Draperstown

Draperstown is a village in the Sperrin Mountains in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is situated in the civil parish of Ballynascreen and is part of Mid-Ulster district. It is also part of the Church of Ireland parish of Ballynascreen and the Catholic parish of Ballinascreen, and within the former barony of Loughinsholin. The village had a population of 1,638 people in the 2001 Census.NameDraperstown had its name bestowed upon it in 1818 by the Worshipful Company of Drapers, which had previously named Moneymore as Draperstown.Prior to this however the settlement was originally known as "Borbury". It was then recorded as being called the "Cross" in 1813 and "Moyheelan" in 1821.Despite the name given to it by the Drapers' company, locals continued to commonly refer to the settlement with a variety of names: the Cross, in reference to the crossroads where the market was held,Moyheelan, after the townland of Moyheeland, which it was founded in,the Cross of Ballynascreen, after the fact that it was the main crossroads in the parish of Ballynascreen,Ballinascreen, after the Roman Catholic parish.Draperstown-cross, after the crossroads that were the main feature of the settlementBallynacross, of which the Irish form Baile na Croise, meaning "townland of the crossroad", is used as the present Irish name for Draperstown. The term "screen" in the popular Irish song The Verdant Braes of Screen apparently refers to Ballinascreen.