Craughwell

Craughwell (historically Creaghmoyle, from ) is a village and townland in County Galway, Ireland, with a population of under 1,000.
Etymology
The name of the area is composed of two Irish words: creach, meaning in this case "plunder", presumably in reference to herds of cattle, which were often targets of thefts and cattle raids amongst the Gaels. The usual Gaelic word for cattle is crodh, often Anglicised in place-names as , although the words cro, crocharsach, and crò are all connected with sheep, sheep enclosures or meadows. An alternate etymology of creach is related to craig, and creag, and the English word crag, which refers to a rock, or the bare rock crest of a hill (related words are cruach, for a mountain, pinnacle, or a rounded hill that stands apart or for any type of pile, or heap, and cnoc, for a hill or eminence); and maol, which is a word for a round-shaped hill or mountain, bare of trees. It is anglicised as , and is common in Irish and Scottish place names such as the Mull of Kintyre. Gaelic spelling rules require that maol following creach be lenited; that is, an is inserted after the first letter, providing the first letter is a consonant (and not an or ). This makes the preceding consonant silent, or changes its sound (or , for instance, are silent or sound like an English or ). Gaelic spelling rules also require that, with the first letter lenited, the last vowel should be slender (an , or an ). As both vowels in maol are broad, an is inserted after. These two changes alter the sound of maol to mhaoil. The two words together, therefore, sounds to an English ear like Crockwell, or Craughwell, and it is Anglicised thus (the Gaelic personal names Seán (John) and Seamus (James) became Iain and Hamish in Scotland by similar means).
Patrick W. Joyce, the pioneer of Irish placename studies, speculated that the name in Irish was Creamhchoill, ('garlic wood'). He was unaware of the local spelling and pronunciation but confirmed in a later work that the village was called Creachmhaoil in Irish.
The name Craughwell is also used as a surname, properly Ó Creachmhaoil, though often anglicised as Craughwell, Croughwell and Crockwell. The surname was largely unknown outside of the southeast of County Galway until the end of the 19th century when émigrés established families which still thrive in Barbados, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Cornwall, Ohio and Berkshire County, Massachusetts, among other places.
Amenities
There are significant community sporting facilities in the village - Craughwell GAA has three pitches and a ball wall. The primary school has an all-weather astroturf track and a walking trail. Craughwell AC has an 8-Acre park with an 800m trail surrounding a 400m running track. Just outside the village, Coleman's Park has outdoor soccer pitches and a gravel 400m running track.
Notable people
The village of Creachmhaoil celebrates its connection with the Gaelic poet Antoine Ó Raifteiri, John Huston and Anjelica Huston, and provides the surnames of notables including American painter Douglass Crockwell the Bermudian parliamentarian Shawn Crockwell, JP, MP, the late Bermudian FIFA-certified football referee and Honorary Life Vice-president of the Bermuda Football Association Carlyle McNeil Eugene Crockwell, Bermudian footballer Mikkail Kristopher Crockwell, Bermudian cricketer Fiqre Crockwell, English cricketer Leslie Crockwell, Guinness World Record holding rower Matthew Craughwell, and American author Thomas J. Craughwell.
See also
Craughwell GAA
Craughwell railway station, which once existed on the Western Rail Corridor.
List of towns and villages in Ireland
References
External links
Towns and villages in County Galway