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Feakle (historically ''Feakell'' and ''Fiakil'', from ) is a village 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 ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
, in the Roman Catholic parish of the same name.


Location

"Paroiste na fiacaile" means parish of the tooth. A legend says that the tooth of Mochonna, the patron saint, fell out in this place, where he built his church. Other theories are that the place is named after a church that was roofed with "fiathgail", a rough local grass, or that the name comes from "Fia-Choill", the wood of the deer. The village is in the
Tulla Upper Tulla Upper (or Tullagh Upper) is a barony in County Clare, Ireland. This ancient geographical division of land is in turn divided into seven civil parishes. Legal context Baronies were created after the Norman invasion of Ireland as divisions ...
barony, northwest of
Scarriff Scarriff Central Statistics Office, Census 2002Population of Towns ordered by County and size, 1996 and 2002 or Scariff () is a large village in east County Clare, Ireland, situated in the midwest of Ireland. The town is on the West end of Loug ...
on the road to
Gort Gort ( or ) is a town of around 3,000 inhabitants in County Galway in the west of Ireland. Located near the border with County Clare, the town lies between the Burren and the Slieve Aughty and is served by the R458 and R460 regional roads, wh ...
. In 1837 it contained 8,844 inhabitants and covered about . An 1845 description said "the surface consists of the loftiest, wildest, and most northerly of the western uplands of the county; and includes the southern declivities of the Slieve-Baghta mountains, and those offshoot ranges and masses which embosom Lough Graney, and stretch toward Lough O’Grady. The highest ground is on the west, and has an altitude of 1,312 feet." The parish of Feakle is in 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 ...
. Parish churches are St Joseph's in Kilclaren and St Mary's in Feakle. The village population in 2006 was 122. It neighbours Lough Derg and the towns of
Tulla Tulla () is a market town in County Clare, Ireland. It is situated in the east of the county, on the R462 and near its junction with the R352, 18km from Ennis. Etymology Tulla is generally translated as ''An Tulach'', meaning "round hill". ...
and
Scarriff Scarriff Central Statistics Office, Census 2002Population of Towns ordered by County and size, 1996 and 2002 or Scariff () is a large village in east County Clare, Ireland, situated in the midwest of Ireland. The town is on the West end of Loug ...
. Feakle is famous for its traditional music festival.


History

St.
Mochonna Saint Conan (; 7th century – January 684) was a bishop of the Isle of Man and an Irish missionary. Life Conan is not to be confused with St Conindrius (died 17 November 560), who is said to have been a disciple of St Patrick, Saint Patrick, a ...
is venerated as the
patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of Feakle. The ancient ruins of his church were destroyed in the early 19th century. Under the
religious persecution Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within soc ...
of the
Catholic Church in Ireland , native_name_lang = ga , image = Armagh, St Patricks RC cathedral.jpg , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh. , abbreviation = , type ...
imposed by the Penal Laws, the Catholics of Feakle would travel in secret to a
Mass rock Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a Physical object, physical body, until the discovery of the atom and par ...
located at one of the many
Megalithic A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. There are over 35,000 in Europe alone, located widely from Sweden to the Mediterranean sea. The ...
tombs in the nearby Ballycroum bog. On 12 December 1974
Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...
and
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gri ...
leaders met at Smith's Hotel, Feakle, with the leaders of the main Irish
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
denominations (
Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...
,
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
, and
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
) to discuss ways of resolving the
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
crisis. The Gardaí (Irish police) broke up the meeting. Although any wanted IRA men had already departed, the churchmen did pass on the list of Republican demands to the
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
government. Methodist leader Eric Gallagher was in attendance and later became the subject of the book ''Peacemaker'' by author Dennis Cooke.


People

*Herbalist
Biddy Early Bridget Ellen "Biddy" Early (née O'Connor or Connors; 1798 – 1872) was a traditional Irish herbalist who helped her neighbours. She acted against the wishes of the local tenant farmer landlords and Catholic priests and was accused of witch ...
(1798 - 1874). Famous as a healer and accused, under an antiquated law, in 1865 of witchcraft, Biddy was well known in the area. Local folklore says that if you leave a coin at her house you will have good health, but take a coin and you will have bad luck. *
Brian Merriman Brian Merriman or in Irish Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre (c. 1747 – 27 July 1805) was an Irish language bard, farmer, and hedge school teacher from rural County Clare. His single surviving work of substance, the 1000-line long Dream vision poem ( ...
, a local
Bard In Celtic cultures, a bard is a professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron (such as a monarch or chieftain) to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise t ...
, fiddler, and
hedge school Hedge schools (Irish names include '' scoil chois claí'', ''scoil ghairid'' and ''scoil scairte'') were small informal secret and illegal schools, particularly in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland, designed to secretly provide the rudiments of ...
master, is associated with the area. Although neither born, nor did he die, in Feakle, he chose to be buried here where he had spent most of his life. Feakle is also where he composed one of the greatest works of
Modern literature in Irish Although Irish has been used as a literary language for more than 1,500 years (see Irish literature), and modern literature in Irish dates – as in most European languages – to the 16th century, modern Irish literature owes much of its populari ...
, a lengthy work of comic poetry in
Munster Irish Munster Irish () is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. Gaeltacht regions in Munster are found in the Gaeltachtaí of the Dingle Peninsula in west County Kerry, in the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, in Cape ...
, entitled ''Cúirt an Mheán Oíche'' (The Midnight Court). In the poem, the women of Ireland sue the men for refusing to marry and father children, before the judgement seat of Aoibheall, a member of the Tuatha De Danaan who, since
Saint Patrick Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints be ...
, has been demoted from goddess to being the local fairy queen.Merriman, Brian. ''Cúirt an Mheán Oíche'', Dáithí Ó hUaithne (ed.). Preas Dolmen, 1974 (reprint). . A monument to Merriman's memory has been erected by An Cumman Merriman (the Merriman Society) and may be seen in the local graveyard. *
Dan Minogue Daniel Thomas Minogue (4 September 1891 – 27 July 1961) was an Australian rules footballer, who played with three different clubs in the (then) Victorian Football League (VFL), and who was the coach of five different VFL clubs. Family The ...
(1893–1983), Australian federal politician *
Johnny Patterson John (Johnny) Francis Patterson (1840–1889) was an Irish singer, songwriter and circus entertainer. He is now best known for composing the song "The Garden Where the Praties Grow". Early life He was born in Kilbarron, Feakle, County Clare. B ...
(1840-1889) singer and composer was born in Kilbarron near Feakle *
Ger Loughnane Gerard "Ger" Loughnane (born 27 January 1953) is an Irish retired hurler who played as a right wing-back for the Clare senior team. Born in Feakle, County Clare, Loughnane first played competitive hurling whilst at school in St. Flannan's Coll ...
, former
Clare Clare may refer to: Places Antarctica * Clare Range, a mountain range in Victoria Land Australia * Clare, South Australia, a town in the Clare Valley * Clare Valley, South Australia Canada * Clare (electoral district), an electoral district * Cl ...
hurler and manager of
Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...
hurling team (b.
1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...
). * Martin Hayes, b. 1962, world-famous fiddler, was born in Feakle.


See also

* List of towns and villages in Ireland


References


External links


Clare places - FeakleFeakle Festival
{{Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe Towns and villages in County Clare Civil parishes of County Clare Parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe