Qualla: Waterville, County Kerry

Waterville, County Kerry: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pmk58, CC BY-SA 4.0. Charlie Chaplin first came to Waterville in 1959, when he was 70 years old and had been out of America for seven years - effectively exiled, his re-entry permit revoked by the U.S. government in 1952 over what J. Edgar Hoover's FBI considered un-American sympathies. He came to this Kerry village with his fourth wife Oona and their growing family for a fishing holiday. He came back the next year, and the year after that, and most years for the rest of his life. The Chaplins kept coming until 1971. By the time Charlie died in Switzerland in 1977, Waterville had become his favourite holiday place in the world. There is now a bronze statue of him in the village centre, hat tilted, cane in hand, looking out toward Ballinskelligs Bay. The village has built a comedy film festival in his name. Every August, comedians come to play the Butler Arms Hotel where Chaplin himself once played the piano in the lounge.

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Image: Pmk58 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Waterville, County Kerry: An Isthmus Between Two Waters

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mick Garratt, CC BY-SA 2.0. Waterville sits on a narrow neck of land - an isthmus - between Lough Currane to the east and Ballinskelligs Bay to the west, with the short Currane River linking the two. The village has 555 people by the 2022 census, which makes it small even by Kerry standards. The Butlers, an...

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Image: Mick Garratt | CC BY-SA 2.0

Waterville, County Kerry: The Cable Station

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ingo Mehling, CC BY-SA 3.0. From 1884 until well into the 20th century, Waterville was one of the most important communication hubs in Europe. The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable had been landed in 1865-66 at Valentia Island just north of here, connecting Ireland to Heart's Content in Newfoun...

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Image: Ingo Mehling | CC BY-SA 3.0

Waterville, County Kerry: Chaplin and Comedy

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kemiah, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Chaplin family's first visit in 1959 was supposed to be a quiet fishing trip. They stayed at the Butler Arms Hotel and discovered that the locals would mostly leave them alone - this being rural Kerry, where staring at famous people is considered impolite. The Chaplins kept c...

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Image: Kemiah | CC BY-SA 3.0

Waterville, County Kerry: The Other Locals

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Chaplin statue is not the only one in the village. There is also a bronze of Mick O'Dwyer, the Kerry Gaelic footballer and manager who was born nearby. O'Dwyer played for Kerry through the 1960s and 1970s and then managed them to four All-Ireland titles in five years between ...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Waterville, County Kerry: The Eightercua Stones

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Myrtle26, CC BY-SA 2.0. Long before any of the cable companies or the Chaplins or the comedians, the Bronze Age people of this corner of Kerry built a four-stone alignment 1.5 kilometres south-south-east of where the village now stands. Eightercua is roughly 3,700 years old, give or take a few centuries...

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Image: Myrtle26 | CC BY-SA 2.0