placenamesFeenagh
Fíonach
Feenagh grew around its church, whose changing fabric and memorials link the village with a wider parish and with Rome.
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
- Fíonach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Feenagh · English · main form
Place & story
A village around its church
The Limerick Diocesan Heritage Project dates the development of Feenagh village to the late eighteenth century, when it grew around the church. Feenagh and Kilmeedy became a separate parish in 1841, following the division of Castletown Conyers parish. Father Edmund Molony became its first parish priest in 1842. This sequence distinguishes the growth of the village from the later creation of the parish which it shares with Kilmeedy. [2]
Saint Ita’s changing building
Saint Ita’s Church incorporates several stages of rebuilding. An earlier thatched church was replaced in the late eighteenth century by a slated, T-shaped building. Father Patrick Lee’s renovation of 1877 raised the walls and roofs and introduced Gothic windows. Limestone pinnacles, a battlemented parapet and a bellcote give the entrance its distinctive outline. Inside, the inventory records a carved marble altar showing the Last Supper, a decorated marble font and patterned tiles in the chancel. [3]
A local priest remembered in Rome
A plaque outside Saint Ita’s commemorates Monsignor Michael O’Riordan, a native of Kilmurry in the Feenagh district. He became rector of the Irish College in Rome in 1905 and worked for recognition of the Irish martyrs, particularly Oliver Plunkett. O’Riordan died in August 1919. The memorial was erected in 1989, seventy years after his death, preserving a specific connection between this rural parish and Irish ecclesiastical life overseas. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Limerick
- Barony
- Connello Upper
- Civil parish
- Kilmeedy
- Coordinates
- 52.39135, -8.88144 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414041 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Feenagh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Feenagh-Kilmeedy Parish: history and churches · Matthew Tobin and Lisa O’Connor, Limerick Diocesan Heritage Project
- Saint Ita’s Catholic Church, Feenagh: 21904510 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2017-12-01. How this page was prepared.