This is Moneyreagh. It’s a village and a townland in County Down. The name probably derives from the Irish “Mónaidh Riabhach” meaning “grey bog or moor” (according to the website of the Northern Ireland Place Name Project).
There is still plenty of grey around, in the churchyard and old school building, but there is also a thriving community.
You’d think by now the village would have settled on one spelling of the name, but no, they still have “Moneyrea Primary School” and “Moneyreagh Store”.
In April 2014 a plaque was unveiled to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of a local poet, Robert Huddleston. Click here for a report of the unveiling of the plaque.
Here are some lines from Robert Huddleston, from a long Ulster-Scots poem called “Doddery Willowaim”, appropriate to the current wintry weather in Northern Ireland.
“The nights get crabbit, dark, an’ bleak,
The days but doncy shortlin’ peep;
While Summer cheers the southern Pole
And warm the Antartic regions Sol;
While caul’ December’s cranreuch breath,
Does wreaselin freeze the faded heath.”
Townlands of Ulster 
So… what does ‘crabbit’, ‘doncy’ and ‘wreaselin’ mean??
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Not a clue! OK That’s not entirely true. The poem is written in Ulster-Scots, which is, depending on who you ask, a dialect of English spoken in Scotland and Northern Ireland, or a separate language.
I understand some of the words – “caul” for “cold” for example, and “crabbit” for “miserable”. But “doncy” is a mystery to me. When I tried googling it, I just got results about donkeys.
Cranreuch is some kind of frost, I think.
There will be more about languages on this blog as time goes on, as long as I can avoid the politics that beset the promotion of both Irish and Ulster Scots here in Northern Ireland.
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You are a brave lass! 😉
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Thank you–this is great! I love the image of the churchyard. Is the name pronounced “money-ray”?
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Yes, it’s money-ray.
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You are now well-equipped to pronounce some other townlands which will appear on the blog later this year – Castlereagh and Carrowreagh and, with a small logical leap, Killyleagh.
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[…] Churchyards are turning out to be treasure-stores of townland names. The names are inscribed on many gravestones from the 18th and 19th centuries. Occasionally, if I’m really lucky, they are still legible. Here are two Granshaw stones, complete with Ws. The grave of “Eliza Haslett of Granshaw” is in Granshaw churchyard; the grave of “Susanna Young of Granshaw” is in Moneyreagh. […]
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[…] There’s also a bus from Belfast to Raffrey. I’m adding this sign to my collection of differnent spellings of the townland of Moneyrea or Moneyreagh. […]
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[…] GRANSHA KILLYNETHER MONEYREAGH OR MONEYREA […]
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[…] and maybe so are you, as it has appeared in the other brindled, grey, and speckled townlands of Moneyreagh and […]
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[…] Today’s townland is Lisleen, a patchwork of fields between Belfast and Comber. It’s not far from Gransha and Moneyreagh. […]
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Re. “doncy”
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/donsie
DSL (Dictionary of the Scots Language)
DONSIE, DONSY, adj. Also doncie, -(e)y, dauncey.
1. Unfortunate, luckless, hapless poor, mean, despicable
2. Glum, dejected, wretched.
3. Of persons and things: sickly, feeble, delicate
4. Dull, stupid (may have been influenced by dunce.]
6. Neat, tidy; sedate; often with the idea of affectation and self-importance
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[…] sometimes spelled with “girv” instead of “garv”, as on this gravestone in Moneyreagh for the Frame […]
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[…] nearest graveyard is in the village of Moneyreagh, where I found this headstone for the Orr family of […]
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