Craughwell

Craughwell (historically ''Creaghmoyle'', from ) is a town and townland in County Galway, Ireland.

Name

The name Craughwell is also used as a surname, properly '' Ó Creachmhaoil'', though often anglicised as ''Craughwell'', ''Croughwell'' and ''Crockwell''. The surname was largely unknown outside of the southeast of County Galway until the end of the 19th century when émigrés established families which still thrive in Barbados, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Cornwall, Ohio and Berkshire County, Massachusetts, among other places.

The name is composed of two Irish words: ''creach'', meaning in this case "plunder", presumably in reference to herds of cattle, which were often targets of thefts and cattle raids amongst the Gaels. The usual Gaelic word for cattle is ''crodh'', often Anglicised in place-names as , although the words ''cro'', ''crocharsach'', and ''crò'' are all connected with sheep, sheep enclosures or meadows. An alternate etymology of ''creach'' is related to ''craig'', and ''creag'', and the English word '' crag'', which refers to a rock, or the bare rock crest of a hill (related words are ''cruach'', for a mountain, pinnacle, or a rounded hill that stands apart or for any type of pile, or heap, and ''cnoc'', for a hill or eminence); and ''maol'', which is a word for a round-shaped hill or mountain, bare of trees. It is anglicised as , and is common in Irish and Scottish place names such as the Mull of Kintyre. Gaelic spelling rules require that ''maol'' following ''creach'' be lenited; that is, an is inserted after the first letter, providing the first letter is a consonant (and not an , , or ). This makes the preceding consonant silent, or changes its sound (, or , for instance, are silent or sound like an English or ). Gaelic spelling rules also require that, with the first letter lenited, the last vowel should be slender (an , or an ). As both vowels in ''maol'' are broad, an is inserted after. These two changes alter the sound of ''maol'' to ''mhaoil''. The two words together, therefore, sounds to an English ear like ''Crockwell'', or ''Craughwell'', and it is Anglicised thus (the Gaelic personal names ''Seán'' (John) and ''Seamus'' (James) became ''Iain'' and ''Hamish'' in Scotland by similar means).

Patrick W. Joyce, the pioneer of Irish placename studies, speculated that the name in Irish was ''Creamhchoill'', ('garlic wood'). He was unaware of the local spelling and pronunciation but confirmed in a later work that the village was called ''Creachmhaoil'' in Irish.

The village of Creachmhaoil celebrates its connection with the Gaelic poet Antoine Ó Raifteiri, John Huston and Anjelica Huston, and provides the surnames of notables including American painter Douglass Crockwell the Bermudian parliamentarian Shawn Crockwell, JP, MP, the late Bermudian FIFA-certified football referee and Honorary Life Vice-President of the Bermuda Football Association Carlyle McNeil Eugene Crockwell, Bermudian footballer Mikkail Kristopher Crockwell, Bermudian cricketer Fiqre Crockwell, English cricketer Leslie Crockwell, Guinness World Record holding rower Matthew Craughwell, and American author Thomas J. Craughwell.The Huffington Post: Thomas J. Craughwell
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Amenities

The town currently has three pubs, a Garda station, a pharmacy, a furniture store, post office, hairdressers, a service station, a lawnmower shop, an athletics track, and a pizzeria and fish and chip shop.

See also

* Craughwell GAA
* Craughwell railway station
* List of towns and villages in Ireland

References

External links

Craughwell GAA Club

{{Authority control

Towns and villages in County Galway