Moneyreagh or Moneyrea () is a small village and

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. It is just off the main road between

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

and

Ballygowan Ballygowan () is a village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the Ards and North Down Borough. The town of Comber is a short distance to the north-east, the town of Saintfield to the south, and the city of Belfast further to the no ...

. It is situated in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Comber Comber ( , , locally ) is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies south of Newtownards, at the northern end of Strangford Lough. It is situated in the townland of Town Parks, the civil parish of Comber and the historic barony of Cast ...

and the historic

barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...

Castlereagh Lower Castlereagh Lower (named after the former barony of Castlereagh) is a historic barony in County Down, Northern Ireland. It was created by 1841 with the division of Castlereagh into two. The barony roughly matches the former Gaelic territory of '' ...

. It had a population of 1,384 people in the 2011 Census.

History

On the 26 May 1942 a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Bristol Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter (often called the Beau) is a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufort ...

(X7573) crashed near village shortly after taking off from

RAF Ballyhalbert Royal Air Force Ballyhalbert or more simply RAF Ballyhalbert is a former Royal Air Force station at Ballyhalbert on the Ards Peninsula, County Down, Northern Ireland RAF Kirkistown was a satellite to the larger Ballyhalbert. Construction beg ...

, killing all Three crew.

Demography

2011 Census

On Census Day, 27 March 2011, the usual resident of the Moneyreagh Settlement was 1,384 (519 households). Text was copied from this source, which is available under a
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright. * 17.92% were aged under 16 years and 13.37% were aged 65 and over * 50.29% of the usually resident population were male and 49.71% were female * 44 was the average (median) age of the population * 99.71% were from the white (including Irish Traveller) ethnic group * 2.24% belong to or were brought up as Catholic * 90.39% belong to or were brought as 'Protestant and other Christian (including Christian related)' religion * 83.31% indicated that they had a British national identity, 2.53% had an Irish national identity and 29.77% had a Northern Irish national identity. Respondents could indicate more than one national identity.

Language

* 1.04% had some knowledge of the Irish Language * 9.07% had some knowledge of the Ulster Scots Language * 0.30% did not have English as their first language

Education

Primary

Moneyreagh has one primary school locally, seen at the top of the table below. Other schools nearby have been added also.

Secondary

Moneyreagh does not have any secondary schools locally. Those located nearby (<10 mi (16 km) away) are shown in the table below:

Notable People

Golfer,

Rory McIlroy Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is the current world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over 100 weeks in tha ...

, lived near the village until March 2013.

Transport

Moneyreagh is connected to Belfast City Centre by the 12/512 bus route ran by

Translink Translink (or TransLink) may refer to: * TransLink (British Columbia), the public transport operator in Vancouver, Canada * Translink (Northern Ireland) Translink is the brand name of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo), a ...

. This route also connects Moneyreagh to the neighbouring small town of

References

Notes

For consistency, this article uses the current spelling of MONEYREAGH. As Moneyreagh is in the United Kingdom, which uses imperial units for distance, all distances read in miles first. Villages in County Down Townlands of County Down Civil parish of Comber Aviation accidents and incidents locations in Northern Ireland {{Down-geo-stub