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 an Spidéil· Irish · main form · validated name
Ballinspittle· English · main form
Place & story
A square of slated houses
Samuel Lewis recorded 105 inhabitants in Ballinspittle in 1837 and described recent improvements by J. B. Gibbons, including a square of houses with slate roofs. The village had a courthouse, police station and fairs, including a series of Monday pig fairs beginning on Saint Stephen’s Day. A school built in 1833 used land provided by Gibbons and a £200 gift from T. Rochford of Garretstown. The same benefactor also funded repairs to the chapel.[2]
Folklore & tradition
The reported moving statue
In July 1985, reports that a statue of the Virgin Mary had moved drew large crowds to Ballinspittle’s grotto. RTÉ’s news report of 31 July described a continuous vigil and a local committee organising the evening gatherings. Some visitors reported movement of the statue’s arms and head, while others described changing facial images. These were reported religious experiences and claims; their extraordinary publicity made the village a national focus of pilgrimage, curiosity and debate.[3]
Courcey Rovers and Páirc Uí Ríogáin
Ballinspittle’s hurlers won the South West Junior B championship in 1945, a year after neighbouring Ballinadee. The two communities joined to form Courcey Rovers in 1947, and the new club immediately won the South West Junior A title. Its Ballinspittle grounds officially opened on 22 May 1988, with former GAA president Con Murphy officiating. The ground commemorated founding chairman Jim O’Regan, who had trained the successful Ballinspittle side of 1945.[4]
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
Ballinspittle — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Ballinspittle, Cork
Published census settlement populations
224people · 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.
The grotto near Ballinspittle, County Cork illustration: based on a The moving statue of Ballinspittal by Richard Webb. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
placenames