Moylough ( ; ) is a rural village located in

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. As of the 2016 census, it had a population of 518. The village is in a

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 the same name. Moylough is northwest of

Mountbellew Mountbellew or Mountbellew Bridge (historically ''Creggaun'', from ) is a town in County Galway, Ireland. It lies mostly within the townland of Treanrevagh (''Trian Riabhach'') on the N63 national primary road. As of the 2022 census, it had a ...

and 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 ...

. It is located on the N63

national secondary road A national secondary road () is a category of road in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. These roads form an important part of the national route network but are secondary to the main arterial routes which are classified as national primary roads. Nat ...

, and is also served by the R328 and R364 regional roads.

History

Moylough was part of the ancient kingdom of the

Soghain The Soghain were a people of ancient Ireland. The 17th-century scholar Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh identified them as part of a larger group called the Cruithin. Mac Fhirbhisigh stated that the Cruithin included "the Dál Araidhi ál nAraidi ...

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

. An 8th century Irish

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

shaped in the form of a belt, the

Moylough Belt-Shrine The Moylough Belt-Shrine is a highly decorated 8th-century Irish reliquary shaped in the form of a belt. It consists of four hinged bronze segments, each forming cavities that hold strips of plain leather assumed to have once been a girdle belon ...

, was found in a

peat bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muske ...

by John Towey while he was cutting

turf Sod is the upper layer of turf that is harvested for transplanting. Turf consists of a variable thickness of a soil medium that supports a community of turfgrasses. In British and Australian English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', ...

near Moylough in 1947. Other evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes Moylough Castle, a 13th-century tower house historically associated with the Norman de Cotterell and de Cogeshale families. Together with nearby

, Moylough has been twinned with

Elliant Elliant (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department and administrative region of Brittany in north-western France. It lies west of Quimper. Population In French the inhabitants of Elliant are known as ''Elliantais''. See also *Communes ...

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

since 1998.

Amenities

Amenities within Moylough include a national (primary) school, Garda station, post office and community centre. Many of the village's amenities lie within 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 ...

of Moylough More, including the local Catholic church (built ). As of the 2011 census, Moylough More townland had a population of over 440 people.

Notable people

Moylough is the birthplace of Thomas Higgins who became the shortest serving MP in Westminster when, representing the Irish Parliamentary Party, he was posthumously declared elected a Member of Parliament of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 26 January 1906. Thomas Carr, Archbishop of Melbourne 1886–1917, was born near Moylough in 1839. There is a statue of the

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

Enda Colleran Enda Colleran (May 1942 – 8 April 2004) was an Irish Gaelic footballer and manager who played for the Mountbellew–Moylough club and at senior level for the Galway county team. Career A native of Moylough, Colleran's Gaelic football prowe ...

in the town. Former Irish rugby manager

Eddie O'Sullivan Eddie O'Sullivan (born 21 November 1958) is an Irish rugby union coach, player (wing & fly-half) and a former Gaelic footballer. He is a former head coach of Buccaneers RFC the United States national rugby union team and of the Ireland nation ...

is from Moylough.

References

{{County Galway Towns and villages in County Galway Civil parishes of County Galway