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]
↑Weston Joyce, Patrick (1913). Irish Names of Places. Vol.III. Phoenix Publishing. p.198– via archive.org.
↑Farrelly, Jean; O'Brien, Caimin, eds. (2002), The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary, Dublin: Government Stationery Office, ISBN9780755712649
↑"Castleiney National School - History". castleineyns.ie. Retrieved 5 January 2026. New national schools were provided in Loughmore (1857) and Castleiney (1858). A new school building was provided in Castleiney in 1948 and [..] An extension and upgrading of the school was completed in 2008
↑Ferriter, Diarmaid (October 2009). "Hayes, John Martin". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Royal Irish Academy. doi:10.3318/dib.003872.v1. Retrieved 5 January 2026. In January 1927 he was appointed to the united parishes of Loughmoe and Castleleiny in Tipperary, where he successfully raised funds for church renovation and dabbled in the promotion of rural industries
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