Moneygall

Moneygall (Irish: Muine Gall, meaning "foreigners' thicket")[3] is a small village on the border of counties Offaly and Tipperary, in Ireland. It is situated on the R445 road between Dublin and Limerick. There were 313 people living in the village as of the 2016 census.[2] Moneygall has a Catholic church, motorway service station, a car sales and repair centre, a national school, a Garda station and two pubs.[4] The nearest Church of Ireland church, Borrisnafarney, is 2 km from the village beside the former Loughton Demesne.[5][6]

Moneygall

Muine Gall
Village
Main Street, Moneygall
Moneygall
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 52°52′48″N 7°57′23″W
CountryIreland
ProvinceLeinster
CountyCounty Offaly
Government
 • Dáil ÉireannOffaly
Elevation120 m (390 ft)
Population
 (2016)[2]
313
Time zoneUTC+0 (WET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-1 (IST (WEST))
Irish Grid ReferenceS028811

The village received international attention for being the ancestral home of Falmouth Kearney, a maternal great-great-great grandfather of Barack Obama. Obama visited the village in 2011.

Moneygall is in the Dáil constituency of Laois Offaly (Dáil constituency). It was in the former constituency of Offaly and was one term in the Tipperary North Dáil constituency.[7]

Transport
The R445 Limerick to Dublin road passes through Moneygall

Moneygall is on the R445 regional road and close to the M7 motorway where Junction 23 provides access to the village.

Bus Éireann no longer provides a service to Moneygall[8] but some of JJ Kavanagh and Sons services between Dublin Airport and Shannon Airport continue to stop in the village.[9] Bus service 854 operated by Local Link Tipperary between Roscrea railway station and Nenagh calls at Main Street and Obama Plaza. The service operates seven days a week. [10][11]

There is no train station in the village but the nearest stations are in Nenagh, Cloughjordan and Roscrea, all on the Limerick-Ballybrophy railway line, a feeder service to the main Cork to Dublin line, operated by Iarnród Éireann.[12]

The closest airport with scheduled passenger services is Shannon Airport in County Clare.

Education

There is one Catholic national school in the village. The former Church of Ireland school (now used as a parish hall) was built in 1888 beside the R490 Borrisokane turn-off, and closed in 1976, when its pupils were transferred to the neighbouring village of Cloughjordan. An earlier building,[13] constructed around 1800, was previously used as a school. It was then used by the local Church of Ireland community as a chapel of ease until the late 1970s. It has now been converted to a private residence.

Children travel mainly to either Roscrea or Nenagh for secondary schooling. The nearest third-level institutions are Tipperary Institute in Thurles or the University of Limerick, Limerick Institute of Technology and Mary Immaculate College, all of which are in Limerick.

Sport

While all of the village is located in County Offaly, the Gaelic Athletic Association playing field is located in County Tipperary, and Moneygall GAA play in the Tipperary Hurling Championship.

Moneygall FC opened its new grounds in 2017 in the centre of the village. The club, while based in Offaly, compete in North Tipperary.

Demographics

As of the 2016 census, there were 313 people living in Moneygall.[2] The previous 2011 census counted 310 people in the village (153 males and 157 females). This, in turn, was an increase of 12 people (4%) since the census of 2006.[14]

Visit by Barack Obama

Falmouth Kearney, a maternal great-great-great grandfather of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, emigrated from Moneygall to New York City at the age of 19 in 1850 and eventually resettled in Tipton County, Indiana.[15] Kearney's father, Joseph, had been the village shoemaker, then a prosperous, skilled trade. The whole Kearney family emigrated to Ross County, Ohio, in the first half of the 19th century. Falmouth Kearney's youngest daughter, Mary Ann, moved from Indiana to Kansas after her father's death in 1878. Mary Ann Kearney was a paternal grandmother of Stanley Dunham, President Obama's maternal grandfather.

On 23 May 2011, Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, visited Moneygall as part of a visit to Ireland.[16] They were welcomed by 5,000 people and greeted upon arrival by the President's eighth cousin, Henry Healy.[17] Following a walkabout on the main street, where they shook hands with many local residents, the Obamas entered a house that had been built on the site where Falmouth Kearney had lived. Afterwards, they visited Ollie Hayes's pub to meet more of the President's distant relatives and to study the birth records of his ancestors. President and Mrs. Obama drank Irish stout to the traditional toast, sláinte (meaning "good health"), and Mrs. Obama went behind the bar to learn how to pull a pint.[18][19][20]

  • Presidential helicopter "Marine One" flies to Moneygall
  • Henry Healy greets his eighth cousin, Barack Obama
  • A large crowd watches President Obama's approach
  • Michelle Obama pours a pint of stout

Post Obama

The Barack Obama Plaza service area was opened at Junction 23 of the M7 on the outskirts of Moneygall in June 2014.[21][22][23]

Notable people

See also

References
  1. "Ordnance Survey Map". osi.ie. Archived from the original on 29 August 2012. Retrieved 22 November 2012.
  2. "Sapmap Area - Settlements - Moneygall". Census 2016. Central Statistics Office. April 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  3. "Moneygall / Muine Gall". Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  4. "County Development Plan - Moneygall". Offaly County Council.
  5. "Cloughjordan - Diocese of Killaloe". ireland.anglican.org. Church of Ireland. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 8 May 2009.
  6. "Borrisnafarney Church of Ireland Church, Ballycormick, County Offaly". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  7. "Constituency Commission Report 2012 – Waterford – Tipperary – Laois – Offaly – Kildare area" (PDF). Constituency Commission. 14 July 2012.
  8. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "JJ Kavanagh - Scheduled Services". Archived from the original on 10 November 2011. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  10. "New daily services from Local Link". The Nenagh Guardian. 19 September 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  11. "Local Link Tipperary announces 2 New Daily Bus Services". locallinktipperary.ie. Local Link Tipperary. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  12. http://www.irishrail.ie
  13. "Moneygall Former Chapel of Ease, Moneygall, County Offaly". buildingsofireland.ie. National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  14. "Population Classified by Area". Central Statistics Office. April 2012. ISBN 978-1-4064-2654-0
  15. "Rector traces Obama's Irish roots". BBC. 3 May 2007.
  16. "US President arrives at Moneygall". RTÉ News and Current Affairs. 23 May 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  17. "Locals savour every minute of American dream". The Irish Times. 23 May 2011.
  18. "The day O'bama stormed Moneygall". The Irish Times. 24 May 2011.
  19. "President Barack Obama watches as First Lady Michelle Obama draws a pint". White House Flickr account. 23 May 2011.
  20. "Barack And Michelle Obama Pour Guinness". Business Insider. 23 May 2011.
  21. "Moneygall Motorway Service - Quinn Architects | Quinn Architects". quinnarchitects.ie. 14 November 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  22. "Moneygall to get a 'Barack Obama Plaza', creating 60 new jobs". thejournal.ie. 26 January 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  23. "Barack Obama Plaza creates 60 new jobs for Moneygall". Offaly Independent. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
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