Oul Mayogall


The name Mayogall comes from the Gaelic, Patrick Weston Joyce in his "Irish Names of Places", refers to it as Moyagall, and says it would have been better as Moynagall for the true native pronunciation is Magh-na-Gall, meaning "Plain of the Foreigners". A local poet of many years ago had his Irish to English translation near enough correct when he sang -

"A welcome awaits me at each house of call
In the 'home of the stranger',
'Oul Mayogall."

You won't see much of Mayogall as you drive through it at the speed of today's travel. One of the best ways to see it is on foot, and a good vantage point is at the top of, what is known as locally as Megrans Hill. From there it lies before you, all 792 acres and 8 perches of it, with its drumlin topography and inter-drumlin bog, its rock outcrops and babbling little streams, its network of pads and loanin's its stiles and spring-wells, the patchwork pattern of fields, which until recently none were over 7 acres, some lying untilled for a generation.
It has had its share of "forths" or raths (sadly most are gone now ) visual proof of man's habitation here 1000 years ago, and we have evidence of earlier man here too, as the spade and the ploughshare have turned up several flint and stone implements, some of them of the Tievebulliagh type which can be dated to the Third Millennium B.C. Most of these have found their way into private collections around the country.
As you step through the townland you can see that here is a place that has been around for a very long time, quietly absorbing the new and renovated buildings, the new faces, and the modern life that youth has brought, and at the same time adding the stability that is built up when families live in the same place for generations.
Indeed, Mayogall has come a long way since primitive man hunted the wild pig on the wooded slopes of Dernanure, to the present, mainly small farming community which can boast a church, a school, 2 public-houses, a shop, a Post-Office and a hall, all in the space of 200 yards on the artery that runs through it, but we must never call it a village, it is still very much an old Irish townland and within its boundaries are areas with lovely old names such as - Uppertown, Tannavolley, Culdorragh, Lowertown, Dernanure, Priest-town, Annacramp, Borr and Carrow.

Above extract from the book 'Oul Mayogall' by James Moore, Dreenan.