Carrigaholt is a parish in

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,817 ...

and part of the Cois Fharraige grouping of parishes within the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe The Diocese of Killaloe ( ; ga, Deoise Chill Dalua) is a Roman Catholic diocese in mid-western Ireland, one of six suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cashel and Emly. The cathedral church of the diocese is the Cathedral of S ...

. The co-parish priest is Michael Casey as of 2022. The history of the parish is a complicated one. In the time of Father Michael Meehan (1810-1878)

Loop Head Loop Head (), is a headland on the north side of the mouth of the River Shannon, in County Clare in the west of Ireland. Loop Head is marked by a prominent lighthouse. The opposite headland on the south side of the Shannon is Kerry Head. The Sh ...

formed just one parish under the name of "Moyarta and Kilballyowen". Before 1817 it was known as Kilballyowen. In 1878 it was split into the parishes of

Cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

(western part of the peninsula) and Carrigaholt (eastern part of the peninsula). That recreated the medieval parishes in that area. The main church of the parish is the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in

Carrigaholt Carrigaholt () is a small fishing village in County Clare, Ireland, a castle and a Catholic parish by the same name. The area was officially classified as part of the West Clare Gaeltacht; an Irish-speaking community; until 1956. Location Carriga ...

. The site for this church was donated by the local landlord Francis N. Burton. The cruciform church was built in the period 1832-1834. The second church of the parish is the Church of the Holy Spirit in Doonaha. This church was built in 1808. The parish contains ruins of several very old churches. According to Westropp the church ruins in Kilcredaun are from the 10th/11th century. The church in Kilcrony is already mentioned in a listing from 1390. p. 63 File:Church Carrigaholt.jpg, Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Carrigaholt File:Church Carrigaholt altar.jpg, Altar of Carrigaholt Church in pandemic times (2022) File:Doonaha Church.jpg, Church of the Holy Spirit in Doonaha File:Ruin of Kilcrony Church side.jpg, Kilcrony Church

References

Parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe {{Ireland-stub