dingle's St. Mary's was a neo-Gothic church built to designs by J. J. McCarthy and O'Connell. The foundation stone was laid in 1862. It originally had a nave and aisles separated by arcades, supported on columns capped by octagonal tops. Pepepe The arcades were demolished in one of the most radical reordering schemes to have been executed in Ireland. The project also saw the demolition of the exterior walls to below the original clerstory level, and, most notably, of the attic and upper ranges of the west elevation.

There are many opportunities to hear traditional Irish music in the town, particularly during the summer tourist season. Dingle has a number of pubs as well as restaurants and cafes. There is also an aquarium in the town called Dingle Oceanworld. The town has a growing arts scene and jeweller Brian de Staic is based there, as is the potter Louis Mulcahy and master crystal craftsman Sean Daly.

Fungi the Dingle Dolphin

Since 1984 a bottlenose dolphin has frequented the Dingle harbour area. He has been given the name Fungi and has become a major attraction for visitors. ^[2] He regularly shows up when tour boats go out to meet him. Normally bottlenose dolphins swim in pods, but Fungi seems to prefer human contact rather than interaction with his own species. ^[3] It is estimated that he was born in the mid 1970's and with a normal life expectancy for his species of 25 years, he is now very old by bottlenose dolphin standards. ^[4] There is a bronze sculpture of Fungi in Dingle ^[5]

Sport

Dingle is home to the Dingle GAA club, which plays the popular ^[6] traditional Irish game of Gaelic football. The most noted tournament in which Dingle competes is the Kerry Senior Football Championship. ^[7] Diarmuid Murphy and Tommy Griffin are current players from Dingle who are on the Kerry GAA county team for the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. ^[8] Dingle is also home to one of Irelands largest indoor climbing walls, Play At Height ^[9]. The centre has over 450 sq meters of climbing with an impressive 8.5 meter overhanging section.

People

• Famous Gaelic Athletic Association commentator Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh was born east of Dingle, near Lios Póil in 1930.
• As mentioned, Dingle Gaelic footballers Diarmuid Murphy and Tommy Griffin are currently members of the Kerry senior squad.
• Also from Dingle are Joe O'Toole, Senator, and Pauline Scanlon, singer.

Twin towns

	Country		Place		County / District / Region / State	Originally twinned with	Date
USA ! style="background: #FFFFCF; color: #000000" ! |	Santa Barbara ! style="background: #FFFFEF; color: #000000" ! |	California	Dingle	2003
Italy ! style="background: #FFFFCF; color: #000000" ! |	Tolfa ! style="background: #FFFFEF; color: #000000" ! |	Lazio	Dingle	1974

Transport

Dingle was formerly the western terminus of the narrow gauge Tralee and Dingle Light Railway. It was also the westernmost railway station in Europe. thumb The railway station opened on 1 April 1891, closed for passenger traffic on 17 April 1939 and for regular goods traffic on 10 March 1947, finally closing altogether on 1 July 1953 (by which time a cattle train once per month was the sole operation). ^[10]

Name

In 2005, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív announced that anglicised place names (such as 'Dingle') of Gaeltacht towns and villages would no longer feature on official signposts, and only the Irish language names would appear. The English language version of the town's name was thus officially dropped in early 2005, with the Irish name An Daingean being brought to the fore.

In the case of Dingle, the move was particularly controversial, as the town relies heavily on the tourist industry, and a fear was held that the change could prevent potential visitors finding their way to the town. Detractors noted that tourists might not recognise the Irish name on sign-posts, and that there could also be confusion with a similarly named town (Daingean) in County Offaly. Supporters rejected this argument - pointing out that there are numerous towns in Ireland with similar names. The Minister added to the controversy by suggesting that a name change to English could be brought about by removing the town's Gaeltacht status, and thereby its entitlement to relevant government grants for Irish-speaking areas.

In late 2005 Kerry County Council approved the holding of a plebiscite for the change of name to the bilingual "Dingle/Daingean Uí Chúis" ^[11] which took place in October, 2006. ^[12] The result was announced on 20 October, and 1,005 from 1,086 returned ballots (out of an electorate of 1,222) favoured the name change to the bilingual version. ^{[13] [14]} Éamon Ó Cuív stated however that there was no remit to act on the results of the plebiscite. In 2008 however, Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, announced that he intended to amend the local government laws to allow names chosen by local representatives in a plebiscite to supersede any Placenames Order under the Official Languages Act 2003. ^[15] This would mean that "Daingean Uí Chúis" would be the official name of the town in Irish, with "Dingle" the official name in English. However, the name of the town on road signs within the gaeltacht will continue to only display the name of the town in Irish. In the mean time, some locals took matters into their own hands by spray painting "Dingle" on road signs that only bear the Irish version of the name.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland
• Munster Irish
• Eask tower
• MV Ranga , a ship wrecked near Slea Head, Dingle

References

1. Census 2006 – Volume 1 – Population Classified by Area
2. Do Dingle Fungi article
3. The Irish Independent article Forget Fungi we need Flipper
4. Documentary broadcast by RTE
5. Geograph.org Statue of Fungi
6. GAA attendance figures
7. Dingle football match report
8. Murphy and Griffin appear for Kerry in the All-Ireland football final
9. Title Unavailable
10. Dingle station
11. Kerry CC votes to hold Dingle plebiscite
12. Dingle so good they may name it twice
13. 90% vote in favour of An Daingean name change
14. Do you know the way to An Daingean?
15. Gormley proposes amendments to legislation on changing Placenames - Dingle and Daingean Uí Chúis to be official names of An Daingean