placenamesCulleens
Na Coillíní
The history written by a former Culleens principal traces a community’s efforts to keep its school open and find better buildings.
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
- Na Coillíní · Irish · main form · validated name
- Culleens · English · main form
Place & story
A thatched classroom in 1854
Clair Cooke’s school history dates Culleens National School to 1 April 1854. Its first appointed teacher was Margaret Fletcher, aged 18. An inspection that month described a single stone-built, thatched classroom in Knockduff, with 36 children present on the inspection day. Some pupils paid a penny or halfpenny weekly, while six attended free. [2]
Storm damage and temporary exile
A prefabricated school opened in 1967 after parents bought a replacement site. Storm damage made it unsafe in January 1984. The school community then travelled daily to the former national school in Killala until June 1986, when a permanent four-classroom building was ready. Cooke, a teacher during this period, records the disruption of this two-and-a-half-year arrangement. [2]
The old nameplate travels again
The stone nameplate from an earlier school was rescued during demolition in the 1980s and installed in the 1986 building. It moved again when a new twelve-classroom school opened on 9 April 2024, back in Knockduff. The retained plaque connected successive buildings with the school’s older identity. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Mayo
- Barony
- Tirawley
- Civil parish
- Kilmoremoy
- Coordinates
- 54.14118, -9.17835 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414513 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Culleens. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- School History — Culleens National School, Ballina · Clair Cooke, former teacher and principal (1978–2024)
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.