Known locally as Belcarra, the village preserves a particular family’s eviction in a restored cottage and several building phases in Saint Anne’s Church.
⊕Recorded locationBallycarra53.80216° N · 9.21383° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
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 na Cora· Irish · main form · validated name
Ballycarra· English · main form
Belcarra· English · main form · local name
Place & story
The Walsh family’s eviction
The cottage at Elmhall on the edge of Belcarra preserves the memory of James Walsh and his family’s eviction on 2 October 1886. The village’s heritage account names Gardiner, Pringle and Cuffe as those responsible for carrying it out. Neighbours built a small shelter, known as the Tígín, where the displaced family lived for a time. The cottage and shelter give this episode of the land struggle two identifiable local settings, rather than leaving it only as a general account of landlord and tenant conflict.[2]
Turning a home into a heritage centre
Belcarra Community Co-operative restored and furnished the cottage as a heritage centre, opened in 2000. More than forty local volunteers took part in a dramatic re-enactment of the eviction for the opening, which was also recorded. The interpretation includes life-size figures made by artist Bridie Geraghty and household objects representing the period. The restored rooms are therefore a modern community presentation of the home before the eviction, while the performance added a shared act of remembrance to the physical conservation work.[2]
Saint Anne’s changing fabric
Saint Anne’s Catholic Church opened in 1877 after work in the 1870s, but much of its present appearance follows a near-total reconstruction in 1961. The architectural inventory attributes that work to Edward Raphael Ryan of Galway and records the reuse of material from the former Ballycarra Church of Ireland building at Drum. Limestone walls, pointed openings and a copper-covered roof frame the long nave and eastern apse. Two older date stones, marked 1846 and 1871, survive at the boundary, adding further layers to the building’s history.[3]
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
Belcarra — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Belcarra, Mayo
Published census settlement populations
228people · 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.
placenames