placenamesDerrybrien
Daraidh Braoin
St Patrick’s Church preserves an older community landmark in a village whose recent history was transformed by a major landslide.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Daraidh Braoin · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Derrybrien · English · main form
Place & story
St Patrick’s Church
St Patrick’s Church in Derrybrien West has a simple T-shaped plan, with its altar at the north end and a porch facing south. Pointed windows, stained glass and an open bellcote give the exterior its character. Inside, timber panelling defines the gallery and confessionals, while a carved limestone font stands near the entrance. An altar recess added in 1956 commemorates Thomas Slattery, recording a later contribution to the building’s development. [2]
The October 2003 landslide
A major peat landslide began near Derrybrien on 16 October 2003, while a wind farm was under construction in the Slieve Aughty mountains. Contemporary reporting described peat moving through commercial forestry towards the village road, stopping near an unoccupied house. Nobody was injured, but work on the wind farm stopped and local residents sought an independent inquiry. The incident prompted investigations by both the developer and Galway County Council and fears about further movement after rain. [3]
The wind farm’s later history
The development’s planning history continued long after the landslide. In March 2022, ESB announced that its subsidiary Gort Windfarms would decommission the wind farm following An Bord Pleanála’s refusal of substitute consent that February. Operations had been paused after that decision. The company’s announcement concerned preparations for removing seventy turbines, marking a decisive change in the future of the development associated with Derrybrien’s most widely reported modern event. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Galway
- Barony
- Loughrea
- Civil parish
- Killeenadeema
- Within
- Derrybrien West
- Coordinates
- 53.06709, -8.61170 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1167034 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Derrybrien. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- St Patrick’s Catholic Church, NIAH30412401 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Local fears after Galway landslide, 18 October2003 · Lorna Siggins / The Irish Times
- ESB to decommission Derrybrien Wind Farm, 16 March2022 · ESB
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.