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Magee's Port - The history of Portmagee's name

Portmagee used to be known as 'An Caladh' or 'The Ferry' because of the constant traffic back and forth between the mainland and Valentia Island. The provenance of its English name however, is far less mundane.

Portmagee or Magee's Port, as it was known, is named after one of the most notorious smugglers of the 18th Century, a Captain Theobald Magee.

Another beautiful golden sunset in Portmagee

Having served in the army of King James as an Officer, Magee 'retired' to a life of merchant shipping between France, Portugal and Ireland. Thanks to the intricately chisled coast around the South West, his trade in contraband spirits, textiles and tea and tobacco, was extremely hard to police and therefore extremely profitable. He married Mrs. Bridget Morgell, the widow of a rich Dingle merchant and also the daughter of the then MP for County Kerry, Mr. Thomas Crosby.

Being related to the best smuggler in Ireland can't have sat too easily on Crosby's shouldersand their is some suspicion that Magee's death in a Lisbon monastery was due to some exile imposed by the powerful MP

Portmagee as viewed from the bridge

However, his wife, and his sons continued the family business of smuggling. Although many would view Magee's activities as smuggling, we like to think of him as a visionary of pan-European free trade. Ahem.

If you do a search on the Internet for the work 'Portmagee', you'll see a few references to a type of material. If anyone knows how this came about, please let us know.

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