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
Coill an Chollaigh· Irish · main form · validated name
Bailieborough· English · main form
Place & story
Bailie and Young
Cavan County Council's historical account connects the town's origins with William Bailie, a Scottish planter who received land from James I and built a house in 1613. The demesne survives as the Castle Lake landscape, though the house itself belongs to a sequence of lost and altered buildings. The council identifies William Young, who purchased the estate in 1814, with the design of the later town and its Main Street. The two men belong to different stages of Bailieborough's development.[3]
Market and courthouse
Lewis's 1837 directory describes a single street containing 165 houses and calls the Monday market the largest in County Cavan. Several annual fairs supplemented the weekly trade. Quarter sessions, an enlarged courthouse and a bridewell built in 1834 made the town an administrative centre as well as a commercial one. His entry distinguishes 1,085 inhabitants in the town from a much larger parish population. The scale of the market and courts helps explain the importance of a relatively compact settlement.[2]
People & connections
Francis Sheehy-Skeffington
The local historical account places Francis Skeffington's birth in December 1878 in rooms above a Main Street business later known as Jameson's Pharmacy. His parents were lodging there while his father worked as a schools inspector. He later became known as Francis Sheehy-Skeffington after marrying Hanna Sheehy, joining their names in support of equality. A writer, suffrage campaigner and pacifist, he was killed by British soldiers without trial during the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916.[4]
Papers that preserve a wider life
The National Library of Ireland holds the papers of Francis and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, with material relating to their family and their son Owen. The collection was donated in stages by their daughter-in-law Andrée. It preserves evidence of lives that moved far beyond the Cavan town. That archival survival gives the local birthplace a connection with national debates over suffrage, war and political violence, while keeping the distinction between a person's birthplace and the places where their public activities occurred.[5][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
Bailieborough — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
Bailieborough, Cavan — Census town, CSO 2006 report
2002–2006: census town
1,966people · 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
Bailieborough, Cavan — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
Bailieborough, Cavan — Census town, CSO 1996 report
1991–1996: census town
1,529people · 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
Bailieborough, Cavan — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Bailieborough, Cavan — Census town, CSO 1986 report
1981–1986: census town
1,645people · 1986
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
Bailieborough, Cavan — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Bailieborough, Cavan
Published census settlement populations
2,683people · 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.
Bailieborough Church of Ireland illustration: based on a reference photograph by Olliebailie. AI watercolour and ink adaptation; night lighting changed to daylight, festive lights removed, details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
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