The name Feakle itself derives from the Irish Fiacail, meaning tooth, most likely a reference to a distinctive local landscape feature, and the settlement grew up around this early Christian and later medieval religious site.

Churches of this type in rural Clare were typically established on or near earlier monastic foundations, often dating to the early medieval period, and were subsequently rebuilt or enlarged during the Anglo-Norman and late medieval centuries. The fabric of such buildings frequently reflects several phases of construction, with Romanesque or plain Hiberno-Romanesque stonework giving way to later Gothic insertions such as pointed windows or doorways. Graveyards attached to these sites were often in continuous use from medieval times into the modern era, preserving layers of local memory in their headstones and burial plots.