Annaghdown (from Irish Eanach Dhúin, meaning 'the marsh of the fort', pronounced [ˌanˠəx ˈɣuːnʲ]) is a civil parish in County Galway, Ireland.
It usually refers to an enclosed settlement or ringfort and in the early historical period it appears to designate the principal dwelling of the local king or chieftain.
Francis Byrne believed that as Áed's territory of Uí Bhriúin Aoi lay in County Roscommon, it was not within his power to grant the land of another chieftain so distant from him.
The Archbishop of Tuam at the turn of the fourteenth-century, William de Bermingham, claimed Ruadhri Ua Flaithbertaigh placed his chaplain, named "Coneghor" (Conchobhar?
The ecclesiastical settlement attracted two Continental monastic orders in the early thirteenth century, the Arrouaisians and Premonstratensians who also built religious houses.
In 1255 the Justicar of Ireland, John FitzGeoffrey and his successor Richard de la Rochelle, who held extensive Connacht land grants, gave recognition to the diocese of Annaghdown over protests from the Archbishop of Tuam and his suffragans, who appealed to Rome.
Eighteen of the bodies of these unhappy creatures were taken out of the lake in the course of the day and presented a most heart-rending scene, being surrounded by their friends who came to identify them, and by whom they were removed in a boat to Annaghdown.
The unfortunate accident happened by a sheep putting its leg through one of the planks, which produced a leak, in order to stop which one of the passengers applied his great coat to the aperture and stamped it with his foot.
An inquest was held on the bodies by John Blakeney Esq., Coroner, at which James O'Hara, Esq., M.P., and J. H. Burke, Esq., Mayor, attended, and the jury returned a verdict of "accidental drowning".
The local hurling and Gaelic football club, Annaghdown GAA, has playing fields and a clubhouse in Cregg townland, on the road linking Cloonboo, on the N84, to Claregalway, on the N17.
[citation needed] This poem was composed by the travelling Irish poet, Antoine Ó Raifteiri, as a lament of the twenty people drowned at Menlo, Galway, on 4 September 1828.
Nár mhór an t-ionadh os comhair na ndaoine What wild despair was on all the faces [10] Irish songwriter Dick Farrelly wrote the song, "Annaghdown".