placenamesMoneyreagh
Monadh Riabhach
A succession of school buildings and the surviving papers of Robert Huddleston connect the village with education and writing.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Monadh Riabhach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Moneyreagh · English · main form
Place & story
Schools before the present building
Moneyrea Primary School traces its educational origins to classes held in the Presbyterian church during the eighteenth century. Its prospectus identifies a national school established in 1822 and the Lyttle Memorial School, funded by public subscription in 1908 in memory of the Reverend Richard Lyttle. The later primary-school building opened in 1961 and celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2011. [2]
Robert Huddleston
Robert Huddleston was born in Moneyreagh in 1814 and died there in 1887. A farmer and gunmaker, he also wrote poems, prose and letters, becoming known as the Bard of Moneyrea. National Museums NI preserves ten boxes of his papers. His autobiographical poem The Poet recalls attending Cowan's school in the locality, linking his literary story with its earlier educational life. [3]
Poems and remembrance
Huddleston's writing also recorded family grief. After his daughter Mary's death in 1877, he composed Mary on the Brain. National Museums NI documents a later performance of that poem by musician Joshua Burnside at the Ulster Folk Museum, showing how the manuscript entered a new musical setting. Huddleston himself was buried in the graveyard of Moneyreagh's Non-Subscribing Presbyterian church. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Down
- Barony
- Castlereagh Lower
- Civil parish
- Comber
- Coordinates
- 54.52294, -5.83750 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413290 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Moneyreagh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Moneyrea Primary School Prospectus, page7 · Moneyrea Primary School
- 'The Poet' Himself: Robert Huddleston (1814–1887) · Natalie Boehmer, National Museums NI
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2019-10-08. How this page was prepared.