placenamesCloncagh
Cluain Cath
Cloncagh preserves an older church site alongside a nineteenth-century parish church and a record of early co-operative dairying.
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
- Cluain Cath · Irish · main form · validated name
- Cloncagh · English · main form
Place & story
The old church site
The diocesan heritage survey places Cloncagh’s ruined church in the centre of its graveyard, within a seven-acre enclosure with two banks. The surviving fabric consists of the north wall and west gable. John O’Donovan measured the nave in 1840 at 37 feet long and 16 feet wide. [2]
Rebuilding after the Big Wind
St Mary’s Church was built in 1840 after the local mass house suffered destructive storm damage during the Night of the Big Wind in 1839. The diocesan survey records its original roof and carved wooden altar. It also notes a chalice left by Fr Daniel Hourigan, a parish priest in the 1740s, engraved with his name. [3]
An early co-operative creamery
The Limerick Civic Trust’s history of butter-making identifies Clouncagh’s creamery, founded in 1890, as one of the county’s earliest co-operative creameries. Butter production ended in 1973. Milk collection continued longer, with the collection platform closing in August 1988. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Limerick
- Barony
- Connello Upper
- Civil parish
- Cloncagh
- Coordinates
- 52.45392, -8.92683 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414035 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Cloncagh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Knockaderry–Cloncagh: Church Ruins · Limerick Diocese Heritage Project
- Knockaderry–Cloncagh: Cloncagh Church · Limerick Diocese Heritage Project
- Butter — The Cream of County Limerick · Mary O’Riorda / Limerick Civic Trust
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.