placenamesAltishahane
Alt Inse Uí Chatháin
School records preserve the educational history of this Donaghedy locality, also known locally as Altishane.
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
- Alt Inse Uí Chatháin · Irish · main form · validated name
- Altishahane · English · main form
Place & story
From hedge school to a modern classroom
St Michael’s Primary School traces Altishane’s educational beginnings to a hedge school in the early nineteenth century, followed by a school founded in 1830. A new building opened in 1965. Altishane also received children when neighbouring rural schools closed: some pupils from Belix transferred after its closure in 1968–69, and others came from Doorat when that school closed in 1971. These changes gradually concentrated teaching from a wider rural district into fewer classrooms. [2]
The final bell in 2019
Altishane Primary School held its final day on 26 June 2019 with ten pupils. UTV reported that two were moving to secondary education and the other eight were to attend the new St Michael’s school in Donemana. The school had welcomed education secretary Ruth Kelly in 2005 for the fortieth anniversary of its building; her grandfather, Frank Kelly, had taught there in the early 1900s. The visit connected a national political figure with an earlier generation of local teaching. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Tyrone
- Barony
- Strabane Lower
- Civil parish
- Donaghedy
- Coordinates
- 54.82765, -7.28417 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414377 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Altishahane. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Our school history: Altishane and the neighbouring schools · St Michael’s Primary School, Dunnamanagh
- NI’s smallest primary school closes its doors after two centuries of teaching · UTV, 26 June 2019
- Dunnyboe Bridge, Altishane illustration: based on a Dunnyboe Bridge, Altishane 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 2015-11-11. How this page was prepared.