placenamesCommons
Na Coimíní
The Commons developed around coal employment, leaving a legacy in its former school, sporting grounds and community records of village life.
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
- Na Coimíní · Irish · main form · validated name
- Commons · English · main form
- Commens, The · English · main form · local name
Place & story
The nineteenth-century colliery
The Mining Company of Ireland acquired leases in the northern part of the Slieveardagh coalfield from 1835 and developed the Commons Colliery. Its abandonment plan is dated 1887. The local mining archive records surviving traces of an engine house, shafts, workshops and the manager's accommodation. Men from the village continued working elsewhere in the coalfield after their local colliery ceased production, maintaining the settlement's connection with mining. [2]
Reconstructing the village of the 1960s
The Commons Ghost Village project brought older residents and young people together in 2017 to document changes in the village. Historical photographs and residents' recollections guided the construction of a cardboard model, about four and a half metres long. Displays at the Old School Community Centre showed former shops, a forge, cinema, creamery and bakery, preserving the geography of everyday services alongside memories of mining employment. [3]
Playing fields in the Commons
Ballingarry GAA's history records several former playing fields in the Commons, including grounds behind Webster's pub and at Jack Grace's and Michael Barrett's. It also remembers a local team called Commons Smith O'Briens and a Tipperary–Kilkenny match held here in the 1920s. The purchase of the parish sportsfield in the Commons in 1985 gave the club training and playing pitches together with a clubhouse. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Tipperary
- Barony
- Slievardagh
- Civil parish
- Ballingarry
- Coordinates
- 52.62548, -7.54503
- Logainm ID
- 48480 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Commons. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- The Commons Colliery · Tipperary Coalmines
- The Commons Ghost Village,2017project · Tipperary Coalmines
- Ballingarry GAA Club History · Ballingarry GAA Club
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.