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 Cholla· Irish · main form · validated name
Ballycolla· English · main form
Ballacolla· English · main form · local name
Place & story
The four corners of the village
Ballycolla developed around the crossing of the Abbeyleix–Rathdowney and Durrow–Borris-in-Ossory roads. Laois County Council’s settlement assessment identifies its defining group of two-storey buildings at the four corners, dating mainly from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Stone boundary walls extend this character along the approach roads. The church and school stand beyond the central crossing, showing how different village functions spread outward from a compact commercial core.[2]
The churchyard at Park
The Church of the Immaculate Conception stands within Ballycolla’s graveyard in the townland of Park. A Historic Graves field survey identifies it as a building of about 1840, marked as a Catholic chapel on the 1841 Ordnance Survey map and extensively renovated around 1975. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century headstones occupy the enclosed ground. A stone boundary wall, gates and a stile separate the slightly raised churchyard from the roadside, preserving the relationship between the building, burial ground and approach.[3]
Names in an early rental book
Captain Richard Fitzpatrick’s rental book for 1700–19 preserves details of landholding at Ballycolla long before the present crossroads buildings appeared. Michael Fitzpatrick’s published transcription records Thomas Bellew from 1701, followed by entries for divided holdings under Thomas Ringwood, Thady Kinin and Alexander Viccars. Later entries include John Phelan and John Hutchinson. The changes recorded against particular portions of land offer a more detailed view of the farming settlement than a simple succession of estate owners.[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
Ballycolla — 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
Ballycolla, Laois — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Ballycolla, Laois
Published census settlement populations
136people · 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