placenamesDooish
An Dubhais
The Donegal district includes Meencargagh, where a nineteenth-century school survives near the northeastern end of Barnesmore Gap.
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 Dubhais · Irish · main form
- Dooish · English · main form
Place & story
A school dated 1856
The date plaque over the entrance identifies Meencarrigach National School as a building of 1856. Standing in Meencargagh, southwest of Ballybofey, it has a T-shaped plan and a porch projecting from the main elevation. Squared local stone forms its walls, with dressed stone around the openings and at the corners. The architectural inventory records its original slate roof and substantial stone detailing, although the window fittings had been replaced. [2]
The shape of the classrooms
The inventory interprets the school’s plan as evidence of two original classrooms, possibly separating boys and girls. That division is an architectural interpretation rather than a surviving classroom allocation. It also suggests possible assistance from a local landlord, perhaps Lord Lifford of Meenglass, but does not establish who paid for construction. The building’s dated fabric is firmer evidence than those proposed explanations of its arrangement and funding. [2]
A house recorded beside the road scheme
Archaeological testing for the N 15 Blackburn Bridge realignment in April 2012 covered ground in Dooish, Meencargagh, Goland and Croaghonagh. It identified the foundations and floor of a post-medieval house where the first-edition map showed a building. The excavator considered its record sufficient without further investigation. Two planned areas could not be tested, so the report’s otherwise negative results apply to the ground examined, rather than the entire route. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Dooish. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Meencarrigach National School:40907707 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- 2012:145: Croaghonagh/Meencargagh/Goland/Dooish · Dave Bayley, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd., Excavations.ie
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2024-05-09. How this page was prepared.