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Warrenpoint pays tribute to teacher and actor Pat Mooney

29 August 2026 in Community

Pat Mooney, teacher and actor, from Warrenpoint

Pat Mooney, the Warrenpoint man whose work as a teacher and actor shaped drama in the town and in Newry across six decades, has died. He passed away on 22nd August, and his funeral Mass was held in a packed St Peter’s Church, Warrenpoint, on Wednesday 26th August.

Mr Mooney taught English at the Abbey Christian Brothers’ Grammar School in Newry from 1968 until 2009, becoming head of English in 1990. He was the driving force behind the introduction of drama as a subject at the school, and was a co-founder of the Abbey Press, a poetry imprint based there, alongside his colleague Mel McMahon and the poet Adrian Rice. Its titles have included work by Michael Longley and Brendan Kennelly.

He also took charge of golf at the Abbey, where the players he coached included the Ryder Cup golfer Ronan Rafferty, and he gave many years to Scoil Drámaíochta and to Irish language theatre, directing productions and organising drama festivals.

On stage, his association with Newpoint Players in Newry reached back to 1964, taking in Philadelphia, Here I Come in the company’s silver jubilee year and a turn in Showboat that earned him the lasting nickname Big Jed. In 2008 he played the Bishop in Newpoint’s production of The Field, which filled the Town Hall for a week and went on to tour festivals. He was a mainstay of the company’s series of historical trial plays written by Anthony Russell, which travelled as far as Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

Pat Mooney in costume as a judge in a Newpoint Players production

Screen work followed, much of it after he had turned seventy. He appeared in Game of Thrones in 2012, and in The Lost City of Z, The Man Who Invented Christmas, Red Rock and The Frankenstein Chronicles, roles gathered together in his acting showreel.

The Abbey said its whole school community was deeply saddened, describing his classroom as a place where the written word came alive and calling him “one of a kind. Incomparable.” Justin McNulty MLA, who was among those at the funeral, said that “in every role he was straight and true”, and recalled a lifelong Down supporter who hardly ever missed a match.

He is survived by his sister Eileen.