Ordnance Survey Letters by John O'Donovan and Eugene Curry, 1839

Parish of Moynoe (a)

This Parish is situated in the northeast extremity of the Co. of Clare, and is bounded on the north and east by the Co. of Galway, on the south by that arm of Lough Dergdheirc which contains Inis Cealtra, and on the west and north-west by the Parishes of Tuaim Greine and Fiacail.

In the Annals of the Four Masters at the year 1084 this Parish, or rather the Church from which it derives its name, is called Mag n-Eó n-Orbraíghe.

A.D. 1084. Ceall da Lua, Tuaim Gréine agus Magh n-Eó n-Orbraighe do Loscadh do Chonmaicnibh.”
A.D. 1084. Killaloe, Toomgraney and Moyno Norbury were burned by the Conmaicnians.

What the meaning of the name may be is not now very easily ascertained, though it would seem to mean the Plain of the Tree of Orbach, Campus Arboris Orbachae; Magh certainly means a Plain Eo a Tree, as in Eo-Rosa, Maigheo in Connaught, Achadh Da Eo in Kerry, etc., and Orbach, the name of the lady for whom it was planted as a monument. Magh n-Eo signifies certainly the Plain of the Tree as well as the Mag-eo in Connaught, but the import of n-Orbach, the latter part of the name, is not so certain, as no written account of it has been discovered and no tradition of its meaning, like that relating to Tuaim Greine, has been discovered.

The old Church of Moyno is not far from that arm of Lough Dergdheirc running up in the direction of Scarriff. It measures sixty feet nine inches in length and twenty three feet nine inches in breadth, not including the thickness of the walls. Its west gable is destroyed down to the very foundation, and of the north wall only a few feet attached to the east gable remain, but a large portion of the south wall, twenty five feet in length, fifteen feet in height and two feet six inches in thickness remains in good preservation, and also the entire of the east gable, but much injured by the gnawing tooth of time. The east gable contains a window in two divisions, of which the more southern measures on the outside nine feet six inches in height and eight inches in width, and the more northern nine feet in height and only seven and a quarter inches in width. Both are lancet headed outside and round inside and of some antiquity. The south wall contains another window about five feet three inches high on the outside and six inches wide and round at the head; on the inside about nine feet high and three feet ten inches wide. This Church would appear to be five or six centuries old.

There is a pointed arch which was probably a gateway leading into the graveyard of the Church. This probably belonged to the Castle of O’Grady at Muyno, which is mentioned in the College List of Castles of Thomond as belonging to Edmonde O’Grady.

A short distance to the north of the Church is a Holy Well, called Tobar Mochunna after St. Mochunna, the Patron of the Parish of Feakle and perhaps of this Parish also.

There is nothing else in this Parish to interest the antiquarian but a pagan grave situated in the mountainous Townland of Cappaghabaun. It is locally called Leaba Dhiarmada agus Ghraine, i.e., the Bed of Dermot and Grainé, as almost all the monuments of this description in Ireland are. The expressions commonly found in the Irish Romances:-

Togbhadh a líghe ós a leacht
Tóarccbad a licche uas a lecht.

i.e., “His stone was raised over his monument” seem to refer to monuments of this description.