placenamesAghavas
Achadh an Mheasa
Aghavas, commonly written Aughavas locally, has a community history shaped by church building, schooling and Gaelic football. Its landmarks reflect a rural parish whose activities connect scattered townlands rather than a large village street.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Achadh an Mheasa · Irish · main form · validated name
- Aghavas · English · main form
Place & story
Building Saint Joseph’s
Michael Whelan records a fundraising committee in 1922 and construction of Saint Joseph’s beginning on 1 July 1925. Stone was quarried on site; volunteers carried materials, and stonecutters worked in small sheds. [2]
A school becomes a chapel
In nearby Corduff, the Church of Ireland chapel developed from an existing school building. An account published after its closure records the school on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map and its conversion to a chapel of ease in 1847. A replacement school was built behind it and continued until 1945. The chapel gained a vestry in 1914 and remained in use until its final service on 14 November 2021. The site therefore carried education and worship through several successive arrangements. [3]
Football remembered by a player
Michael Reynolds, later an administrator with Oldcastle in Meath, recalled playing for Aughavas in the 1960s and early 1970s. Writing in 2015, he remembered his parish team reaching four senior championship finals and winning two during that period. He named Pádraic and Fergus O’Rourke among its players, identifying them as older brothers of Colm O’Rourke. His recollection gives a participant’s view of the club’s place in local life and of sporting links that continued after players moved away. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Leitrim
- Barony
- Carrigallen
- Civil parish
- Cloone
- Within
- Aghavas
- Coordinates
- 53.95791, -7.71052 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413903 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Aghavas. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- The Parish of Aughavas, County Leitrim: chapter 25, building Saint Joseph’s, pages 280–281 · Michael Whelan, 1998; Leitrim Local Studies
- Marking the history of Aughavas Church of Ireland, 20 March 2022 · Leitrim Observer
- The Secretary Sounds Off, 17 May 2015 · Michael Reynolds, Oldcastle GFC
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.