placenamesLislea
Lios Liath
The school building and surviving enrolment records reveal different divisions within Lislea’s educational life, while a postal chronology traces its wider connections.
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
- Lios Liath · Irish · main form · validated name
- Lislea · English · main form
Place & story
A house between two classrooms
An archaeological study of national-school buildings identifies a distinctive arrangement at Lislea: separate entrances and classrooms for boys and girls, divided by a central dwelling house. The researchers compare its Tudor-influenced architecture with Movanagher school. The building made the division between male and female pupils part of its physical plan, while placing domestic accommodation within the same structure. [2]
Neighbours learning together
Kyle Irwin’s transcription of the boys’ enrolment register records pupils arriving from Lislea, Lisnagrot, Fallahogy, Moynock and other nearby places in the early twentieth century. Entries include Presbyterian, Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic children, with farmers and labourers prominent among their fathers’ occupations. The register shows a school drawing on a wider rural neighbourhood, with religious diversity within its boys’ classroom. [3]
A changing postal route
The Great Britain Philatelic Society records Lislea post office from 1871 under Ballymena, with Belfast becoming its post town in 1882. Portglenone appears in 1918, followed again by Belfast and then Ballymena by 1923. The office closed in 1974 or 1975. These changes trace the routing of local mail over approximately a century of service. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Derry
- Barony
- Loughinsholin
- Civil parish
- Kilrea
- Within
- Lislea
- Coordinates
- 54.91057, -6.51858 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413330 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Lislea. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Space and Place: Lessons from National School Buildings in the North of Ireland, manuscript page 10 · L. McKerr, B. Graham, B. Sloan and E. Murphy
- Lislea Boys National School: enrolment register, entries 401–494 · Kyle Irwin / Richard John Torrens, Bann Valley Genealogy
- County Londonderry Post Offices: Lislea · Great Britain Philatelic Society
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2011-12-06. How this page was prepared.