Moneygall () is a small village on the border of counties

Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hono ...

and

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

, in

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 ...

. It is situated on the R445 road between

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

. There were 313 people living in the village as of the 2016 census. Moneygall has a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church, motorway service station, a car sales and repair centre, a national school, a Garda station and two

pub 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 was ...

s. The nearest

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 ...

church, Borrisnafarney, is 2 km from the village beside the former Loughton Demesne. The village received international attention for being the ancestral home of Falmouth Kearney, a maternal great-great-great grandfather of

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. Obama visited the village in 2011. Moneygall is in the Dáil constituency of Laois Offaly (Dáil constituency). It was in the former constituency of Offaly and was one term in the Tipperary North Dáil constituency.

Transport

Moneygall is on the R445 regional road and close to the M7 motorway where Junction 23 provides access to the village.

Bus Éireann Bus Éireann (; "Irish Bus") is a state-owned bus and coach operator providing services throughout Ireland, with the exception of Dublin and the Greater Dublin Area, where bus services are provided by sister company Dublin Bus. It is a subsidia ...

no longer provides a service to Moneygall but some of

JJ Kavanagh and Sons JJ Kavanagh and Sons is Republic of Ireland, Ireland's largest private Coach (vehicle), coach operator. It was founded in 1919 by J.J. Kavanagh with the operation of a service connecting Urlingford with Kilkenny, Kilkenny City. The company has ...

services between

Dublin Airport Dublin Airport (Irish language, Irish: ''Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath'') is an international airport serving Dublin, Ireland. It is operated by DAA (Irish company), DAA (formerly Dublin Airport Authority). The airport is located in Collinsto ...

and Shannon Airport continue to stop in the village. Bus service 854 operated by Local Link Tipperary between Roscrea railway station and Nenagh calls at Main Street and Obama Plaza. The service operates seven days a week. There is no train station in the village but the nearest stations are in Nenagh, Cloughjordan and Roscrea, all on the Limerick-Ballybrophy railway line, a feeder service to the main

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

line, operated by

Iarnród Éireann Iarnród Éireann () or Irish Rail, is the operator of the national railway network of Ireland. Established on 2 February 1987, it is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ). It operates all internal InterCity, Commuter, DART and fr ...

. The closest

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

with scheduled passenger services is Shannon Airport in County Clare.

Education

There is one

national school in the village. The former

school (now used as a parish hall) was built in 1888 beside the R490

Borrisokane Borrisokane () is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is situated at the junction of the N52 and N65 national secondary roads. At the 2016 census, it had a population of 942. The Ballyfinboy River flows through the town on its way to Lough ...

turn-off, and closed in 1976, when its pupils were transferred to the neighbouring village of Cloughjordan. An earlier building, constructed around 1800, was previously used as a school. It was then used by the local Church of Ireland community as a chapel of ease until the late 1970s. It has now been converted to a private residence. Children travel mainly to either Roscrea or Nenagh for secondary schooling. The nearest third-level institutions are Tipperary Institute in

Thurles Thurles (; ''Durlas Éile'') is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located in the civil parish of the same name in the barony of Eliogarty and in the ecclesiastical parish of Thurles (Roman Catholic parish), Thurles. The cathedral ch ...

or the University of Limerick, Limerick Institute of Technology and Mary Immaculate College, all of which are in

Sport

While all of the village is located in

County Offaly County Offaly (; ga, Contae Uíbh Fhailí) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is named after the ancient Kingdom of Uí Failghe. It was formerly known as King's County, in hono ...

, the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

playing field is located in

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

, and

Moneygall GAA Moneygall GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in County Tipperary in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Both hurling and Gaelic football are played in the North Tipperary divisional championships, although the club is mainly known for ...

play in the Tipperary GAA Championships. Moneygall FC opened its new grounds in 2017 in the centre of the village. The club, while based in Offaly, compete in North Tipperary.

Demographics

As of the 2016 census, there were 313 people living in Moneygall. The previous 2011 census counted 310 people in the village (153 males and 157 females). This, in turn, was an increase of 12 people (4%) since the census of 2006.

Connection with Barack Obama

Falmouth Kearney, a maternal great-great-great grandfather of

, 44th

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

from Moneygall to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at the age of 19 in 1850 and eventually resettled in Tipton County, Indiana. Kearney's father, Joseph, had been the village

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen ...

. The Kearney family emigrated to Ross County,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, in the first half of the 19th century. Falmouth Kearney's youngest daughter, Mary Ann, moved from Indiana to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

after her father's death in 1878. Mary Ann Kearney was a paternal grandmother of Stanley Dunham, President Obama's maternal grandfather. On 23 May 2011, Obama and First Lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...

, visited Moneygall as part of a visit to Ireland. They were welcomed by 5,000 people and greeted upon arrival by the President's eighth

cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, " ...

, Henry Healy. Following a walkabout on the main street, where they shook hands with many local residents, the Obamas entered a house that had been built on the site where Falmouth Kearney had lived. Afterwards, they visited Ollie Hayes's

to meet more of the President's distant relatives and to study the birth records of his ancestors. President and Mrs. Obama drank Irish

stout Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscript ...

to the traditional toast, ''

sláinte means "health" in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It is commonly used as a drinking toast in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. However, the toast is also increasingly being used in other countries within the whisky community. Variations ...

'' (meaning "good health"), and Mrs. Obama went behind the bar to learn how to pull a pint. The '' Barack Obama Plaza'' service area was opened at Junction 23 of the M7 on the outskirts of Moneygall in June 2014. File:Marine One Flying Over Irish Fields.jpg, Presidential helicopter "Marine One" flies to Moneygall File:Barack Obama meets Irish cousin in Moneygall.jpg, Henry Healy greets his eighth cousin, Barack Obama File:Crowd watches Barack Obama in Moneygall, Ireland.jpg, A large crowd watches President Obama's approach File:Michelle Obama pours a pint of stout.jpg, Michelle Obama pours a pint of stout

Notable people

* Patrick Cronin, priest, Archbishop of Cagayan de Oro (1970–1988) * Joseph Prosser, recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

References

External links

Picture album of President Obama's visit
Offaly County Council
President Barack Obama And First Lady Michelle Obama Visit Ireland
White House picture album of the Obamas' visit {{County Offaly Towns and villages in County Offaly