placenamesMeelick
Míleac
A former post office, records of a vanished castle island and the restored weir trace different parts of Meelick’s riverside history.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Míleac · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Meelick · English · main form
Place & story
The former post office
Meelick’s former post office occupies a house dated by the architectural inventory to about 1780. Two adjoining blocks differ slightly in height, with a timber shopfront on the northwestern block and a lower return behind it. Slate roofs, roughcast walls and surviving sash windows preserve much of its earlier character. The survey recorded both its former postal role and its use as a shop, rather than dating the start of postal service there. [2]
A castle island lost from the maps
Research published by Burke’s East Galway traces Illanedarragh Castle through estate maps and the nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey. By 1838 no castle remained standing, although local people identified its former site on Old Castle Island. The small island appears on navigation mapping of 1837 and the 1842 Ordnance Survey map but was absent from the revised mapping of the 1890s. Its disappearance belongs to a river landscape substantially altered by navigation works. [3]
The weir and restored connection
Meelick Weir was built in the 1840s as part of the Shannon Navigation. Waterways Ireland’s account describes a structure more than 300 metres long, regulating navigation levels between Athlone and Meelick. Storm damage and the winter floods of 2015–16 preceded closure of its walkway. Following a €3.2 million restoration, the weir and walkway were formally opened on 24 September 2021, reconnecting Meelick in Galway with Lusmagh in Offaly. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Meelick. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Meelick Post Office:30410822 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Illanedarragh Castle, Meelick · Burke’s East Galway
- Public Accounts Committee briefing,2024: Meelick Weir and Walkway, p 13 · Waterways Ireland, published by the Houses of the Oireachtas
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.