Moylough Explained

Moylough (;)^{[1] [2]} is a rural village located in County Galway in Ireland. As of the 2016 census, it had a population of 518.^[3]

Moylough is 5 km northwest of Mountbellew and 50 km from Galway. It is located on the N63 national secondary road, and is also served by the R328 and R364 regional roads.

History

Moylough was part of the ancient kingdom of the Soghain of Connacht. An 8th century Irish reliquary shaped in the form of a belt, the Moylough Belt-Shrine, was found in a peat bog by John Towey while he was cutting turf near Moylough in 1947.^{[4] [5]}

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.^[6]

Together with nearby Mountbellew, Moylough has been twinned with Elliant in Brittany since 1998.^{[7] [8]}

Amenities

Amenities within Moylough include a national (primary) school, Garda station, post office and community centre.^[9] Many of the village's amenities lie within the townland of Moylough More, including the local Catholic church (built).^[10] As of the 2011 census, Moylough More townland had a population of over 440 people.^[11]

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 Galway Gaelic footballer Enda Colleran in the town.

Former Irish rugby manager Eddie O'Sullivan is from Moylough.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

Notes and References

1. Web site: Maigh Locha / Moylough . Placenames Database of Ireland . logainm.ie . 19 February 2023 .
2. Book: Mills, A. D. . 2003 . A Dictionary of British Place-Names . Oxford University Press.
3. Web site: Moylough (Ireland) Census Town . City Population . 19 February 2023 .
4. Web site: 2019-01-31. Moylough Belt Shrine. 2022-01-13. 100 Objects. en.
5. The date has at times been erroneously reported as 1943 or 1944. See Ó Floinn (2003), p. 197
6. Web site: Moylough Castle . visitgalway.ie. 19 February 2023 .
7. Web site: Historique . Comité de jumelage Elliant – Mountbellew-Moylough . fr . 19 February 2023 .
8. Web site: Elliant. Le comité de jumelage va animer le bourg . ouest-france.fr . Société Ouest France . fr . 16 December 2022 . 19 February 2023 .
9. Web site: 17.1 Moylough Small Growth Village . Galway County Council . Draft Galway County Development Plan 2022-2028 . 19 February 2023 .
10. Web site: Saint Patrick's Catholic Church, Main Street, Chapel Road, Moylough More, Moylough, Galway . National Inventory of Architectural Heritage . buildingsofireland.ie . 19 February 2023 .
11. Web site: CD155 - Galway Population by Private Households, Occupied and Vacancy Rate . Central Statistics Office . data.gov.ie . 19 February 2023 . Population [..] Townlands [..] Moylough More, Mount Bellew, Co. Galway [..] 443.