Feeny () is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

and

townland A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. It is between

Dungiven Dungiven () is a small town, townland and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is near the main A6 road (Northern Ireland), A6 Belfast to Derry road, which bypasses the town. It lies where the river ...

and

Claudy Claudy () is a village and townland (of 1,154 acres) in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It lies in the Faughan Valley, southeast of Derry, where the River Glenrandal joins the River Faughan. It is situated in the civil parish of Cumber ...

. In the 2021 Census it had a population of 776. Feeny lies just inside the boundary of the

Sperrins The Sperrins or Sperrin Mountains () are a mountain range in Northern Ireland. The range stretches from Strabane and Mullaghcarn in the west, to Slieve Gallion and the Glenshane Pass in the east, in the counties of Tyrone and Londonderry. Th ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated within

Causeway Coast and Glens Causeway Coast and Glens is a local government district covering most of the northern part of Northern Ireland. It was created on 1 April 2015 by merging the Borough of Ballymoney, the Borough of Coleraine, the Borough of Limavady and the Di ...

district.

Features

Feeny has a health centre, community centre and

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

club. However, it only has a small number of shops. There are two pubs in the village, commonly referred to as the top bar and bottom bar due to their location on the hill of main street. It has a population of around 690 in 2011. A community regeneration project has been proposed for the village, funded by the International Fund for Ireland. The project, to be undertaken by Feeny Community Association, involves redeveloping a derelict site in the village centre to commercial premises, three apartments and a community office. This will be alongside an environmental improvement scheme in Main Street, which would create a stronger commercial centre, more jobs, and improve the appearance of the village.

History

Near the village is the General's Bridge, the site of the famous ambush by

highwayman A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to foo ...

Shane Crossagh. This is where Sean Crossan held up some British Redcoats by placing wooden cut-out muskets into some bushes. During the

Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed ...

, off-duty

Ulster Defence Regiment The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) was an infantry regiment of the British Army established in 1970, with a comparatively short existence ending in 1992. Raised through public appeal, newspaper and television advertisements,Potter p25 their offi ...

soldier James Hood was killed by the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

(IRA) at his house near Feeny on 4 January 1973.

Places of interest

On the outskirts of the village, towards Dungiven, lies four-storey Drumcovitt House which was built over 300 years ago by the

Worshipful Company of Fishmongers The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (or Fishmongers' Company) is one of the 111 livery companies of the City of London, being an incorporated guild of sellers of fish and seafood in the City. The Company ranks fourth in the order of precede ...

and is a visible reminder of the

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster (; Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster Scots: ) was the organised Settler colonialism, colonisation (''Plantation (settlement or colony), plantation'') of Ulstera Provinces of Ireland, province of Irelandby people from Great ...

period. In 1796 a round ended Georgian front was added to the house. It is now tourist accommodation. Banagher Glen National Nature Reserve is also close to the village, and Aughlish stone circles and alignments are approximately 3 km from Feeny. About a mile outside the village is the Owenbeg River a significant tributary to the River Roe can be seen from a layby at the bridge between Feeny and

Transport

Feeny has good road links to

Limavady Limavady (; ) is a market town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, with Binevenagh as a backdrop. Lying east of Derry and southwest of Coleraine, Limavady had a population of 11,279 people at the 2021 Census. In the 40 years between 1 ...

(20 km to the north) and

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

(23 km to the northwest), but has limited public transport connections.

Education

St Canice's is the local primary school.

Sport

Gaelic games Gaelic games () are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the most popular of the s ...

are the most popular sports in the area, with St Mary's GAC Banagher (''CLG Naomh Mhuire Beannchar'') being the local club. Fr McNally Park is the team's grounds.

Demography

Feeny is classified as a small village or hamlet by th
NI Statistics and Research Agency
(NISRA) (i.e., with population between 500 and 1,000). On Census day (27 March 2011) there were 690 people living in Feeny. Of these: *29.3% were aged under 16 years and 6.6% were aged 60 and over *47.6% of the population were male and 52.4% were female *94.3% were from a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

background and 5.4% were from a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

background *7.8% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed For more details see
NI Neighbourhood Information Service
The century of political and religious turmoil in modern-day Northern Ireland has seen the village of Feeny move from a mixed village to being almost exclusively Nationalist. In the 1911 Census the village recorded 149 inhabitants of whom 64 were from a Protestant background. The village had a demographic that was 57.1% Roman Catholic and 42.9% Protestant. Over the course of the century while the overall population of the village quadrupled in size the minority Protestant population had shrunk to just 20 inhabitants in the 2001 Census. This 39% fall in the Protestant community over the century is the third largest deterioration of a community from either side of Ulster's political divide in any village or district of over one hundred inhabitants behind the sharp declines of the Protestant communities of Derry City and Dungiven Village and marginally higher than the sharpest decline of a Roman Catholic community, experienced in Castlereagh.

References

{{authority control Villages in County Londonderry Townlands of County Londonderry Causeway Coast and Glens district