He was born on 25 April 1903 to Patrick Moynagh and Margaret Moynagh (née Smith), of Legwee, Loughduff, Ballinagh, Mullahoran,
County Cavan, and educated at
St. Mel's College, Longford. He studied for the priesthood in
Maynooth College, where he was ordained in 1930 for the
Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, but volunteered to serve in Nigeria. Moynagh was ordained a bishop in 1947, in Maynooth, and appointed Vicar Apostolic Calabar Nigeria, becoming the first resident
Bishop of Calabar in 1950. Bishop Moynagh was instrumental in the foundation of the
Medical Missionaries of Mary (his sister Sr. Mary Joseph Moynagh was an early member of the congregation, and served as its fourth superior) and that of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus. Moynagh resigned as bishop in 1970 due to the civil war in Nigeria (all foreign-born missionaries were excluded from Nigeria) and following his return from there, he was appointed parish priest of
Annaduff, County Leitrim. He spent his final years at Kiltegan, with the St. Patrick's Missionary Society, and died on 11 June 1985. The
Bishop James Moynagh Pastoral Centre in the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Uyo in Nigeria, is named in his honour. ==References==