placenamesBornacoola
Barr na Cúile
Education and Gaelic football brought the scattered communities of this south Leitrim parish together.
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
- Barr na Cúile · Irish · main form · validated name
- Bornacoola · English · main form
Place & story
A teacher founds a team
Bornacoola’s club history traces the Hugh O’Neills football team to January 1889, when national-school teacher J. J. Kellegher founded it at Johnston’s Bridge. The first recorded match followed on 1 April against Rooskey Pat Molloys. Although the result has not survived in the club’s account, the journey made an impression: it records an estimated three hundred supporters accompanying the team to Rooskey. [2]
Revival and championship success
The parish did not sustain a united team throughout the following decades. Johnston’s Bridge and Cloonturk fielded separate sides at times, while players also joined neighbouring clubs. A meeting at Johnston’s Bridge revived Bornacoola for the 1931 junior championship. A junior title followed in 1932, and in 1938 the club won the senior championship against Tully. In 1943 it added both the senior championship and the league. [2]
A central parish school
School provision underwent a comparable consolidation in 1980, when Scoil Mhuire opened at Currycramph as Bornacoola’s central parish school. It replaced Cloonmorris National School in the south of the parish and Cloonturk National School in the north, both dating from the late nineteenth century. The new school began with three mainstream teachers and expanded to five during the mid-1980s, before later fluctuations in pupil numbers changed its staffing again. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bornacoola. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- History of C.L.G Barr na Cúille · CLG Barr na Cúille
- History of Scoil Mhuire National School, Bornacoola · Scoil Mhuire National School
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.