Valentia Island
| Native name: Dairbhre | |
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 Valentia Island
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| Geography | |
| Location | Atlantic Ocean |
| Coordinates | 51°54′N 10°21′W / 51.9°N 10.35°WCoordinates: 51°54′N 10°21′W / 51.9°N 10.35°W |
| Area | 25.7 km2 (9.9 sq mi) |
| Length | 11 km (6.8 mi) |
| Width | 3 km (1.9 mi) |
| Administration | |
| Province | Munster |
| County | Kerry |
| Largest settlement | Knightstown (pop. 156) |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 665 (2011) |
Valentia Island (Irish: Dairbhre, meaning "The Oak Wood") is one of Ireland's most westerly points. It lies off the Iveragh Peninsula in the southwest of County Kerry. It is linked to the mainland by the Maurice O'Neill Memorial Bridge at Portmagee. A car ferry also departs from Reenard Point to Knightstown, the island's main settlement, from April to October. A second, smaller village named Chapeltown is located at roughly the midpoint of the island, 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) from the bridge. The permanent population of the island is 665 (as of the 2011 CSO Census[update]). It's approximately 11 kilometres (7 miles) long by almost 3 kilometres (2 miles) wide.
The English name Valentia Island (also spelled Valencia Island) doesn't come exactly from the Spanish city of Valencia, but from a settlement on the island called An Bhaile Inse or Beal Inse ("mouth of the island" or "island in the mouth of the sound"), which in turn could have been reinterpreted as similar to the Spanish town by Englishmen and Spaniards sailors and settlers alike (there is a grave marker to Spanish sailors lost at sea in the Catholic cemetery at Kylemore).
Valentia was the eastern terminus of the first commercially viable transatlantic telegraph cable. The first attempt in 1857 to land a cable from Ballycarbery Strand on the mainland just east of Valentia Island ended in disappointment. After subsequent failures of cables landed at Knightstown in 1858 and Foilhommerum Bay in 1865, the vast endeavor finally resulted in commercially viable transatlantic telegraph communications from Foilhommerum Bay to Heart's Content, Newfoundland in 1866. Transatlantic telegraph cables operated from Valentia Island for one hundred years, ending with Western Union International terminating its cable operations in 1966.
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Wikipedia