Mahoonagh, Maigh Tamhnach, Co. Limerick

Maigh Tamhnach · Co. Limerick

The village everyone calls Castlemahon, a Fitzgerald castle ruin, and the home parish of the Quaid hurling dynasty.

Mahoonagh is the official name, the one on the parish register and the old maps, but nobody uses it. To everyone in west Limerick the village is Castlemahon, after the Fitzgerald castle whose ruin gave the place its identity. It sits on the east bank of the River Deel, four kilometres south-east of Newcastle West, in the rolling farming country of the Golden Vale. This is land that has always worked for a living - dairy, cattle, the slow business of the seasons.

The inventory is short and you should know it before you turn off the road. There is a church, St John the Baptist, opened in 1961. There is a primary school built on the site of an old church. There is one bar on Main Street. There is a graveyard with a great deal of history in it and a castle ruin with rather less of it left standing. And there is a GAA field at Coolyroe that means more to the parish than all of the above combined.

What Castlemahon has instead of attractions is roots. The MacCarthy king Cormac was said to keep a residence here in the twelfth century. The Fitzgeralds built the castle. The creamery, Castlemahon Foods, kept the village in work from 1892 until it closed in 2006 with the loss of around three hundred jobs - a hard day in a small place. And the Quaid family, goalkeepers for Limerick across four generations, came from this parish. If you want a postcard, keep driving to Adare. If you want to understand how a working west Limerick parish actually holds together, this is a fair place to look.

Population

Small rural parish (a few hundred in the village)

Pubs

1and counting

Founded

Fitzgerald castle late 12th to 13th century; parish medieval

01 / 07

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The name

Mahoonagh on the map, Castlemahon on the lips.

The civil parish is Mahoonagh, from Maigh Tamhnach, 'the plain of the clearings'. But ask anyone within ten kilometres and the village is Castlemahon - named for the castle the Fitzgeralds left in ruins above it. Two names, one place.

Stories & lore → 02 The place

A working parish on the east bank of the Deel.

Four kilometres south-east of Newcastle West, in the fertile farming country of the Golden Vale. A church, a primary school, one bar on Main Street, a GAA field down the road, and the river. More parish than tourist stop, and honest about it.

Getting there → 03 The hurling

Quaid country. Four generations between the posts.

Feohanagh-Castlemahon GAA gave Limerick the Quaids - Jack, Tommy, Joe and now Nickie, goalkeepers across four generations. In west Limerick that is a heritage site of its own kind. The pitch at Coolyroe is named Quaid Park.

Stories & lore →

02 / 07

The pubs.

None of these are themed Irish pubs, because they don't need to be. A few that earn the trip:

The Villager Bar

The one pub, and the social centre

Village pub, Main Street

On Main Street in the heart of Castlemahon, run by Mahoonagh Tavern Ltd. This is the pub in the village - the meeting point, the place that fills after a match at Quaid Park, the spot where the parish does its talking. Evenings during the week, afternoons at the weekend. If you want a pint in Castlemahon, this is the address.

03 / 07

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

Fitzgerald stronghold, in ruins

The castle that named the village

The ruin that gives Castlemahon its everyday name is a square tower, around thirty feet of it still standing, raised by the Fitzgeralds. Sources put the building somewhere between the late twelfth century and a rebuilding around 1490. By 1587 the castle, recorded then under the name Mahoonagh, had passed from the McGibbon Fitzgeralds to Sir Henry Ughtred in the wreckage of the Desmond rebellions. Earlier still, after the Norman conquest, the manor of Mahoonagh - 150 acres of arable land - was granted to Thomas de Clare, son of the Earl of Gloucester, until he was killed fighting the O'Briens of Thomond in 1287. The stones are quieter now than the history attached to them.

Four generations in the goal

The Quaid dynasty

Feohanagh-Castlemahon GAA was founded in 1890 and plays out of Quaid Park at Coolyroe. The name is no accident. The Quaids of this parish have kept goal for Limerick across four generations: Jack Quaid, then Tommy Quaid - widely rated one of the finest goalkeepers of his era, who minded the Limerick net from 1976 until 1993 and died young in 1998 - then Joe Quaid, and now Nickie Quaid, an All-Star and an All-Ireland winner. Hurling is the parish religion that runs alongside the other one, and in a village this size a family that produced four county goalkeepers is the closest thing to a monument.

Pins in the walls

St Nicholas and the old graveyard

Before the present church there was St Nicholas', built in the 1830s by Fr Michael Sheehan on the site of a still older medieval church. It was a troubled building - by the early 1900s Canon Irwin found the foundations faulty and pins had to be driven in to keep the walls upright. The primary school stands on its site now. The old graveyard nearby holds generations of the parish, including ten priests listed on a memorial plaque from 1999 covering the years 1836 to 1959. The present church, St John the Baptist, was begun on Ascension Thursday in 1960 and opened the following year.

04 / 07

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

Castle ruin and old graveyard There is no waymarked trail here, just the village itself. Walk to the castle ruin that gave the place its name, then the old graveyard with its memorial to the parish priests. Quiet, unmanaged, and more atmospheric for it. Wear boots if it has rained, which in west Limerick it usually has.

Short, around the villagedistance

30-45 minutestime

River Deel and the back roads The Deel runs along the east edge of the village. The reward here is not a view in a frame but the ordinary west Limerick countryside - hedgerows, dairy pasture, the Golden Vale doing what it does. A walk for the sake of walking, not for a photograph.

As far as you likedistance

An hour or moretime

05 / 07

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The Golden Vale greens up and the GAA season gets going. As good a time as any to pass through, and the days are getting long.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Long evenings and championship hurling. A summer Sunday when Feohanagh-Castlemahon are playing is the version of the parish worth catching.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Quiet, golden, and the farming year turning. Pleasant for the back roads and the river.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and the weather coming in wet off the Atlantic to the west. The pub keeps going; not much else does. Bring waterproofs.

◐ Mind yourself

06 / 07

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Expecting a tourist village

Castlemahon is a working farming parish, not a destination. There is one pub, a church, a school and a castle ruin. That is the honest list. Come for roots and quiet, not for cafes and craft shops - there are none.

Looking for a grand castle

Mahoonagh Castle is a square tower ruin around thirty feet high, not a visitor attraction. It named the village and it is worth a look, but adjust the expectation. The history is bigger than what is left standing.

Confusing Mahoonagh, Castlemahon and Feohanagh

Mahoonagh is the parish, Castlemahon is the everyday name for the main village, and Feohanagh is the second village in the same parish, about eight kilometres away on the R522. The GAA club joins the two names together. Locals will sort you out.

Getting there.

By car

Castlemahon sits about 4 km south-east of Newcastle West. Come off the N21 at Newcastle West and follow the local roads south-east toward the village; Feohanagh is a further 8 km on via the R522. There is no signposted tourist route - use a map or sat-nav for Castlemahon, Co. Limerick.

By bus

No direct service to the village. Newcastle West, 4 km away, is the nearest hub with Bus Eireann connections toward Limerick and Tralee, and Local Link covers the rural parts of west Limerick. You will want a car for the last leg.

Next on the tour

Co. Limerick

Newcastle West

Four kilometres north-west. The market town of west Limerick - Desmond Castle, full services, restaurants, and the Limerick Greenway. The obvious base and next stop.

Co. Limerick

Ardagh

About 10 km north. The village where the famous Ardagh Chalice was found in 1868 - now in the National Museum. A bigger heritage claim than its size suggests.

Co. Limerick

Rathkeale

Around 15 km north-east on the N21 toward Limerick. A larger town with Castle Matrix and a long, layered history of its own.

Co. Limerick

Abbeyfeale

West along the N21 toward the Kerry border. Market town on the River Feale, abbey ruins, the Greenway, and five days of music in May.