The history of Monivea
Soghain, the Ffrenches from 1609, Robert Ffrench's linen, the church of 1762, the gift to the State. 6 moments, in order.
- Early times
Soghain
The parish was part of the kingdom of the Soghain of Connacht.
- 1609
The Ffrenches buy
The Norman-Gaelic tribe of Galway bought land from the O'Kellys and built Monivea House onto the O'Kelly castle. Catholic through the Reformation, they lost it to the Commonwealth in 1650 and had it back at the Restoration.
- 1744
Robert Ffrench
He limed, ploughed and seeded the bog, set up a linen industry with houses for weavers, laid out the greens for drying, built a school and planted the trees of Monivea Woods.
- 1762 to 1955
The Protestant church
Begun in 1762 and consecrated by the Archbishop of Tuam, used until 1924; the south roof fell in 1955, but most of it stands by the playground.
- 1977
Rugby
Monivea Rugby Club has been in the village since.
- The last Ffrench
Left to the State
The forest, the mausoleum with Robert Ffrench and his daughter, and the castle, now in partial ruin; Coillte holds the woods.
Where this comes from
Every paragraph above summarises a statement in Wikipedia, "Monivea", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, as it read on 2026-09-19. Follow it for the footnotes. Nothing has been added from memory.