Leamonaghan parish has 44 townlands. Four of these are in Co. Westmeath, namely Ballinahown village, Kilgarvan, Glebe and Renaun.  The other forty are in Co. Offaly

The parish is divided roughly into three parts, each part with its own church – Ballinahown,  where the parish priest lives, Boher, about six miles east of there,  where the curate lives, and Pullough about ten miles south-east of Ballinahown, where there is no resident priest.  The church in Ballinahown was opened in 1902, dedicated to St Colmcille or Columba  –before that there was an older church (called St. Mary’s), now the parish hall, built in 1830. The church in Boher (dedicated to St. Manchan, our local saint) was opened in 1861 – before that there was a mud-walled church in the area which has left no trace. The church in Pullough was opened in 1907, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary – there was no church in the area previous to that. The parish takes its name from an old monastic ruin in the townland (district) of Leamonaghan, about half-way between Boher and Pullough – it ceased to function as a church about the time of the Reformation.

The records of Births and Marriages for the entire parish was kept in Ballinahown Parochial House up to 1930. In that year, separate records began to be kept in Boher Presbytery for the Boher and Pullough parts of the parish. Seperate records for Pullough were kept in Pullough during the years when there was a resident priest there i.e. 1976 – 1999. Then the Pullough registers were returned to Boher and are still kept there.

Regarding parish records previous to 1930, there is a large volume in Ballinahown Parochial house, which records all baptisms in the entire parish for the period 1882 – 1905, and all marriages for the period 1882 to 1957.

For the period prior to 1882, there  are printouts of older records of baptisms and for  marriages, going back to the 1820’s – these are taken from older registers, very difficult to read, which are also kept at the Parochial House.  The printouts are arranged in alphabetical order of surnames.

These records may be consulted by prior arrangement