placenamesFinaghy
An Fionnachadh
Finaghy's history spans the Charley family's country house, twentieth-century public housing and a school site developed into a wider community campus.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- An Fionnachadh · Irish · main form · validated name
- Finaghy · English · main form
Place & story
The Charleys at Finaghy House
In his 1995 account for the Lisburn Historical Society, Robby Charley traced the family's association with Finaghy House to Ralph Charley's purchase from Richard Woods in 1727. Five generations lived there before Mary Stewart Charley sold the house and its contents in 1885. The family account describes armorial glass on the staircase landing and a sale condition requiring the return of the coat of arms if the house were demolished. The building later became known as Faith House. [2]
Housing above Benmore Drive
The University of Edinburgh's Tower Block archive records Moveen House and Moylena House as a Northern Ireland Housing Trust development at Finaghy. Each fifteen-storey block contained fifty-six dwellings, making 112 in the pair. The archive names Farrans as contractor and gives 1963 as the committee approval date. Its photographs, dated 1988, record the blocks as part of the area's later residential landscape; the approval date should not be confused with a completion date. [3]
From primary school to community campus
Finaghy Primary School's account describes construction of replacement premises beginning in 2002 while teaching continued in the old buildings. Pupils moved into the new school in 2004, after which demolition released space for further uses. Materials from the earlier school were salvaged, including brick, slate, oak flooring and door fittings. The site subsequently incorporated a public library, daycare centre, sports facilities and a community playgroup, prompting adoption of the name Finaghy Campus. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Antrim
- Barony
- Belfast Upper
- Civil parish
- Drumbeg
- Within
- Ballyfinaghy
- Coordinates
- 54.55254, -5.99053 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 135770 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Finaghy. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Charley Family Houses in Dunmurry, Lisburn Historical Society Journal9,1995 · Robby Charley
- Finaghy, Tower Block archive, development61275 · University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art
- 2004: Finaghy Campus · Finaghy Primary School
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.