St Mary's RC Church, Knockmoyle - geograph

Knockmoyle ( ; )Placenames Database of Ireland
/ref> is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

and

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

approximately 8 kilometres northwest of

Omagh Omagh (; from ga, An Ómaigh , meaning 'the virgin plain') is the county town of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is situated where the rivers Drumragh and Camowen meet to form the Strule. Northern Ireland's capital city Belfast is 68 m ...

County Tyrone County Tyrone (; ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. It is no longer used as an administrative division for local government but retai ...

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 ...

. In the 2001 census the Knockmoyle area had 141 households and a population of 329. It has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

(est. 1800) and

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

. The nearby River Strule is well known for its trout fishing. Other attractions nearby include the Gortin Glens Forest Park and the

Ulster American Folk Park The Ulster American Folk Park is an open-air museum just outside Omagh, in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. With more than 30 exhibit buildings to explore, the museum tells the story of three centuries of Irish emigration. Using costumed guides ...

. The

Ulster Way The Ulster Way is a series of walking routes which encircles Northern Ireland. It was founded in the 1970s by Wilfrid Merydith Capper, who was inspired by Tom Stephenson's Pennine Way. The route was relaunched in 2009 by the Department of the ...

walking route passes through Knockmoyle.

Background

Knockmoyle is the birthplace of

Brian Friel Brian Patrick Friel (c. 9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. (subscription req ...

(9 January 1929 – 2 October 2015) an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. Friel is considered one of the greatest English-language dramatists. Omagh United Football Club, formed in the summer of 2007 from an amalgamation of three

soccer clubs, played its home matches at the Athletic Park in Knockmoyle until the club was forced to fold at the end of the 2009/10 season due to financial reasons. In its first season Omagh United played in the Fermanagh and Western League and in the 2008/2009 season progressed into Intermediate B of the Mid Ulster Football League. The club had a highly successful year and won the league before playing in Intermediate A, part of the

Northern Ireland football league system The Northern Ireland football league system is categorised into three levels: senior, intermediate and junior. Clubs attain intermediate status by fulfilling certain criteria (e.g. owning or leasing its own enclosed ground). Senior status requires ...

, until it folded in 2010. Knockmoyle Shamrocks was one of the earliest Gaelic football clubs in west Tyrone. In May 1920 the club competed in the inaugural West Tyrone league along with five other clubs namely Fintona Pearses, Omagh Colemans, Carnlea Emmetts, Tattysallagh and Aughafad. Knockmoyle competed at junior level in the early 1950s, winning the Davis Cup in 1951 and 1953 and played in two junior football championship finals. A hurling club was formed in Knockmoyle in 1947 which won 3 Tyrone Senior hurling titles in 1947, 1950 and 1953 (although these titles are attributed to a separate parish club namely Killyclogher St Mary's in contemporary records). A

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...

club operated in Knockmoyle for a number of years during the 1970s. A very successful

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

club was based in Knockmoyle from the mid-1970s until the mid-1980s. The club won several county titles and some of its players also won individual county championship titles. Knockmoyle had its own

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

until the mid-1960s which was founded under the will of John McEvoy who endowed it with £16 per annum ''"for the gratuitous education of the poor children in Mountjoy Forest, and vested in its management in the Rector for ever."''

References

Northern Ireland Census 2001Ulster Way
{{authority control Villages in County Tyrone