placenamesBallyheerin
Baile Uí Shírín
A school centenary and the restoration of a Mass rock record how Ballyheerin’s community has preserved its educational and religious memories.
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 Uí Shírín · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballyheerin · English · main form
Place & story
A hundred years of school
Ballyheerin National School marked its centenary in 2013 with a gathering of former and current pupils and teachers. The celebrations brought several generations together to share memories. A contemporary photographic report identified descendants of John Griffin, the builder of the school, among those attending, linking the school’s physical construction with families still represented in the community a century later. [2]
Remembering the crossing
The centenary celebrations also included a boat trip across Mulroy Bay. This recalled journeys made by local people to attend Mass before Ballyheerin had its own church. The commemorative voyage connected the school gathering with an older pattern of travel in the district, when crossing the water formed part of ordinary religious life. [2]
The Mass rock restored
A separate community effort restored Ballyheerin’s Mass rock in 2023. Residents worked over several months to improve the site, then gathered there for the Rosary. Reporting on the project, the Tirconaill Tribune recorded a local recollection that the rock had been discussed at school while he was growing up. The restoration therefore renewed a place already sustained in community memory. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Donegal
- Barony
- Kilmacrenan
- Civil parish
- Clondavaddog
- Within
- Fanad West
- Within
- Ballyheerin
- Coordinates
- 55.18882, -7.73307 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1412910 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballyheerin. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ballyheerin NS, Fanad celebrates100 years,13 August2013 · Stephen Maguire, Donegal Daily
- Ballyheerin Mass rock restored,24 August2023,p26 · Eamonn McFadden, Tirconaill Tribune
- Church of the Immaculate Conception, Ballyheerin, Fanad, County Donegal illustration: based on a RC Church, Ballyheerin (22 June 2010) by Kenneth Allen. 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.