St Baithin's Church, the Catholic parish church in the village, was designed by E. W. Godwin, the mid-Victorian British architect. It is a neo-Gothic structure that was built between 1857 and 1860. St Johnston Presbyterian Church, located on the Derry Road, is the other main structure within the village. Parts of this church, or kirk, may date back to around 1724. However, most of the present neo-Gothic structure was built in the early nineteenth century. The 'thin' neo-Gothic tower was built in 1849. This kirk, which is owned by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, was severely damaged by a lightning strike in the mid-1980s. The tower of the church was particularly damaged. The building, however, which serves the large Ulster Scots Presbyterian community in this part of The Laggan, had been fully restored by around 1990.
History
, a ruined castle, is located approximately 3 km south of the village. It was once a stronghold of the Ó Domhnaill clan, Kings of Tír Chonaill. In the very early seventeenth-century, Mongevlin was the chief residence of Iníon Dubh, the daughter of both Séamus Mac Dhòmhnaill, 6th Laird of Dunnyveg, an Islay-based Gaelic nobleman, and his wife, Lady Agnes Campbell; Iníon Dubh was the mother of Red Hugh O'Donnell. When Iníon Dubh came to Ulster to marry Sir Aodh mac Maghnusa Ó Domhnaill, she brought a force of 100 of the biggest men she could find in Scotland for protection. 80 of these were of the name Crawford. When Mongavlin was eventually abandoned, the Crawfords settled and married in the locality. Many of their descendants can still be found in the area to this day. On 23 July 1610, at the start of the Plantation of Ulster, Mongevlin Castle and its lands were granted to The 2nd Duke of Lennox, a Scottish nobleman. Lennox, who was already a peer in the Peerage of Scotland, was created The 1st Duke of Richmond in the Peerage of England in 1623, making him a duke twice over. On the death of the Duke on 16 February 1624 the title of Duke of Lennox and the castle and lands at Mongavlin passed to his brother Esmé, 1st Earl of March, who now became The 3rd Duke of Lennox. Esmé had married The Hon. Katherine Clifton in 1609; she became The 2nd Baroness Clifton, suo jure, in 1618. After her husband Esmé's death in August 1624, Katherine, now Dowager Duchess of Lennox, then married The 2nd Earl of Abercorn, another Scottish nobleman, circa 1632. Unlike the Dukes of Lennox, Lord Abercorn had actually moved to Ulster, where he was now based. The centre of Lord Abercorn's estate was the nearby town of Strabane in West Tyrone. A borough was established at the site in the reign of King James VI & I during the Plantation of Ulster. St Johnstown Borough was a borough constituency in the Irish House of Commons from about 1619 to the Acts of Union 1800. The borough was a rotten borough and the settlement never more than a village. King James II & VII passed through on his way to the Siege of Derry in 1690. From St Johnston he sent a letter proposing surrender, which was rejected.
Sports Clubs
St Johnston Cricket Club – Founded in 1898. They play in the North West Cricket League Championship Division.
Kildrum Tigers Football Club – Often known as 'the Wee Toun', the club was founded in 1948. They play in the Ulster Senior League.
Seán McBride – songwriter. He wrote The Homes of Donegal in 1955, a song famously recorded by Strabane man Paul Brady. He was a school teacher in the old St Baithin's National School for most of his life. He died in 1996.
