Maghermesk Former National School, Maghaberry Road, Magheragall, Moira, Co. Armagh

Magheramesk Former National School, Maghaberry Road, Magheragall

This is a two-storey former National School, built in 1894–95 and dated by a datestone to 1895, situated on Maghaberry Road to the west of Maghaberry village. It stands immediately adjacent to the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Brigid, with which it shares group value. The building retains a high proportion of its original fabric and is an important contributor to the social history of the area, having served not only as a school but also as a temporary place of Catholic worship before the adjoining church was completed in 1910.

The school is rectangular on plan, facing northeast, with a lower later addition to the southeast gable. The walls are of random coursed basalt with red brick quoins and cement pointing. The principal roof is natural slate with angled ridge tiles and a single rendered chimneystack to the northwest gable; there is also a rendered chimneystack to the north gable. Rainwater goods are plastic, with a projecting eaves line, though a single cast iron downpipe survives to the rear. The later addition has an artificial slate roof and painted rendered walling, with timber casement windows.

The principal northeast elevation has an entrance to either side, each fitted with a replacement timber sheeted door beneath a tall segmental transom light. There are three windows at both ground and first floor level. A datestone above the right-hand entrance reads "Magheramesk / National School / 1895". Ground floor windows are segmental-headed timber casements; first floor windows are diminished 2/2 horned sashes. All windows sit in stepped red brick reveals with projecting painted sandstone cills. Several panes are missing, though a substantial proportion of original float glass survives.

The southeast gable is abutted by the lower addition, which has two windows to the front and one to the side, and is heavily overgrown to the rear. The southwest rear elevation has two windows at ground floor level with first floor windows aligned above; the window to the left at first floor is a timber casement replacement. There is an additional mid-level stairwell window to the right side, and a water tank is affixed to this elevation.

The site is shared with the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Brigid, which lies directly to the east, on a sloping plot set gable-end to the road. The setting is rural, with open pasture to all sides. Access is via modern metal gates, and the site is bounded by a stream to the west, wire fencing to the south, and a timber fence along the road to the north. The grounds consist of unkempt grassed areas to the sides and rear, with loose gravel to the front perimeter.

To the northwest of the main building stands an outbuilding, irregular on plan and constructed of basalt and brick. Its right side is partially obscured by a corrugated metal abutment; the left side has three segmental-headed door openings. A perpendicular basalt wall to the rear of the main building separates the schoolyard from the former schoolmaster's yard, which is itself enclosed by a further outbuilding with a monopitched roof.

Historical background

The building was constructed on land purchased from a Mr Mulholland of Edinhill at a cost of £400. Before the adjoining church was built, the schoolhouse served as a place of worship where the local Catholic community celebrated Mass. This arrangement had its roots in the long history of Catholic worship in the area: prior to the Ulster Plantation, the congregation had used an ancient church in the neighbouring townland of Trummery, which was destroyed during the Confederate War of 1641–53 when Cromwellian artillery troops stationed at nearby Soldierstown fired upon it whilst it was occupied by Confederate forces. Services subsequently moved to the home of a Mrs Mulholland of Edinhill, and when her parlour could no longer accommodate the growing congregation, the Very Reverend Father Mark McCashin set about providing a dedicated meeting place, resulting in the construction of this school, which until 1910 also fulfilled that role.

Despite being built in 1894–95, the school was not included in the Annual Revisions that continued to value other properties in the townland until 1929. It appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900, recorded as "Magheramesk School" in a rectangular plan with a small outbuilding to the southwest — the latter subsequently demolished before 1973.

The school was part of the National School System, the state-funded education network established in Ireland in the 1830s under the Board of Commissioners for National Education, which was intended to replace the informal hedge schools and parish schools then prevalent across rural Ireland. Although the system was originally conceived as non-denominational, it became denominational in practice in many areas, a reality formally acknowledged by the Powis Commission of 1870. Magheramesk was a clear example of this: it operated as an explicitly Roman Catholic school, a character further reinforced by the erection of the chapel alongside it and by the holding of Catholic services within its walls between 1895 and 1910.

By 1909 attendance had fallen to just 26 pupils, six of whom were under five years old, and the National Education Office considered closing the school and transferring pupils to Lurganville National School nearly four miles away. The Office ultimately concluded that the Magheramesk children were "more comfortably housed and as well, if not better, taught now than they would be in Lurganville," and the proposal was dropped. The uncertainty surrounding the school's future was resolved the following year with the completion of the church in 1910, after which Catholic services were no longer held in the school building and Father McCashin was installed as Parish Priest.

The school continued in use until partition in 1921 and the transfer of educational responsibility to local authorities under the Education Act of 1923. Known thereafter as Magheramesk Public Elementary School, it was first assessed under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, receiving a rateable value of £7 (compared with £24 for the adjoining church). No further valuation was carried out for over two decades due to the Second World War, but under the Second General Revaluation of 1956–72 its value had risen to £12 (with the church rising to £38). By the 1970s the building had closed to pupils and was recorded as being used as a hall for the adjoining chapel. The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Brigid was listed in 1988 but was extensively damaged by fire during an arson attack in 1991, reopening in 1993.