A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
Brosnach· Irish · main form · validated name
Brosna· English · main form
Place & story
Roads and a school in the chapel
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 account describes the wider Brosna parish as a landscape of mountain pasture and bog beside the Clydagh, close to the Cork and Limerick boundaries. New roads were opening through the district. One planned route began at the Clydagh bridge on the Listowel–Newmarket road and continued towards Ardnagrath. The Catholic chapel was then thatched, but sufficiently spacious to accommodate a school during summer. Lewis also recorded two private schools teaching about 120 children, giving a glimpse of education before the later stone church was built.[2]
Saint Carthage’s and a changing design
Saint Carthage’s Church, formerly known as Saint Moling’s Chapel, is a Gothic Revival building designed by George Coppinger Ashlin. Its cruciform interior includes arcades opening into the transepts, an exposed timber roof, carved marble altar and stone reredos. The architectural archive records that the original scheme was simplified: a proposed corner tower gave way to a gable bellcote. Plans appeared in the 1860s, with construction following late in that decade. The resulting church combines a substantial interior with the more modest external silhouette of the revised design.[3][4]
People & connections
Con Curtin’s journey home
Fiddler Con Curtin (1926–2009) became a prominent member of London’s Irish music community during the 1960s. As landlord of the Balloon in Chelsea, he helped sustain a pub that served as a meeting place for traditional musicians. He returned to his native Brosna in the 1970s and again worked as a publican. A festival honouring him began in the village in 2001, during his lifetime. The Irish Traditional Music Archive recorded its 2014 sessions and concerts, preserving performances from a community shaped by both local music and the experience of emigration.[5]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Brosna — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Brosna, Kerry — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Brosna, Kerry — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Brosna, Kerry — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Brosna, Kerry
Published census settlement populations
193people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames