Ballysadare Explained

Ballysadare
Native Name:Irish: Baile Easa Dara
Native Name Lang:ga
Settlement Type:Town
Pushpin Map:Ireland
Pushpin Label Position:right
Pushpin Map Caption:Location in Ireland
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name:Ireland
Subdivision Type1:Province
Subdivision Name1:Connacht
Subdivision Type3:County
Subdivision Name3:County Sligo
Unit Pref:Metric
Population As Of:2022
Population Footnotes:[1]
Population Total:1,747
Population Density Km2:auto
Utc Offset1:+0
Timezone1 Dst:IST (WEST)
Utc Offset1 Dst:-1
Coordinates:54.2117°N -8.5094°W
Elevation M:55
Blank Name:Irish Grid Reference

Ballysadare,[2] [3] locally also Ballisodare,[4] is a town in County Sligo, Ireland. It is about south of Sligo town. The town developed on an important crossing of the Owenmore River. Ballysadare is in a townland and civil parish of the same name.[4]

History

Toponymy

The Ox Mountains are located west of the town. The town itself is named after the falls on the Owenmore River. Ballysadare is in the barony of Leyny formerly the túath of Luighne Connacht, and the barony of Tirerril, formerly the túath of Tír Olloíl. The Owenmore river forms the border between the baronies. Ballysadare also borders two other baronies in County Sligo, Carbury to the North and Tireragh to the West. Ballysadare is in the diocese of Achonry.

Alternative names for the falls are Eas Mac Modairn (Falls of the son of Modarn) and Eas na nÉan (The Falls of the Bird).

There appear to be three variants of English version of the settlement name still in use, Ballysadare being on the road signs coming to dominate. The use of Ballisodare remains in evidence on the names of some local sport clubs and even on at least one Sligo County Council document in 2018.[5] [6] Ballysodare appears to been used for the railway station and there is evidence of its use on a map of 1887 and indexing of parish registers at the National Library of Ireland.[7] [8]

Early history

Ballysadare is a possible location for the town noted as Nagnata on Claudius Ptolemy's 2nd century CE co-ordinate map of the world.[9] Ballysadare was anciently a major gathering place for all surrounding districts.

St. Columba visited Ballysadare in 575 AD at which "Before the Saint (Columba) returned to Britain he founded one church in the district of Carbury, and proceeded from thence to a place called Easdara, where all the prelates of the neighbouring regions, and vast numbers of holy men and women had come to meet him ; and, to say nothing of the rest of the multitude, which was almost beyond counting, a great many distinguished saints of the race of Cumne are recorded to have been present." This extract is from Colgans Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae.

The O'Hara were the lords of Lúighne.

Saint Féichín

St Féichín was born in the townland of Billa in the parish of Ballysadare.[10] He is said to have studied under St. Nath Í of Achonry further to the south in the same territory. The word Bile means a sacred tree or grove. The townland is the location of the Leaba St. Féichín or St. Feichins bed. The town developed near a church founded by St. Féichín, some time before he died in 664 AD (O’Rorke 1878, 1–4).This monastic site is in Kilboglashy townland and the remains consist of a stone church known as the Great Temple of St. Féichín (Teampal mór Féichín), with a later Romanesque style carved doorway, two small buildings and a graveyard. The O'Duillenain, were erenachs of Ballysadare.

The Canons Regular of St. Augustine built a new priory a short distance to the west in Abbeytown Townland in the 13th century. Ballysadare was mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters 15 times between 1158 and 1602, in 1188, 1199, 1228, 1230, 1235, 1239, 1249, 1261, 1267, 1285, 1360, 1444, 1595 and 1602.[11] In 1360, the Annals of the Four Masters note: A bridge of lime and stone was built by Cathal O’Conor across the river of Eas-dara. In 1588, all monastery lands around Ballysadare were seized by the Dublin Castle government on behalf of the Crown.

Mines

Ballysadare is the site of an ancient silver and lead mine, re-opened and worked in the 19th and 20th century. It is now the site of a quarry.

Recent history

Ballysadare was the location of a Pollexfen Mills, since demolished. There is also a hydro electric power station in the vicinity.

The area experienced rapid development during the 'Celtic Tiger' boom, with the population almost trebling in the period between the 1996 and 2022 census (from 612 to 1,747 people).[12] During this period several new housing estates were developed, several of which subsequently remained empty, creating ghost estates.[13] [1] The town was bypassed by the N4 Sligo-Collooney dual-carriageway, completed in January 1998. The N59 Ballina-Sligo road still winds through the town.

Education

It is home to St. Mary's College,a secondary school which serves the southern and western environs of County Sligo, including the surrounding areas of Collooney and Coolaney. There is also St. John's national school which serves the surrounding area

Transport

Ballysodare railway station was located on the Dublin-Sligo railway line but it is now demolished; it was also served by the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway from Manorhamilton and the route from .

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Interactive Data Visualisations: Towns: Ballysadare . Census 2022 . Central Statistics Office. 30 September 2023.
  2. McLoughlin, John. "Trees and woodland names in Irish placenames" . Irish Forestry, Vol. 73 (2016). p.249
  3. Mills, David. A Dictionary of British Place-Names. Oxford University Press, 2011. p.38
  4. Web site: Baile Easa Dara/Ballysadare . . 16 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180223050620/https://www.logainm.ie/en/45224 . 23 February 2018 . live .
  5. Web site: Major Roadworks N59. www.sligococo.ie. 2019-05-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20190524090918/http://www.sligococo.ie/PublicNotices/MajorRoadworksN59/. 2019-05-24. dead.
  6. Web site: About Ballisodare Fishing Club - Ballisodare River - Salmon River - Salmon Fishing. www.ballisodarefishingclub.ie. 2019-05-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20171114021323/http://ballisodarefishingclub.ie/aboutus/. 2017-11-14. live.
  7. Web site: Sligo Bundoran Ballyshannon Lough Gill Ballysodare Bay Drumcliff Bay, 1887 map. alamy. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20190530115916/https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-sligo-bundoran-ballyshannon-lough-gill-ballysodare-bay-drumcliff-bay-110679413.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=F2E19116-37A1-4196-B1B3-A048C6EED9B5&p=283958&n=2&orientation=0. 30 May 2019. dmy-all.
  8. Web site: Catholic Parish Registers at the NLI. Ballysodare and Kilvarnet. 29 May 2019. National Library of Ireland. https://web.archive.org/web/20170908143743/http://registers.nli.ie/parishes/0120. 8 September 2017. live.
  9. 10.1080/00750770801909375 . 41 . Ptolemy's map of Ireland: a modern decoding . Irish Geography . 49–69.
  10. Web site: The life of Saint Fechin of Fore, the Apostle of Connemara. John B. (John Baptist). Coyle. 30 May 2019. Dublin : M. H. Gill. Internet Archive. 30 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20151017133519/https://archive.org/details/thelifeofsaintfe00coyluoft. 17 October 2015. live.
  11. Web site: Where was the original location of the town of Ballysadare, Co. Sligo? - Dr. Charles Mount. Charles. Mount. 2019-05-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20171115184504/http://charles-mount.ie/wp/index.php/where-was-the-original-location-of-the-town-of-ballysadare-co-sligo/. 2017-11-15. live.
  12. Web site: Ballisodare (Ireland) Census Town . City Population . 11 March 2020 . 9 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201009224718/https://www.citypopulation.de/en/ireland/towns/sligo/0079__ballisodare/ . live .
  13. News: Irish 'ghost estates': 75% drop in unfinished housing since 2010. 16 December 2015. 26 July 2019. live. dmy-all. https://web.archive.org/web/20170424102503/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35112926. 24 April 2017.