placenamesBallagh
An Bealach
An upland village in Killeedy parish, Ballagh appears in survey records and family memories of reclaiming land and carrying farm produce to market.
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
- An Bealach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballagh · English · main form
Place & story
Thatched houses below the mountain
The Ordnance Survey namebooks distinguish Ballagh village, townland and mountain. They describe the village as a small group of thatched houses. The surrounding townland, then the property of John Blennerhasset, contained about 330 statute acres, only a quarter of which was cultivated; bog and mountain ground made up the rest. This is a picture of the settlement at the time of the survey, rather than a description of its present buildings. [2]
Reclaiming the hillside
Éamonn Shannahan’s family history preserves memories of the work required to settle at Ballagh. Drawing on accounts passed down by his grandfather Jim, he describes a gradual move to the mountain: trees had to be cleared, wet ground drained and ditches dug before the land could support a household. The account is valuable as a named family recollection of land reclamation, without requiring every detail of its more distant ancestral history to be treated as proven. [3]
Butter and the market roads
Shannahan also recalls the family’s combination of farming and blacksmithing. Butter provided another income: it was packed into firkins and carried by horse towards Rockchapel on its way to the Cork market. He remembers his father describing the walk to Newcastle West with cattle for sale. These family accounts connect Ballagh’s mountain farms with commercial routes reaching beyond the parish. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballagh. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ordnance Survey Namebooks: Killeedy, entries for Ballagh townland, village and mountain · Ordnance Survey, preserved by Limerick Local Studies
- Shanahan Family, Killeedy to Effin, 13 July 2022 · Éamonn Shannahan
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2018-08-07. How this page was prepared.