placenamesCooraclare
Cuar an Chláir
St Senan’s Church, a 1943 survey and a later singing club offer different views of community life in Cooraclare.
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
- Cuar an Chláir · Irish · main form · validated name
- Cooraclare · English · main form
Place & story
St Senan’s Church
St Senan’s Catholic church was built in 1836, with a belfry added in 1861. Its T-shaped plan brings the congregation into a nave and two transepts. Inside, four Ionic columns frame the plaster altar backdrop beneath a curved pediment, contrasting with the pointed windows and Gothic marble tabernacle. The building records several architectural influences within a parish church whose main form predates the Great Famine. [2]
A surveyor’s village, 1943
James Henchy’s Irish Tourist Association survey of 30 October 1943 describes Cooraclare as a small village of about one hundred people. Water came from a spring well, and there was no public lighting or sewerage scheme. The creamery was its only recorded industry. A national school, county-library branch and post office served the community; postal facilities included money orders, a telegraph and a telephone. The nearest railway station was at Kilrush. [3]
The Chapel Gate Singers
The village’s singing tradition is associated with local postman Frank O’Brien’s song, The Chapel Gates of Cooraclare. Its name later passed to the Chapel Gate Singers Club, established in 2012 to encourage traditional singing in the village and surrounding district. The connection gives a familiar local landmark a second life in music: the chapel entrance became a song title and then a name for organised community singing. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Clare
- Barony
- Moyarta
- Civil parish
- Kilmacduane
- Within
- Cooraclare
- Coordinates
- 52.70068, -9.42028 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1412546 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Cooraclare. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- St Senan’s Catholic Church, NIAH 20405703 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Cooraclare: Irish Tourist Association survey, 30 October1943 · James Henchy; Clare County Library
- Cooraclare: Frank O’Brien and the Chapel Gate Singers · Clare County Council, Visit Clare
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.