Killala (Irish: Cill Ala, meaning 'the mottled church'[2]) is a village in County Mayo in Ireland, north of Ballina.

The foundation of the diocese dates from the time of Saint Patrick, who placed his disciple St. Muredach over the church called in Irish Cell Alaid.

[4] It is possible that he resigned his see after a few years, and retired to end his life on an island in Donegal Bay, which now bears his name, Inishmurray.

[4] At Killala, Patrick reputedly also baptized the two maidens whom he met in childhood at Focluth Wood by the western sea, and whose voices in visions of the night had apparently called to him.

According to an entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia, the "people of Killala recall that John MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam, was a child of their diocese".

Killala was the site of the first engagement, during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, to involve the French force of General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert.

Bus Éireann route 445 serves Killala a few times a day on weekdays with service to Ballina and Ballycastle.

Asahi manufactured acrylic fibre from acrylonitrile which was transported to Ballina railway station by rail from Dublin Port.

The former Midland Great Western Railway line to Killala had been dismantled and built over prior to the factory's establishment south of the village in the 1970s so the remainder of the journey was completed by road.

[14] A transatlantic communications cable was expected to come ashore at Killala in 2013 en route to Northern Ireland as part of "Project Kelvin".

[15][needs update] Killala's round tower is the last remaining medieval structure of a monastic establishment, thought to have been built in the 12th century.

[citation needed] In 1989, sculptor Carmel Gallagher unveiled a bust of General Humbert in the area to mark the then upcoming bicentennial of the 1798 Rebellion.