From 964 AD to Cromwell
The O'Garas of Lough Gara
The Ó Gadhra family appears in the Irish annals as early as the late 10th century. By the medieval period they held a substantial chiefdom on Lough Gara, with their principal castle at Moygara on the lake's north-west corner. Fergal O'Gara was the last chief to hold the land; the entire territory was confiscated in 1650 under the Cromwellian settlement. Fergal is also remembered as the patron who commissioned the Annals of the Four Masters from the Franciscan friars in the 1630s.
Bronze Age into the medieval
Lough Gara crannógs
Lough Gara is one of the most archaeologically rich lakes in Ireland. The shallows hold a high concentration of crannógs — artificial island dwellings — used from the Bronze Age into the medieval period. Many were exposed in the dramatic drainage of the lake in the 1950s, when its level was lowered by several feet. The visible crannógs and the lakeshore archaeology are documented by the local Lakes and Legends project.
A medieval site, a surviving name
The monastic foundation
An early-medieval monastery — Mainistir Réadáin — gave the village its name. The original foundations are long gone but the parish church and the surrounding fields preserve the layout. Nothing dramatic survives — just the name and the ground.