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 Mhic Íre· Irish · main form · validated name
Ballymakeery· English · main form
Ballymakeera· English · main form · local name
Place & story
Six burnt mounds beneath the fields
Excavation at Ballymakeery 2 during the N22 Baile Bhuirne–Macroom road scheme uncovered six burnt mounds with associated troughs, postholes and stakeholes. Some troughs had stone linings; others retained traces of timber. Charcoal and heat-shattered stone accumulated around them. Stuart Elder's excavation report places repeated use of the site between the Middle Bronze Age and Middle Iron Age. This evidence reveals activity beneath the later field system, without requiring a speculative reconstruction of exactly how each trough was used.[2]
Quartz, timber and later drainage
Quartz dominated the small collection of worked stone from the excavation, including cores and flakes. A fragment carrying concentric grooves was tentatively identified as possible rock art, an interpretation the report treats cautiously. Later field drains cut through the prehistoric deposits, and pottery from an upper boundary-ditch fill belonged to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The site therefore preserves traces of changing land use rather than a single undisturbed prehistoric moment.[2]
A long house on the village street
A substantial two-storey house dating to around 1900 forms a conspicuous part of Ballymakeery's street frontage. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage records eight bays, timber sash windows upstairs and decorative mouldings around the lower openings. Its doorway has fluted pilasters and scroll brackets, giving a public and domestic building an unusually elaborate entrance. Later shopfront insertion and rear extensions show continued adaptation. Its recorded fabric provides a concrete picture of the village's later built environment alongside the much earlier evidence recovered by archaeologists.[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
Baile Mhic Íre — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
Baile Mhic Íre, Cork — Census town, CSO 2006 report
2002–2006: census town
413people · 2006
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
Baile Mhic Íre, Cork — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
Baile Mhic Íre, Cork — Census town, CSO 1996 report
1991–1996: census town
294people · 1996
These are the historical areas published in the 1996 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
Baile Mhic Íre, Cork — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Figures cover the historical town area printed in the 1986 report. Boundaries may have changed between censuses. Legal town, environs and suburb totals remain separate and differ from modern settlement boundaries.
View population figures
Ballymakeery, Cork — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Baile Mhic Íre, Cork
Published census settlement populations
427people · 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