Qualla: Sneem https://qualla.com/sneem en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/y/sneem-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sneem https://qualla.com/sneem Sneem: Introduction https://qualla.com/sneem/ Photo credit David Jones from Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0. The name means knot, and Sneem really does look like one when you see it from above. The village sits on the estuary of the River Sneem, where the freshwater currents meet the incoming tides of Kenmare Bay in a swirl of opposing flows. Above the estuary the village is built around two squares - North and South - connected by a single bridge in the middle. Pick the metaphor you prefer. The Irish name An tSnaidhm covers all of them. Two squares tied together by a bridge. A river twisting into a bay. A village that holds the loose middle of the Ring of Kerry.

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Image: David Jones from Isle of Wight, United Kingdom | CC BY 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/y/sneem-wp/gc0y-sneem-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sneem: The Two Squares https://qualla.com/sneem/ Photo credit Snapshots Of The Past, CC BY-SA 2.0. Sneem's layout is unusual. Irish villages are usually a single street or a square with a street running off it. Sneem has two squares, a few hundred metres apart, separated by the river and joined by a stone bridge. North Square has a monument to Charles de Gaulle, who came here ...

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Image: Snapshots Of The Past | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/y/sneem-wp/gc0y-sneem-the-two-squares.mp3 0:06 2 full Sneem: The Wrestling Champion from Direenaclaurig https://qualla.com/sneem/ Photo credit Rod Allday, CC BY-SA 2.0. Steve Casey was born near Sneem in 1908 and grew into one of the largest men anyone in the area had ever seen. He and his brothers Tom and Jim were Irish athletes in the 1930s, competing in single scull rowing at the Charles River in Boston. Steve also took up professional wrestl...

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Image: Rod Allday | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/y/sneem-wp/gc0y-sneem-the-wrestling-champion-from-direenaclaurig.mp3 0:06 3 full Sneem: The Spy and the President https://qualla.com/sneem/ Photo credit Ingo Mehling, CC BY-SA 3.0. Two other Sneem natives are buried in the village's history. William Melville, born at nearby Direenaclaurig Cross in 1850, became the first head of the British Secret Service - the original 'M', the position later mythologised by Ian Fleming in the James Bond novels. Melville bu...

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Image: Ingo Mehling | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/y/sneem-wp/gc0y-sneem-the-spy-and-the-president.mp3 0:06 4 full Sneem: The Ruined Castles https://qualla.com/sneem/ Photo credit Ian S, CC BY-SA 2.0. Near Sneem stand the remains of two grand houses that did not survive the 20th century. Derryquin Castle, an 18th-century mansion designed by James Franklin Fuller with battlements and an octagonal tower and machicolations - the works - was demolished after years of decline. Ross...

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Image: Ian S | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/y/sneem-wp/gc0y-sneem-the-ruined-castles.mp3 0:06 5 full Sneem: The Time Capsule https://qualla.com/sneem/ Photo credit Ian S, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 2000 the village buried a time capsule in the centre of town, to be opened in 2100. What is in it, the public is mostly not supposed to know. The book Sneem, The Knot in the Ring tells the village's story up to about that point, and presumably parts of it are in the capsule to...

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Image: Ian S | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/0/y/sneem-wp/gc0y-sneem-the-time-capsule.mp3 0:06 6 full