placenamesBallygarden
Baile an Ghairdín
A parliamentary question about land purchase and the life of a local teacher connect Ballygarden with two distinct chapters of Roscommon history.
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
- Baile an Ghairdín · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Ballygarden · English · main form
Place & story
Waiting to buy the Keogh estate
On 7 April 1913 James O’Kelly raised Ballygarden in the House of Commons. He asked about tenants on the Keogh estate in Kiltrustan parish, including those at Ballygarden, Moyglass and Skelp. According to his question, they had signed purchase agreements more than six years earlier and were still paying four per cent on the purchase money while awaiting completion. Chief Secretary Augustine Birrell confirmed that a direct sale from owner to tenants was proceeding through the Estates Commissioners’ queue, but could give no date for its turn. The exchange captures the delay between agreeing to buy farms and completing the transfer. [2]
Jimmy Cusack’s Ballygarden home
Teacher James, or Jimmy, Cusack moved to Ballygarden in 1980 and became involved in the Kiltrustan community through sports clubs and church committees. His professional life centred on Bishop Hodson’s Grammar School in Elphin, where he had begun teaching in 1957 and later became headmaster, retiring in 1998. A 2025 obituary, drawing on his son Mícheál’s funeral tribute, recalled his teaching of Irish, English, Latin, history and religion. Ballygarden was his later home rather than his birthplace: he came originally from Cloone in Kilbeacanty, County Galway. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Roscommon
- Barony
- Ballintober North
- Civil parish
- Kilglass
- Within
- Ballygarden
- Within
- Moyglass
- Coordinates
- 53.80863, -8.08502
- Logainm ID
- 1165164 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballygarden. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Land Purchase(Ireland), HouseofCommons7April1913, question92 · UK Parliament, Hansard
- Late James Cusack—a truly gifted teacher and a gentleman,2March2025 · Roscommon Herald
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2026-07-20. How this page was prepared.