placenamesGlenealy
Gleann Fhaidhle
Glenealy’s parish history includes links with Wicklow and a surviving group of church and school buildings at Ballymoat.
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
- Gleann Fhaidhle · Irish · main form
- Glenealy · English · main form
Place & story
The parish in Lewis’s survey
Writing under the spelling Glanealy in 1837, Samuel Lewis placed the parish partly in Arklow barony but chiefly in Newcastle. Both its Church of Ireland rectory and Catholic parish then belonged to the Wicklow union. Alongside the parochial school, he recorded a national school teaching about sixty children and two private schools. His figures describe several institutions, rather than one parish-wide classroom. [2]
The granite church at Ballymoat
Glenealy's Church of Ireland church at Ballymoat combines rubble granite walls with carefully cut stone dressings. A three-stage tower carries castellated pinnacles, while taller pinnacles rise from the nave buttresses. Most windows have rounded heads, contrasting with the geometric tracery in the larger east window. The church stands within a small graveyard, forming a distinct architectural group with the neighbouring former school. [3]
The parochial school of 1867
The Old School House at Ballymoat is dated 1867 and was formerly Glenealy Parochial School. Its single-storey stone building includes brick bands, paired pointed windows, a rose-style window and a projecting decorative door canopy. A small louvred fleche sits diagonally on the slate roof. These details gave a practical school building a carefully composed appearance beside the church, as the architectural inventory's group assessment recognises. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Glenealy. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Glanealy: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837 · Samuel Lewis
- Glenealy Church, Ballymoat, NIAH 16402405 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- The Old School House, Ballymoat, NIAH 16402406 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-10-29. How this page was prepared.