Loughgall

Village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland

Loughgall (/l//ɒ//x/'/ɡ//ɔː//l/ lokhGAWL'; ) is a small village, townland (of 131 acres) and civil parish in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the historic baronies of Armagh and Oneilland West. It had a population of 282 people (116 households) in the 2011 Census. Loughgall was named after a small nearby loch. The village is surrounded by orchards.

In the Middle Ages the chiefs of the Uí Nialláin, a Gaelic clan, resided at Loughgall crannog, a fortified lake dwelling. By the 16th century the O'Neills of Tír Eoghain had taken over the area, and the crannog became the residence of the O'Neill chief's brother or eldest son. In the early 1600s, the area was settled by English and Scottish Protestants as part of the Ulster Plantation. During the 1641 Irish Rebellion, settlers were held at a prison camp at Loughgall by Catholic rebels led by Manus O'Cane. In 1795, rival sectarian gangs, the Catholic Defenders and Protestant Peep o' Day Boys fought a bloody skirmish near the village, called the Battle of the Diamond, that left around 30 people dead. Following this, the Protestant Orange Order was founded in Dan Winter's House nearby. On 8 May 1987, eight members of the Provisional IRA East Tyrone Brigade launched a bomb and gun attack on the village's Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) station but were intercepted by a Special Air Service (SAS) unit of twenty four soldiers who were aware of the planned attack. The SAS shot dead all of the IRA attackers and a passing civilian who had unwittingly driven into the ambush and was mistaken for an IRA member. The incident is known as the Loughgall ambush. For more information see The Troubles in Loughgall, which includes a list of incidents in Loughgall during the Troubles that resulted in two or more fatalities.

It is home to Loughgall Football Club, which plays in the NIFL Premiership, the top tier of football in Northern Ireland.