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 Eoin· Irish · main form · validated name
Johnstown· English · main form
Place & story
An inn and two flour mills
Lewis's 1837 description presents Johnstown as a very small village on the Dublin road, with about thirteen houses and a hundred inhabitants. An inn served travellers, while two flour mills belonged to the Earl of Mayo. The entrance to the earl's Palmerstown demesne stood at one end of the settlement. A girls' school supported by the Countess of Mayo added another link between estate and village, alongside the practical business of milling, policing and accommodating passing traffic.[2]
People & connections
Richard Southwell Bourke's return
Richard Southwell Bourke, sixth Earl of Mayo, became viceroy and governor-general of India in 1869. His earlier career included famine-relief work in Kildare, election as the county's MP and service as chief secretary for Ireland. On 8 February 1872 he was assassinated while inspecting the penal settlement at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. His remains returned to Ireland in accordance with his will and were buried in the family mausoleum at Johnstown church on 26 April 1872.[3]
The restrained detail of Johnstown House
Johnstown House, at Maudlings, is a substantial Georgian building dating from around 1800. Its three-storey frontage balances regularly spaced windows with a central round-headed entrance. The architectural survey records timber sash windows, a decorative fanlight and a slate roof among its surviving features. A forecourt, cast-iron railings and granite gate piers separate it from the road. Beside the house, an outbuilding with a broad carriage opening preserves evidence of the working spaces that accompanied this more formal domestic frontage.[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
Johnstown — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These are the historical areas published in the 2006 census report. Boundaries may differ between censuses and from modern settlements. Legal towns, environs and suburbs are shown separately; none has been combined into a modern settlement total.
View population figures
Johnstown, Kildare — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Johnstown, Kildare
Published census settlement populations
1,005people · 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.
Johnstown cottages and Main Street, County Kildare illustration: based on a Main Street, Johnstown, Co. Kildare by 2ManyCats4Me. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
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