Castleiney

The village and townland of Castleiney, officially Castleleiny and historically "Castlelyny", derives from the Irish Caisleán Laighnigh or "castle of Laighnigh".^[1] In Irish Names of Places (published in 1913), Patrick Weston Joyce suggests that this refers to the "castle of the Lynagh or Leinsterman".^[3]

Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes a number of ringfort and enclosure sites in the townlands of Castleleiny, Ballinroe, Gorteendangan and Gorteenmagher.^[4] The "castle" at Castleleiny townland is described in the Record of Monuments and Places as a "late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century fortified house [..] fortified with a bawn wall".^[5] The village's Catholic church is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist and was completed c. 1830.^[6]

A section of the River Iney, which passes through the village, is sometimes known locally as "the washpen".^[7] According to an adjacent stone sign, the name derives from a former practice in which farmers would construct a pen (enclosure) in the area to wash their sheep prior to shearing.^[7]

Replacing an earlier school, Castleiney's current national (primary) school building dates from the 1940s and was renovated and extended in 2008.^[8]

The local Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club is Loughmore–Castleiney GAA. The club has won a number of county titles in hurling and Gaelic football, winning both the Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship and Senior Football Championship "double" in 2021.^[9]

• Martin Stanislaus Brennan (1845–1927), an American Catholic priest and scientist known for writing books about religion and science, was born in the area.^{[citation needed]}
• John Martin Hayes (1887–1957), Catholic priest and founder of Muintir na Tíre, was parish priest in the area in the 1920s.^[10]

• List of towns and villages in Ireland