placenamesCloonagh
Cluain Each
St Columba’s links twentieth-century church building at Cloonagh with the dismantling of the nearby Derrycassan estate.
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 Each · Irish · main form · validated name
- Cloonagh · English · main form
Place & story
Stonework from Derrycassan
St Columba’s Catholic church was built in 1939–41 and dedicated by Bishop McNamee on 5 October 1941. Its builders reused stone from Derrycassan House, the former home of the Dopping and Dopping-Hepenstal families near Lough Gowna. The church’s tall square tower and polygonal chancel give it a distinctive outline. Pale limestone corner blocks and arch stones contrast with the smaller sandstone blocks used throughout the walls. [2]
The earlier church and burial ground
The new building replaced a Catholic church erected in 1832 a short distance to the north. That earlier church was demolished after its successor was built, but its graveyard continued as the community cemetery. The two sites preserve different stages of local religious life: the twentieth-century building stands apart from the place where generations had already worshipped and buried their dead. [2]
An estate becomes woodland
Nearby Derrycassan changed as profoundly as the village church site. Coillte dates the demolition of its three-storey mansion to 1939 and records the later acquisition of the estate by the forestry department. Planting transformed the grounds into woodland beside Lough Gowna. Foundations, parts of the walled garden and stone bridges survived, leaving traces of the estate within a landscape subsequently opened for walking. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Longford
- Barony
- Granard
- Civil parish
- Columbkille
- Coordinates
- 53.83154, -7.52912 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414158 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Cloonagh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- St Columba’s Catholic Church, Cloonagh, NIAH 13400605 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Derrycassan: estate history and woodland · Coillte
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.