placenamesKilglass
Cill Ghlais
Kilglass’s religious history spans several church sites, while the neighbouring lake forms part of the wider Strokestown angling district.
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
- Cill Ghlais · Irish · main form · validated name
- Kilglass · English · main form
Place & story
Sacred Heart and its predecessors
The parish dates Kilglass’s Sacred Heart Church to 1897, during Father John Maher’s ministry. It replaced a T-shaped building that had stood on the same site for more than a century. Earlier churches had occupied sites at Mullaghmacormack and in Kilglass Cemetery, where the church was known as Saint Mary’s. This sequence records a religious community moving between sites and replacing buildings, rather than a single structure surviving from its earliest foundation. [2]
The restoration committee’s work
Sacred Heart underwent another substantial renewal completed in December 2014. The parish credits donations and the work of the Kilglass restoration committee, and records repayment of an Elphin building-fund loan in July 2016. It also proposed a manuscript record of contributors’ names to remain in the church, preserving the community’s role in that later campaign of repair. [2]
Kilglass Lake’s angling tradition
Kilglass Lake, northeast of Strokestown and west of Rooskey, is identified by Inland Fisheries Ireland as an important coarse fishery. Its recorded fish include bream, roach, tench, rudd and pike. The agency describes it as a venue for winter pike leagues and identifies a Waterways Ireland marina among its access points. The lake places Kilglass within an interconnected waterside district whose recreational life reaches beyond the immediate church settlement. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Roscommon
- Barony
- Roscommon
- Barony
- Ballintober North
- Coordinates
- 53.79652, -8.03035 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1411758 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kilglass. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Sacred Heart Church Kilglass: history and renovation · Parish of Kilglass, Rooskey and Slatta
- Strokestown Coarse Angling Centre: Kilglass Lake · Inland Fisheries Ireland
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.