placenamesGortreagh
An Gort Riabhach
A nineteenth-century letter and a recorded sporting reminiscence preserve different glimpses of community life in Gortreagh.
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
- An Gort Riabhach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Gortreagh · English · main form
Place & story
A school concert
Writing to John Loughran in America on 2 March 1880, John J. Monaghan described performing readings and recitations at a concert in Gortreagh. He placed it in the preceding December or January, in a new school, with singers from Cookstown. His letter survives in a family collection transcribed by Michael Burns, and records the school serving as an evening performance venue. [2]
Patsy McGurk
The GAA Oral History Project identifies Gortreagh Primary School as the school attended by Patrick, or Patsy, McGurk. Interviewed in 2011, he described his long involvement with Kildress Wolfe Tones, including managing the team and helping to secure playing grounds. His precise local association here is as a former pupil. [3]
An earlier team remembered
McGurk also recalled hearing that his father Vincent had played for a Gortreagh Gaelic team, possibly in the late 1920s. He associated that team with Mickey Donnelly’s field at Cavoneill and horse racing to raise funds. This was an inherited sporting memory, rather than an event he claimed to have witnessed. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Tyrone
- Barony
- Dungannon Upper
- Civil parish
- Kildress
- Coordinates
- 54.62684, -6.86960 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414259 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Gortreagh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Letters from Kildress1879–80:John J.Monaghan,2March1880 · John J. Monaghan; family letters transcribed by Michael Burns,2011
- GAA Oral History Project TY/1/30:Patsy McGurk,pp1–3,7 · Eileen McCallion; GAA Oral History Project
- Standing stone near Gortreagh, as photographed in 2006 illustration: based on a Altar stone 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 2012-01-25. How this page was prepared.