placenamesLoghill
Leamhchoill
Known also as Loughill, Loghill developed beside the Shannon with a quay, a roadside village and churches whose fabric records both local and emigrant support.
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
- Leamhchoill · Irish · main form · validated name
- Loghill · English · main form
Place & story
The village in 1837
Samuel Lewis described Loughill in 1837 as a village of fifty-three houses, mostly small thatched cabins, containing 277 people. It stood on the mail road from Limerick to Tarbert. A quay near Ouvane Cottage allowed sloops to load and unload cargoes. Across the wider parish, farmers used sea-sand and seaweed as manure, sometimes bringing them from the Clare shore: the estuary connected agriculture and transport as well as separating the two counties. [2]
The Catholic church
The diocesan heritage project dates Loughill's Catholic church to 1819 and records its dedication to the Blessed Virgin Mary. A porch plaque commemorates a later blessing and dedication to Mary assumed into Heaven, performed by Bishop Murphy with parish priest James O'Byrne on 12 February 1961. The church therefore carries records of distinct stages in its history, rather than a single building and dedication date. [3]
Gifts from the parish and abroad
The same heritage account identifies donors behind several church furnishings. Parish emigrants in New York provided the altar rails, while exiles in the United States and England supported the altar's base. The O'Shaughnessy family of Jointer donated the altar, and Thomas Fitzgerald of Loughill House gave the crucifix behind it. These recorded gifts show how the church's interior brought together contributions from local households and people who had left the parish. [3]
The surviving Church of Ireland tower
The national architectural survey records the remains of Loghill's Church of Ireland church as an early-nineteenth-century Board of First Fruits building. A three-stage square tower survives beside a fragment of wall. Sandstone buttresses, pointed openings and cut-stone battlements give it a more elaborate character than its roughcast walls suggest. Tooled window surrounds and traces of tracery remain important parts of the tower's craftsmanship, even though much of the original church has disappeared. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Loghill. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Loughill, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837 · Samuel Lewis
- Churches of Loughill–Ballyhahill: Loughill Church · Diocese of Limerick Heritage Project
- Loghill Church, registration 21900906 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2017-12-01. How this page was prepared.