Forgney

Forgney is an area in County Longford associated with the poet Oliver Goldsmith. The Church of Ireland church in Forgney, the Church of St. Munis, is where the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, father of the poet, administered from 1718 to 1730.

Church of St. Munis

The present church was built in 1810 and replaced that of Goldsmith's day. The church contains a stained glass window with a brass plaque erected in 1897 and inscribed:

To the glory of God and in Memory of Oliver Goldsmith, Poet, Novelist, playwright, born in this parish, of which his father was for twelve years Curate. This window is erected by lovers of the man and his genious [sic].

The church is on the R392 regional road.

Approaching the church - on the R392 under the Hill of Forgney

John Henry Patterson was born in Forgney in 1867. He was an Anglo-Irish soldier, hunter, author and Zionist, best known for his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo (1907), which details his experiences while building a railway bridge over the Tsavo river in Kenya in 1898-99. In the 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness, he was portrayed by actor Val Kilmer. In the First World War, Patterson was the commander of the Jewish Legion.