placenamesBallymacelligott
Baile Mhic Eileagóid
Ballymacelligott’s church, sporting history and parish records reflect a community whose institutions serve a wider rural district.
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 Mhic Eileagóid · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballymacelligott · English · main form
Place & story
The church of 1820 and its later chancel
Ballymacelligott's Church of Ireland church was built around 1820, with a four-bay nave and a two-stage entrance tower crowned by battlements. Around 1865 a chancel and vestry extended the building eastwards. The architectural inventory records slate hanging on two nave walls, pointed windows and an open timber roof. Its graveyard and entrance gates form part of the same ensemble, preserving successive phases of an established parish centre. [2]
County championship football
Ballymacelligott won Kerry's senior football championship in 1891, 1894, 1895 and 1918. The club's history records five Baily brothers in the last of those winning teams. Later generations rebuilt competitive sides, winning the Castleisland District League in 1945 and again in the early 1960s. These achievements belong to a club drawing players from the wider parish, linking its dispersed communities through a shared sporting institution. [3]
William Ferris records the parish
Father William Ferris served in Ballymacelligott from 1929 to 1934 and compiled a history of the parish and neighbouring Ballyseedy, O'Brennan and Nohoval. His work assembled local memories alongside information about schools, landowners and gravestone inscriptions. The manuscript remained unpublished for decades before Brendan McCarthy prepared it for publication in 2018. Its history gives Ballymacelligott a particular connection with the collecting and later recovery of rural historical records. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Kerry
- Barony
- Trughanacmy
- Civil parish
- Ballymacelligott
- Within
- Ballymacelligott
- Coordinates
- 52.24883, -9.61083 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1412424 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballymacelligott. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ballymacelligott Church,registration21303901 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Ballymacelligott GAA: a brief history · Jerry Savage and Mike Sweeney, Ballymacelligott GAA
- New history of a Kerry Protestant community,2018 publication notice · United Dioceses of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe; Cló Staire Chiarraí publication announcement
- O'Riada's pub, Maglass, Ballymacelligott illustration: based on a O'Riada's Pub by Raymond Norris. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.