placenamesMoira
Maigh Rath
Beyond the planned village, the parish supported quarrying and a network of schools. Saint John’s records another layer of local change.
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
- Maigh Rath · Irish · main form
- Moira · English · main form
Place & story
Stone carried by canal
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 account places Moira parish on the Lagan and the Belfast and Lough Neagh canal, at the end of a limestone ridge. He described working limekilns and substantial shipments of unburnt limestone by water and road. Basalt was quarried for building too. These activities give the surrounding countryside an industrial history alongside the better-known linen trade. [2]
Lady Bateson’s school
Lewis recorded parochial schools in Moira and Lurganville and a national school at Battier. Lady Bateson had established a girls’ school in Moira in 1820, providing a schoolhouse with accommodation for its teacher and much of the pupils’ clothing. The account distinguishes this foundation from the other local schools, rather than treating education as a single village institution. [2]
A replacement spire
The parish church’s own history records the loss of its original slate steeple in a storm in 1884 and its replacement by a copper-clad spire. Inside Saint John’s, an inscribed linen reredos survives; the inner west door and communion rails are traditionally said to have come from Moira Castle. That reported provenance remains distinct from the documented storm and rebuilding. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Civil parish
- County
- Down
- Barony
- Iveagh Lower, Upper Half
- Coordinates
- 0.00000, 0.00000
- Mapped area
- 30.98 km²
- Logainm ID
- 65729 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Moira. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Moira: A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland1837 · Samuel Lewis
- History, including Moira: a Historical Handbook · Moira Parish Church; Canon C. R. J. Rudd
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-04-02. How this page was prepared.