St Ciarán of Saigir, then a medieval ruin
St Kieran's church and the monastery
The place name Eiréil means a bed or tomb, and the early history points to a monastery founded by St Ciarán of Saigir, one of the pre-Patrician saints of Ossory. Nothing of that monastery survives above ground footings. The standing ruin in Errill graveyard is the late-medieval parish church dedicated to St Kieran - roofless, with a doorway at the west end of the south wall and a chamfered, round-headed window at the east end of the same wall. Cut stones from the church were reused as headstones around the graveyard. It is a National Monument in the care of the Office of Public Works, freely accessible in the old burial ground off the green.
A 1613 Upper Ossory memorial at the crossroads
The wayside cross
At the village crossroads stands a 17th-century wayside cross. The base and pedestal rise about eight feet; the surviving shaft is under a metre. It once carried the coat of arms of the Lords of Upper Ossory and inscriptions dated 1613 and 1622 commemorating the Baron of Upper Ossory, his wife Kathrin More, and their son and daughter-in-law. Around 1860 the first Lord Castletown had the cross repaired with iron clamps, which damaged the original heraldry and lettering. It is a National Monument and one of the few visible reminders that this quiet crossroads once sat in the lordship of the FitzPatricks of Upper Ossory.
Two villages, one of Laois's best hurling clubs
Rathdowney-Errill GAA
Errill GAA was founded in 1928. In 2005 it amalgamated at all levels with neighbouring Rathdowney to form Rathdowney-Errill. The combined club won the Laois Senior Hurling Championship in 2006, again in 2008 and 2010, and has taken five county senior titles since the amalgamation - making it one of the dominant hurling clubs in the county. The home ground, Páirc Eiréil, is at the village. On a championship day the place lives for the match and goes quiet again after.