placenames1901 census
213People recorded
52Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
Explore the 1901 records ↗Ballina
Béal an Átha
A surviving castle and Billy Mills’s recorded memories reveal different periods in the Tipperary townland’s history.
Recorded locationBallina52.81020° N · 8.43194° WInteractive map supplied by OpenStreetMap.
Recorded place location · Logainm.ie
The name
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
- Béal an Átha · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballina · English · main form
Place & story
A castle above the ravine
The archaeological inventory reproduced in the Shannon Bridge Crossing study records Cloghaneena Castle in Ballina townland, overlooking a ravine north of Templeachally church. Its sandstone walls survive only to first-floor level. The survey identified a narrow ground-floor chamber, an altered entrance and traces of a garderobe chute. Dense ivy and the incomplete remains made its original extent uncertain; it was classified as a possible hall house. [2]
School and the Shannon Scheme
Interviewed in 1991, Billy Mills recalled attending Ballina school, where Miss Costello and J. C. O'Brien taught a roll of roughly ninety children. He then joined work on the Shannon hydroelectric scheme in 1928. His account described drying sand for locomotives and changing railway points near Fort Henry, giving a worker's perspective on the machinery and long shifts behind the great construction project. [3]
Bread vans across the region
Mills's subsequent employment connected Ballina with a much wider trading area. He began work on McKeogh's bread vans in 1930 and remained until 1975. In his recollection, delivery circuits reached Portumna, Woodford and Mountshannon, as well as Roscrea and Templemore. He also remembered the difficulties of wartime vehicles fuelled with charcoal, contrasting those journeys with the later petrol vans. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Townland
- County
- Tipperary
- Barony
- Owney and Arra
- Civil parish
- Templeachally
- Coordinates
- 52.81020, -8.43194
- Mapped area
- 1.09 km²
- Logainm ID
- 46172 ↗
People & family history
Census figures refer to the matched historical census area for each year. Boundaries and spellings can change over time.
1911 census
25People recorded
7Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
Explore the 1911 records ↗1926 census
31People recorded
11Households recorded
Most frequent surnames in this year’s matched records
- Woodroofe 8
- Quigley 6
- Mills 5
- Coonan 3
- O'Brien 2
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballina. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Shannon Bridge Crossing route-selection appendices, inventory entry TN025-015, appendix E5 · Clare County Council; archaeological inventory based on Farrelly and O’Brien
- Billy Mills: Sharing Memories, interview recorded 1991, published 15 May 2019 · Killaloe-Ballina Local History Society; Billy Mills
- Boundary geometry retains its source attribution and licence in the downloadable geographic record. Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.