placenamesBealaha
Béal Átha
Bealaha’s church replaced makeshift places of worship, while the nearby altar on Bansha Hill preserves a separately attested tradition of St Senan.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Béal Átha · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Bealaha · English · main form
Place & story
From private houses to a parish church
Before Bealaha’s present church was built, worshippers gathered in local houses and later in a chapel at one end of the old parochial house in Baltard. The parish history calls this earlier chapel Singleton’s Room, after the landlord John Singleton. St Senan’s Church followed in 1869–70. Renovation in 1984 reordered the sanctuary and introduced new lighting and heating, adapting the nineteenth-century building to later liturgical and practical needs. [2]
The church’s surviving interior
St Senan’s is a tall, gable-fronted church with five bays along its sides. A porch and rear sacristy were added in 1954. The architectural inventory records exposed, braced roof timbers resting on stone corbels, a carved stone altar with marble columns and a sloping choir gallery with a timber balustrade. Marble wall memorials and the pointed windows add to the interior, while stone gate piers and iron gates mark its roadside entrance. [3]
The bell tradition at Bansha Hill
South of Bealaha, near Bansha school, St Senan’s Altar is associated with a story about a bell descending from the clouds. The local community heritage account says Senan built the altar in thanksgiving for receiving it. It also records the site’s use for Mass during the Penal period. A local committee later restored the altar and developed its surroundings with support from Clare Leader and the Board of Works. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Clare
- Barony
- Ibrickan
- Civil parish
- Killard
- Within
- Carrowblough Beg
- Coordinates
- 52.71776, -9.58951
- Logainm ID
- 104027 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bealaha. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- St Senan’s Church, Bealaha: parish history · Doonbeg Parish
- Saint Senan’s Catholic Church, inventory 20404601 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- History and Heritage: St Senan’s Altar · Doonbeg Community Development Ltd
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-06-09. How this page was prepared.