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Moortown (previously known in Irish as Baile na Móna) is a village in the north east of County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It lies on the western shores of Lough Neagh, beside Ballinderry and Ardboe. It is relatively close to the towns of Cookstown, Magherafelt and Dungannon. It is in Cookstown District Council area. Places of interest include Kinturk cultural centre, Coyles cottage, The air-drum, The battery and The old cross(Ardboe Old Cross)

Phone code

Telephone numbers in Moortown start with 028 867 Coagh.

Sport

Gaelic football is the main sport of the area, with Moortown St. Malachy's GAC (Irish: Baile na Mona CLG) being the local club. Moortown are currently an Intermediate team. Moortown won the county championship in 1992 captained by James Devlin. Chris Lawn also won two All-Ireland medals with the Tyrone Inter-county Team. Their Greatest player is considered to be Peter Crozier, closely followed by Oliver Quinn^[1]. Their home pitch is Tobin park, there are plans now for Moortown to relocate to a new area in the village in a new leisure complex. In 2007 Moortown where hot favourites to be promoted and reached the intermediate championship final against a non-fancied Killyman side who produced a storybook performance to defeat Moortown in Healy park, notable performances came from Peter Devlin (James Devlin's son) Michael O'Hagan and county star PJ Quinn. Moortown used to have a Hurling club in the 1970s competing in the Derry league. A new Camogie team has recently been set up. The underage groups in Moortown are very successful, in the U-14 Squad taking to the semi-final Championship in 2008. The U-14 girls won the county championship in 2009 against Eglish and were beat in the final of the league by Dungannon. The U-10 squad travelled to Lurgan and challenged teams all around Ireland and came successful to win the tournament. The U21 came close as well.

Several small scale charity cycles have also taken place, and continue to take place, in the Moortown area.

Moortown has two massive night clubs called Laverys and The Battery bar both are open from 7pm to 6am daily serving hot food and a selection of cocktails and european largers. However for those who seek a more calm and authentic taste of moortn', Dinnissss' is the place for you,Kinturk is also known for its kett food, and out of date alcohol and then theres Boss Hoggs hes very clean

Education

• St. Peter's Primary School, voted Moortowns best Institiute of Education in 2001.

Language

Moortown's local dialect is said to be derived form an ancient dialect of greek long forgotten, thought to have been brought to the area by the settlers of Alexander "The Magnificent" Dodds.

People

Patsy O'Hagan also lives in the area, is a well known comedian who has won the bard of armagh on three occasions.^[2]

Barry Devlin (born 28 November 1946), once trained as a Columban priest. He left this to do English in UCD and then after joined a graphics company as a screenwriter. He was the Irish Folk Band: Horslips' bass player, shared vocals and its unofficial front man. Barry Devlin has directed for the screen and been a drama writer for radio and screen, as can be seen from his credits on the IMDB and for the radio detective drama Baldi He produced a number of U2 videos in the mid 80s. Examples of his screen writing are evident in the joint RTÉ/BBC production Ballykissangel and ITV's The Darling Buds of May.

Barry Devlin's sister, Marie Devlin, a school teacher and native of Ardboe, County Tyrone. A writer as well and, in 1994, published Over Nine Waves, a collection of traditional Irish myths and legends. She is also married to the Nobel Prize for Literature winner Séamus Heaney.

Boss Hogg (born september 1903) is said to still be liven some where in the plantin, although he is not seen as often as he used to be it has been rumored that when he sobers long enough to rise, he would travel long distances.He once trained as a arsonist but it came to nothing. Boss Hogg is also somewhat famous for making the most phone calls in one day, to the popular night club that is the Battery. searching for his long lost son, whom he has bought many expensive gifts over the years, including a wee place outside belfast called (Glengormly kid)

Polly Devlin, author, journalist, broadcaster and film-maker and another sister of Barry Devlin

A Character also of note was the Former headmaster of Moortown Pat Tobin a naturalised moortown man from Kilbrien, County Waterford, who also took a keen interest in Gaelic Football, being the Tyrone County Chairman. In 1972 The New Moortown GAA pitch was named after Tobin. A book including bits of Tobins scripts and writing and a look back on him as a person was recently published by Pat Grimes a local writer.

Coordinates: 54°37′59″N 6°30′55″W / 54.63306°N 6.51528°W / 54.63306; -6.51528

References

3 ^ What Makes The Winemill great- Fullerbucket an autobiography