Menlough () is a village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Killoscobe in northeast

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

, Ireland. It is located 35 km from

Galway Galway ( ; , ) is a City status in Ireland, city in (and the county town of) County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay. It is the most populous settlement in the province of Connacht, the List of settleme ...

, 27 km from

Tuam Tuam (; , meaning 'mound' or 'burial-place') is a town in Ireland and the second-largest settlement in County Galway. It is west of the midland Region, Ireland, midlands of Ireland, about north of Galway city. The town is in a civil parishe ...

, 30 km from

Ballinasloe Ballinasloe ( ; ) is a town in the easternmost part of County Galway, Ireland. Located at an ancient crossing point on the River Suck, evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes a number of Bronze Age sites. Built around a 12th-centur ...

, and 20 km from

Athenry Athenry (; ) is a town in County Galway, Ireland, which lies east of Galway city. Some of the attractions of the medieval town are its town wall, Athenry Castle, its priory and its 13th-century street-plan. The town is also well known by virt ...

. Together with nearby Skehana, Menlough is a half-parish within the diocesan parish of Killascobe in the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tuam The Archdiocese of Tuam ( ; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in western Ireland. The archdiocese is led by the Archbishop of Tuam, who serves as pastor of the mother church, the Cathe ...

History

Evidence of ancient settlement in the area include a number of

ringfort Ringforts or ring forts are small circular fortification, fortified settlements built during the Bronze Age, Iron Age and early Middle Ages up to about the year 1000 AD. They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland. There are ...

souterrain ''Souterrain'' (from French ', meaning "subterrain", is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought northwards from Gaul d ...

and castle sites in the

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

s of Menlough Eighter and Menlough Oughter. Historically, the area was a stronghold of the O'Mannion clan, and the ruin of a former O'Mannion castle is located in the fields behind the grotto in Menlough village. Another O'Mannion castle in the parish, known as Garbally Castle, is better known as there are more extensive ruins. It is visible on the road from Galway to Menlough as it passes through Skehana. The Ffrench family, one of the 14 Tribes of Galway, were local landowners by the 17th century. The Catholic church of St Marys, in the parish of Menlough-Skehana (Killascobe), was constructed in the mid-19th century on land granted by the Ffrench family. Beside the church is a former

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the island was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom. A sep ...

(RIC) barracks. Damaged by fire in 1922, during the

War of Independence Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

, it later became a Garda station and is now a private house. A monument to the Menlough battalion of the old IRA was erected in the village in the 1980s.

Amenities

There are three pubs in the parish; one is located in Menlough village, one in the townland of Guilka and one in Skehana. There is also a shop. The parish has two national schools. These are at Garbally (next to the castle) and in Menlough village. The latter school, Menlough National School (also known as Scoil Mhuire Naofa) is a co-educational (mixed) primary school, which had 77 pupils as of November 2009.

Sport

Menlough GAA is the local

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

club and participates in the Galway Football Championship. The club's pitch is located outside the village on the approaches from Galway city. The facility has a clubhouse, dressing rooms and stand, and was developed in the early 1990s.

Notable people

* Padraig Gearr Ó Mannin (), member of the

United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association, formed in the wake of the French Revolution, to secure Representative democracy, representative government in Ireland. Despairing of constitutional reform, and in defiance both of British ...

, born Menlough

References

{{County Galway Towns and villages in County Galway

History

Amenities

Sport

Notable people

See also

References