Creeslough

Creeslough
An Craoslach
Village
Main Street
Main Street
Creeslough is located in Ireland
Creeslough
Creeslough
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 55°07′19″N 7°54′25″W / 55.122°N 7.907°W / 55.122; -7.907
CountryIreland
ProvinceUlster
CountyCounty Donegal
BaronyKilmacrenan
Population
 (2022)
 • Total
398
Time zoneUTC+0 (WET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-1 (IST (WEST))
Irish Grid ReferenceC059305
Websitewww.creeslough.com

Creeslough (/ˈkriːslɒx/ KREES-lokh, locally /ˈkriːslɑː/ KREES-lah; Irish: An Craoslach [ənˠ ˈkˠɾˠiːsˠˌl̪ˠax]) is a village in County Donegal, Ireland, 12 kilometres (7 mi) south of Dunfanaghy on the N56 road.[citation needed]

Name

The English name 'Creeslough' (occasionally 'Cresslough') is an anglicised respelling of an Irish name, the modern official spelling of which is An Craoslach (including the definite article An). According to the Placenames Database of Ireland, this means "the gorge". Under the Official Languages Act 2003, only the Irish name of Creeslough electoral division has official status, because part of it is in the Gaeltacht, whereas Creeslough village is outside the Gaeltacht and its English name has equal status. Craoslach is usually interpreted as craos+loch; where loch means "lake", while craos literally means "gullet, throat" and metaphorically can mean either a gap or gluttony. In the 1830s, John O'Donovan glossed the name as "Craoslaoch [sic] swallowing lake; throat lake", and Patrick Weston Joyce glossed it in 1875 as "Craos-loch — a lake that swallows up everything". In 2000, Lawrence Donegan wrote:

Craos Loch in Irish, meaning Throat Lake or Gullet Lake. Why? Because there was a tiny lake at the top of the village that gathered a lot of rainwater from the surrounding hills and leaked only a little away through a tiny stream. Where did all the water go? It had been swallowed by the hungry lake, obviously. Why not call the village Hungry Lake? It wasn't poetic enough.

Suggested alternative derivations are craos+lacha[n] "duck[s] throat", or crioslach (or variant críoslach) "limit, border". Niall Ó Dónaill advised the Placenames Branch in 1962 that, although there was evidence that Crioslach was the older Irish form, it had long been changed to An Craoslach.

History

Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes a number of ringfort, holy well, enclosure and burial sites in the townlands of Creeslough, Killoughcarran and Masiness. Ards Forest Park, to the north of the village, contains some megalithic tombs, ringforts and a Mass rock.

Nearby Doe Castle, a tower house with a surrounding bawn, dates from the 1420s. Historically associated with MacSuibhne clan, the castle was used as a base by Owen Roe O'Neill during the Irish Confederate Wars.[citation needed] It was restored between 2002 and 2005.[citation needed]

St. Michael's
St. Michael's Church, designed by Liam McCormick in 1971

The local Catholic church, St. Michael's Church, is known locally as 'the chapel' and was designed by Derry architect Liam McCormick in 1971. It is reputedly designed to reflect the shape of the nearby table mountain of Muckish.

On 7 October 2022, an explosion at Creeslough destroyed a shop and Applegreen petrol station, as well as the adjoining apartment block, resulting in ten deaths and multiple injuries.

Transport

Creeslough railway station opened on 9 March 1903, closed for passenger traffic on 3 June 1940, and finally closed altogether on 6 January 1947.

Education

A view of the countryside around Creeslough with Muckish mountain in the background

The area around Creeslough is served by three primary schools:

People

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Census Interactive Map – Towns: Creeslough". Census 2022. Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "An Craoslach / Creeslough [town]". logainm.ie. Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved 17 April 2022.
  3. 1 2 McKay, Patrick (1999). A Dictionary of Ulster Place-Names. Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast. p. 49.
  4. ↑ S.I. 2004/872, Schedule Part 7 Section A Chapter 4 No. 12
  5. ↑ S.I. 2005/59, Schedule Section D Chapter 2 No. 38
  6. 1 2 Donegan, Lawrence (2000). No news at Throat Lake. New York: Pocket Books. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-671-78540-6.
  7. 1 2 Joyce, P. W. (1902) [1875]. The origin and history of Irish names of places. Vol. 2. London, New York / M. H. Gill: Longmans Green / Dublin. p. 402.
  8. ↑ Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977). "craos". Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla. Retrieved 8 October 2022 – via teanglann.ie.
  9. 1 2 3 Placenames Branch file on Creeslough, card 2
  10. 1 2 "An Craoslach/Creeslough [townland]". logainm.ie. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  11. ↑ Ní Dhomhnaill, Cáit (1970). "Observations on Vowel Lengthening in Irish". Studia Celtica. 5. Cardiff: 89–93.
  12. ↑ O'Reilly, Edward (1864). "crioslach". An Irish-English Dictionary. Dublin: J. Duffy.
  13. ↑ Placenames Branch file on Creeslough, card 5
  14. ↑ Census data from printed reports (1881 C. 3204-IV p. 382; 1911 Cd. 6051-IV p. 20 No. 31; 1926 Vol. 1 Table 11 p. 125 No. 31; 1936 Vol. 1 Table 13 p. 138; 1946 Vol. 1 Table 13 p. 134; 1951 Vol. 1 Table 14 p. 144; 1956 Vol. 1 Table 14 p. 142; 1961 Vol. 1 Table 8 p. 19; 1971 Vol. 1 Table 8 p. 35; 1986 Vol. 1 Table 10 p. 70) and from CSO interactive tables (1996 A0112; 2006 C0105; 2016 E2016).
  15. ↑ Lacey, Brian, ed. (1983). Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century. Lifford: Donegal County Council.
  16. ↑ "The Massrock". www.creeslough.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  17. ↑ "Doe Castle". heritageireland.ie. Office of Public Works. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  18. ↑ "St. Michael's Church". www.dunfanaghy.info. Archived from the original on 22 February 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  19. ↑ Sherlock, Cillian (7 October 2022). "At least three people dead after explosion at service station in Donegal". RTÉ News. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  20. ↑ "Creeslough: Ten dead after Donegal explosion". BBC News. 8 October 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2022.
  21. ↑ "Creeslough station" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 23 September 2007.
  22. 1 2 3 "Department of Education". Archived from the original on 6 May 2015.
  23. 1 2 Zibart, Eve (2000). "No News At Throat Lake BookPage review". www.bookpage.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  24. ↑ McFaul, Anna Marie (10 January 2012). "Bridie Gallagher: Ireland's 'first international pop star'". BBC News. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
  25. ↑ Sheridan, Kathy (9 November 1996). "Flamboyant life and death of a billionaire butler". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  26. ↑ Gallagher, Bridie (3 May 2010). "Noreen Bawn". www.youtube.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2016.
  27. ↑ McNulty, Chris (6 March 2019). "All-Ireland winner Martin McElhinney pulls out of Donegal panel". Retrieved 6 March 2019. ...the 30-year-old Creeslough man said in January.