placenamesAltnamackan
Alt na Meacan
Altnamackan’s roadside settlement and relationship with nearby Cortamlet form the setting for a history that also reached the European Court of Human Rights.
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 na Meacan · Irish · main form · validated name
- Altnamackan · English · main form
- Altnamachin · English · main form · local name
Place & story
A village on the border road
Altnamackan, also written Altnamackin, developed along the Blaney Road southwest of Newtownhamilton, close to the Monaghan border. A 2012 council plan treated it and Cortamlet as a pair of small communities sharing services. It distinguished Altnamackin’s roadside houses and post office from Cortamlet’s church and school, about a mile to the northeast. This relationship helps explain the settlement’s dispersed character. [2]
The killings on Cortamlet Road
On 24 August 1975, Colm McCartney and Sean Farmer were killed on Cortamlet Road while returning from the All-Ireland football semi-finals in Dublin. The later European Court judgment records a suspected bogus military checkpoint nearby on the A25 that night. The deaths brought this small border locality into the wider history of the Troubles. [3]
The investigation reaches Strasbourg
In November 2007, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on a case brought by McCartney’s brother. It found that the early stages of the police response to allegations made in 1999 lacked the required independence, breaching the investigative obligation under Article 2. That specific finding concerned the later investigation; the judgment did not determine who had carried out the killings. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Armagh
- Barony
- Fews Upper
- Civil parish
- Newtownhamilton
- Coordinates
- 54.15721, -6.63748 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 56385 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Altnamackan. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Altnamackin and Cortamlet: Village Renewal and Development Plans, July 2012 · URS for Newry and Mourne District Council
- McCartney v. the United Kingdom, application 34575/04: judgment of 27 November 2007 · European Court of Human Rights
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-12-20. How this page was prepared.