placenamesCoa
An Cuach
Coa’s old school became a community hall through local voluntary work, while music and historical writing have helped preserve the district’s identity.
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 Cuach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Coa · English · main form
Place & story
From school to community hall
Coa's old primary school closed in 1969. A local committee formed in 1987 to convert the neglected building into a community hall, which opened in 1991 and was subsequently extended. The Fermanagh Trust's account records how the hall came to accommodate dances, classes, gatherings after funerals and local organisations. The building continued to serve its district after classroom teaching ended, through adaptation and fundraising rather than replacement. [2]
Tony Harte records Coa’s past
Coa resident Tony Harte helped develop the hall and served as its secretary for thirty-five years. He also collected recollections from older residents for Life in the Rocky Hills of Coa, published in 1999. Later books examined the pipe band and the old school. His work joins the practical preservation of a local building with the recording of memories, giving the community named authorship of its own history. [2]
A practical investment in the pipe band
Coa Pipe Band received an Instruments for Bands award in 2005–2006. A contemporary account published by The Irish Times records that worn instruments had previously been assembled from several broken sets. The grant enabled the band to acquire a full drum section and sixteen sets of pipes, allowing more young people to learn. This episode shows how the continuation of a musical tradition depended on teaching and equipment as well as long-established local enthusiasm. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Fermanagh
- Barony
- Tirkennedy
- Civil parish
- Magheracross
- Within
- Coa
- Coordinates
- 54.39775, -7.56885 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413352 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Coa. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Tony Harte: The Heart of Coa’s Community Spirit, 5 August 2025 · Hazel McFarland, Fermanagh Trust
- North’s marching bands get £500,000 in grants, 28 December 2008 · The Irish Times / Press Association
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2012-01-11. How this page was prepared.