Coachford
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Coachford Áth an Chóiste |
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| Village | |
Coachford
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 Coachford
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| Coordinates: 51°54′34″N 08°47′18″W / 51.90944°N 8.78833°WCoordinates: 51°54′34″N 08°47′18″W / 51.90944°N 8.78833°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Munster |
| County | County Cork |
| Population (2006) | |
| • Total | 439 |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
Coachford (Irish: Áth an Chóiste) is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It is located on the north side of the River Lee. The village is located in the Civil Parish of Magourney.
Coachford owes its name to once being a crossing point over a stream for horse-drawn coaches, and this stream continues to flow beneath the village to the present day. The Lee was flooded for a hydroelectric power plant and farmland including many houses were flooded by the newly formed lake. Coachford is located around a crossroads where the R618 and R619 regional roads intersect. Mallow is 20 miles (32 km) north of the village, Macroom is 9 miles (14 km) west, Cork City is 15 miles (24 km) east and Bandon is 20 miles (32 km) south.
Coachford does not feature on the 1811 Grand Jury Map of Cork, but is mentioned in the Freeman's Journal, dated 10 January 1822, and the area and its environs were known as "Magourney". The Village developed rapidly during the Famine (when it was a centre of relief within the mid Cork area) and subsequently. By 1888, the Cork & Muskerry Light Railway had a terminus at Coachford, adding to local business, accessibility and vibrancy. By the end of the 19th-century, the village also had a creamery, complimenting its agricultural hinterland.
By the 1950s, a Vocational School was established, known today as Coachford College (sometimes referred to as Coachford Community College). The 2011-15 Aghabullogue-Coachford-Rylane Community Council commissioned URS consultants to draw up a Village Design Statement (VDS) for the three villages in 2012.
Mrs. Mary (or Maria) Lindsay, Leemount House, Coachford, an elderly widow, was executed by the IRA (along with her driver, James Clarke), on 9 March 1921. Attempting to prevent bloodshed she, along with a Roman Catholic priest, tried to persuade the IRA gang against a planned ambush. The IRA ignored them and she then warned the British Army of a planned ambush in nearby Dripsey, for which six IRA volunteers were executed (see). She and her driver were shot and her home, Leemount House, burned down, after the British authorities refused to commute the executions of the six IRA volunteers. A character ("Lady Fitzhugh") based on Mrs. Lindsay was played by Dame Sybil Thorndike in the 1959 film, Shake Hands with the Devil, which starred James Cagney, Don Murray and Michael Redgrave. An IRA man named Frank Busteed later claimed credit for the killings and for burning down Mrs. Lindsay's home.
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