6th century to 1156, and still standing
Grangefertagh: St Ciaran's tower
About three kilometres south of Galmoy, near a crossing of the River Goul on the Johnstown road, St Ciaran of Saigir is said to have founded a monastery in the 6th century. The Irish name was Fearta-Caerach, 'the sheep's grave'. The round tower that survives is around 31.5 metres tall with eight floors of limestone, one of the tallest in the country - a tower that height advertised a wealthy monastery. In 1156 the high king Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn burned the tower with the lector still inside it. The de Blanchville family reopened the site in the early 13th century for the Augustinian canons; the priory was dissolved in 1541, the church stayed in use until 1780, and part of it later became a handball alley. It is a free, unguarded OPW national monument. Stand at the base and look up.
Zinc and lead, 1997 to 2012
The mine that carried the name
Galmoy is better known to geologists than to tourists. The Galmoy Mine, an underground zinc and lead operation in the Rathdowney Trend a short way north near Johnstown, opened in 1997 under Arcon International Resources and passed to Lundin Mining in 2005. The discovery of the Galmoy orebodies, with their sphalerite and silver-bearing galena, helped revive the Irish base-metal industry and made Ireland a notable zinc province. Falling metal prices and depleting ore brought it down: production wound down from 2009 and the mine closed by 2012. It is abandoned and fenced. There is no visitor centre, no tour, nothing to see from the road - but the name on the maps and the share prices once came from this quiet corner of Kilkenny.
Galmoy GAA, founded 1929
A hurling parish
Galmoy is hurling country, as most of Kilkenny is. The GAA club was founded in December 1929 and has taken three Kilkenny Junior Hurling Championships, the most recent in 2004, along with a stack of divisional titles. For a parish this small, holding its own in the most successful hurling county in Ireland is no small thing. There is also a long-running handball tradition here with county, Leinster and All-Ireland titles to its name - fitting, given the old priory church down at Grangefertagh ended its days as a ball alley.