placenamesBulgaden
Builgidín
Bulgaden’s church, former tavern and links with Irish America preserve different strands of local history. The village belongs to a parish whose earlier records also used the names Ballinvana and Bulgadine.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Builgidín · Irish · main form · validated name
- Bulgaden · English · main form
Place & story
Why the church backs onto the road
Bulgaden’s Church of Our Lady of the Assumption dates from around 1860. Its back faces the road, an arrangement explained by the Diocesan Heritage Project: the older road had passed the church’s front, while the replacement route ran behind it. A stained-glass window behind the altar commemorates Father O’Clery. The church grounds also retain a cross marking a mission conducted by the Oblate Fathers in May 1883. [2]
The tavern behind the castle name
The local authority’s account of Bulgaden Castle traces the hospitality building to an eighteenth-century tavern owned by the Hassett family. The Meade family rebuilt it in 1887. Conal and Mary Kelly acquired it in 1972 and developed it as a country inn and restaurant with facilities for functions and entertainment. This documented history concerns the hospitality premises; its castle name does not make it evidence for a surviving medieval fortress. [3]
John Hennessy and Dubuque
John Hennessy, born at Bulgaden in 1825, became the first archbishop of Dubuque in Iowa. He travelled to the United States in 1847 and was ordained in Missouri in 1850. Appointed bishop of Dubuque in 1866, he gave particular attention to Catholic education and founded Columbia College in 1873, the predecessor of Loras College. When Dubuque became an archdiocese in 1893, Hennessy became its first archbishop. He died there in 1900. [4] [5]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Limerick
- Barony
- Coshlea
- Civil parish
- Kilbreedymajor
- Coordinates
- 52.42039, -8.52962 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1414031 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bulgaden. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Bulgaden–Martinstown Parish: diocesan heritage survey · Limerick Diocesan Heritage Project
- Bulgaden Castle and Gastro Pub: historical background · Limerick City and County Council
- Archbishop John Hennessy · Catholic-Hierarchy
- Hennessy, John · William E. Wilkie, The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2017-12-01. How this page was prepared.