The riverside church at Butlersbridge links a local architect and his builder father, while older accounts record monthly fairs and a daily penny post.
Illustration, River Annalee, bridge and St Aidan's Church at Butlersbridge
⊕Recorded locationButler's Bridge54.04703° N · 7.37961° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
Droichead an Bhuitléaraigh· Irish · main form · validated name
Butler's Bridge· English · main form
Place & story
A fair every month
Samuel Lewis described Butlersbridge in 1837 as a village of about forty houses and 211 inhabitants on the road from Cavan to Enniskillen. Its fair took place on the second Monday of every month. A daily penny post connected it with Cavan and Belturbet, giving the small settlement a regular link with both towns. Lewis also recorded a Catholic chapel of ease here. His account captures the village's trading and communications role before the present church was built.[2]
People & connections
A father and son's church
St Aidan's was designed by William Hague junior and built by his father, also William Hague. The family came from nearby Plush. Construction ran from 1861 to 1863 on land donated by the Earl of Lanesboro, and Bishop James Browne dedicated the church on 14 June 1863. The Irish Architectural Archive identifies its Early Pointed Gothic design, with a nave, aisles and an apsidal chancel. It also records stained glass associated with Thomas Earley around 1869. The church stands beside the Annalee, bringing the Hague family's work directly into the village's riverside setting.[3][4]
The Emmets and their county players
Butlersbridge Emmets was founded in 1888. Its own history names founding members from Plush, Drumaturk and Kilnaglare, showing the club's roots in the surrounding townlands as well as the village. The team reached a junior final in 1919, losing to Bailieborough by one point. During the following decade Mick Brown and Jim McCardle represented Cavan. Further junior-final appearances followed in 1930 and 1952. Those repeated campaigns gave successive generations a shared sporting history long before the club's later achievements.[5]
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
Butlersbridge — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
Butlersbridge, Cavan — Census town, CSO 2006 report
2002–2006: census town
182people · 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
Butlersbridge, Cavan — Census town, CSO 2006 report — census population
Butlersbridge, Cavan — Census town, CSO 1996 report
1991–1996: census town
185people · 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
Butlersbridge, Cavan — Census town, CSO 1996 report — census population
Butlersbridge, Cavan — Census town, CSO 1986 report
1981–1986: census town
212people · 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
Butlersbridge, Cavan — Census town, CSO 1986 report — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Butlersbridge, Cavan
Published census settlement populations
276people · 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