The Harlem News

Dingle: Irish Haven For Submarine Warfare Survivors

When a German submarine deposited at Dingle, Ireland, twenty-eight survivors of a Greek steamship it had sunk, it landed near the tip of the westernmost peninsula in the British Isles, says a bulletin from the Washington, D. C., headquarters of the National Geographic society.

"The town lies on the north bank of Dingle bay, an indentation just south of the estuary of the famous River Shannon," continues the bulletin.

"Normally Dingle occupies itself with its large fishing fleet and the trade of the rural folk in the surrounding region. In the summer, it also busies itself caring for vacationists who go there to climb the nearby mountains, sail in the out of the fjordlike indentation in the coast, and to bathe in the cool waters of the bay, here and there rimmed with broad sandy beaches.

"While Dingle and Dingle bay are far from population centers, the region has frequently reached the news headlines since the epoch-making flight of Col. Charles A. Lindbergh who passed over nearby Valencia island on his way to Paris more than a decade ago. Valencia lies at the southern side of the entrance to Dingle bay, about ten miles across the water from Dingle. Admiral Byrd also flew over the island and it has since been an important spot on maps of flyers on the great circle trans atlantic route from the United States to southern England and northern France. Because it has so often been the landfall for transatlantic flyers it has been called the 'Air Portal of Europe.'

"County Kerry in which Dingle is situated is famous for its lakes of Killarney and for its rugged coast. On the peninsula at the back door of Dingle, mountains rise sharply to more than 3,000 feet. Once the mountains were covered with timber but demand for firewood for homes and early iron furnaces stripped the heights. Cattle grazing on the lower slopes and goats and sheep at higher altitudes do not permit the return of the forests, but to the people of the region the cattle industry means more dollars than does timber.

"Dingle is linked by both highway and rail with Limerick, Cork and other important population and industrial centers of Southern Ireland.

"The city's name from 'Daingean,' meaning a fortress, recalls that Dingle once was a walled town. At one time it did a thriving trade with Spain. Legend persists that after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, nearly a score of Spanish ships entered Dingle bay and never left. The crews are supposed to have abandoned their ships, married Irish women and settled down in the vicinity."