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Donagheady
Donagheady is a small village in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is 8 miles from Londonderry and 7 miles from Strabane, it Sits on a plateau 300 feet above sea level. With a population of an estimated 200.

History
In the early seventeenth century a Scottish colony was established in the Bready area under the patronage of the Abercorns, owners of the manor of Dunnalong. When the settlers arrived the nearest church was at Old Donagheady. This church was in roofless in 1622, but some time after this was restored and used as a Protestant place of worship. It was destroyed again in the Rebellion of 1641 when the minister was fatally wounded.

The first Presbyterian minister in Donagheady was John Hamilton, a Scot, who arrived in the 1650s. At the Restoration of 1660 Hamilton refused to conform to the practices of the Church of Ireland and was forced to live as a virtual outlaw. For a number of years Presbyterians were severely persecuted by the authorities and Hamilton was forced to preach in secret to small groups of followers. A local tradition is that Presbyterians used to meet in a secluded spot surrounded by trees at the Wood near Magheramason. In 1667, nineteen Presbyterians from Donagheady were excommunicated by the Church of Ireland bishop of Derry. By 1670, however, the restrictions were more relaxed, and in 1672 the Presbyterians of Donagheady were allowed to build their first church in the townland of Altrest.

Hamilton continued to minister at Donagheady until his death which took place in Derry in 1689 during the siege. According to one story, a small gravestone, now lost, in the north-west corner of Grange graveyard bore the name of the Rev. John Hamilton. Whether he was actually buried in Grange is an open question since the gravestone may have been to his memory only and not necessarily marking where he was laid to rest. His successor, after a fairly long intervening period, was Thomas Wensley who was ordained on 16 January 1699. After the service in the church, business was concluded in the tavern in Drumgauty, not far from Grange graveyard. This tavern was still in existence in the early nineteenth century and was known as Molly Kelly’s.

The congregation of Donagheady experienced a serious rupture in 1736-41 which culminated in the congregation splitting into two separate divisions. The basis of the dispute was the inability of the congregation to come to any agreement over the choice of their next minister, following the death of the Rev. Wensley in 1736. The situation gradually deteriorated, reaching its lowest point in a riot in the church during a Sunday service. By 1741, with no resolution in sight, the Synod of Ulster sanctioned the separation of the congregation into two different parts. The congregation which continued to meet in the old church became known as First Donagheady. The new congregation was called Second Donagheady. The ridiculousness of the situation was compounded by the construction of the Second Donagheady meeting house barely 200 yards from the old church.

In the second half of the nineteenth century the congregations of First and Second Donagheady acquired new church buildings. Each structure was built on the same site that the previous church had stood. Changed economic circumstances and a significantly reduced membership forced the two Donagheady congregations to give serious consideration to union in the early 1930s. Rural depopulation was a major factor in forcing the two congregations to consider uniting. The union was effected on 1 January 1933, with the united congregation using the Second Donagheady church building as their place of worship. The First Donagheady church building was allowed to decay and was later demolished.

On 31 August 2002 Bready Primary School amalgamated with nearby Sandville Primary School. The latter school had originally been under the control of Donagheady Presbyterian Church, but was transferred to the Strabane and Castlederg Regional Education Committee after 1947. In 1961 a new school building was opened. The numbers of pupils at Sandville had been falling for some time forcing the school’s governors to give serious consideration to the future of the school. Sandville Primary School was closed and the pupils transferred to Bready. From that time on the school was known as Bready Jubilee Controlled Primary School, the name reflecting the celebration of the Queen’s Jubilee in the year of the amalgamation. In the same year funding of £1.3 million was made available by the Department of Education to build a new school at Bready on a site immediately behind the existing building. The work was completed in the summer of 2004. The new school comprised five classrooms with adjoining resource areas and an assembly hall named the Sandville Hall. It was officially opened by the Duke of Abercorn KG on 23 June 2005. Mrs Shannon retired as principal in August 2005 and was succeeded by Mrs Helen Cole.

Sport
Motorcross is an attraction to Donagheady, it has a motorcross track which has regulary held events including the ulster grand prix.

Cricket is a popular sport in the area, Dullerton Cricket Club ran until the late 1980's located on Altrest Road until numbers deterioted and other clubs in surrounding area's became popular i.e. Burndennett, Killyclooney and Bready.

Football was also popular, in the 1960's Altrest United was created and was located on the Donagheady Road later the location was turned into a sandpit which then lead to a motorcross track.