placenamesBallymaconnelly
Baile Mhic Conaíle
A disputed mail route and school records place Ballymaconnelly within the everyday service network of rural north Antrim.
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
- Baile Mhic Conaíle · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballymaconnelly · English · main form
Place & story
Letters taking the long way round
Ballymaconnelly’s post office reached the House of Commons on 18 February 1914. Peter Kerr-Smiley complained that a daily mail car between Kilrea and Cullybackey called at Ballymaconnelly and Rasharkin, yet some locally addressed letters were being carried on to Belfast and back. He said the detour approached a hundred miles and delayed delivery by a day. Postmaster General Charles Hobhouse promised an inquiry. The exchange records a local complaint about how a national postal system served neighbouring rural communities; it does not establish whether the requested change followed. [2]
Sara Pinkerton at the national school
In March 1905, Ballymaconnelly national school principal Sara Pinkerton was twenty-seven. Her teacher return names Rasharkin among her places of education. [3]
A later school building
A 2025 planning report concerns a former school on Ballymaconnelly Road. The application proposed converting it to a home with an artist’s studio. The accompanying statement described a building developed as a school in the mid-twentieth century and unused for more than thirty years. The proposal sought to retain its basic form while finding a new use for the former educational space; submission of the plan is distinct from proof that the conversion was completed. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballymaconnelly. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Post Office Mails(Ballymaconnelly),18February1914,HCvol58c948 · UK Parliament, Hansard
- Commissioners of National Education teacher return,31March1905: Pinkerton,Sara · National Archives of Ireland
- Plans for home and artist’s studio in former Rasharkin school,29October2025 · Andy Balfour, Local Democracy Reporter
- Ballymaconnelly Orange Hall as photographed in 2008 illustration: based on a Ballymaconnelly Orange Hall 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 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.