placenamesCooneen
An Cúinnín
Cooneen’s former Catholic chapel records two centuries of change in worship, education and social life.
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 Cúinnín · Irish · main form · validated name
- Cooneen · English · main form
Place & story
The early chapel
Cooneen’s old chapel was standing by February 1804, when a Brooke estate map recorded it. The official building survey dates its origins to around 1795 and suggests its T-shaped form may reflect an early extension. Its relatively plain appearance survived an era when many older Catholic chapels acquired elaborate Victorian additions. [2]
School and church grounds
A national school had been built within the chapel grounds by 1860. The surviving schoolhouse was renovated around 2000 as a community centre. Beside it, the old chapel retains roughcast walls, sandstone eaves courses and tall windows, though the 2007 survey recorded substantial roof collapse. [2]
From worship to dancing
A new church was built a short distance west in 1942. Father George McCarron converted the old chapel into a dance hall in 1949–50, adding a stage and altering its internal arrangements. It remained a social venue for decades before abandonment around 1985. [2]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Fermanagh
- Barony
- Magherastephana
- Civil parish
- Aghalurcher
- Within
- Cooneen
- Coordinates
- 54.34254, -7.29263 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413353 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Cooneen. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Cooneen Old Church, HB12/04/092 · Department for Communities, Historic Environment Division
- Cooneen Church of Ireland, County Fermanagh illustration: based on a Cooneen by Kenneth Allen. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2012-01-11. How this page was prepared.