Ballymore, County Westmeath
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Ballymore () is a village in
County Westmeath "Noble above nobility" , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Westmeath.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = , subdivis ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
, on the R390 road between
Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population of ...
and
Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmeath ...
. The historic
Hill of Uisneach The Hill of Uisneach or Ushnagh ( ga, Uisneach or ) is a hill and ancient ceremonial site in the barony of Rathconrath in County Westmeath, Ireland. It is a protected national monument. It consists of numerous monuments and earthworks— prehisto ...
is nearby. The village was known in medieval times as the medieval borough of Ballymore Lough Sewdy, or Loughsewdy, after the nearby lake, the site of an ancient bruighean, or hostel.


History

Evidence of the area’s bloody history can be deduced by translation of some of its placenames - although it’s not clear when some of these names came into being. One notable townland is Lugnacaha (often pronounced locally as “Lugahaca”), which translates as “the hollow of the battle”. There’s a field in Shinglis referred to as “Lug na Fola”, which translates as “the hollow of the blood”, and locally, it is claimed that when, once, an attempt was made to plough that field, blood seeped up through the soil. Plary Abbey was founded before the year 700, and a monastery, in honour of the Virgin Mary, for Gilbertin canons, which order consisted of canons of the Premonstre order, and Benedictine nuns, was erected here by the de Lacey family. The church of this monastery was for a short time the cathedral church of the diocese of Meath. Brewer states that the Gilbertine Abbey was founded in 1218, on the site of a monastery that had stood there from before the year 700. He describes the location as being "at the foot of the Hill of Clare, or Mullaghcloe", and says that on the summit are the ruins of Clare Castle. In the year 1338, Theobald de Verdun, 2nd Lord Verdun, Justiciar of Ireland (born 8 September 1278), lord of the manor of Ballymore, obtained a grant of a weekly market, and a 15-day fair for in Ballymore. As far back as 1315, Edward the Bruce, younger brother of Robert the Bruce of Scotland, came to the village. He arrived in Ireland in May 1315, and was proclaimed king within a month. He stormed through the country attempting to subdue it, and spent Christmas of 1315 in Ballymore, at the manor of Theobald de Verdun, reportedly using up all the stocks of food there and extending his thanks by burning the manor to the ground as he left. In the period of decline for the colony following the Bruce Invasion and Black Death the lands around Ballymore fell to the hands of a locally based Hiberno-Norman family of Dalton. By the mid-fifteenth century, the Daltons in six branches were lords of Rathconrath barony one of which was based in Ballymore. By about 1600, Ballymore had become the property of Sir Francis Shaen, an Elizabethan soldier, who had been involved in the plundering of Multyfarnham Abbey. In 1636, the castle, manor and lake of Ballymore were granted to Nicholas, first Viscount Netterville. Towards the latter end of the wars of 1641, Ballymore was home to a strong garrison of the English forces. Their garrison was located beside Lough Seudy, and divided from the mainland by "a deep and large graff, with ramparts of earth and bulwarks: the ditch was carried so low as to receive three or four feet of the stagnant water of the lake, over which was by a draw-bridge the entry into the fort; this was the chief fortress of this county". In 1831, Ballymore village consisted of 121 houses, chiefly small houses or cabins, forming one long street. Today it is still jokingly referred to as "the village with two ends and no middle". Substantial emigration took place from Ballymore to Argentina in the 1800s.


Siege of Ballymore 1691

The
Williamite War The Williamite War in Ireland (1688–1691; ga, Cogadh an Dá Rí, "war of the two kings"), was a conflict between Jacobite supporters of deposed monarch James II and Williamite supporters of his successor, William III. It is also called th ...
in
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
(Irish: Cogadh an Dá Rí, meaning "war of the two kings") was a conflict between
Jacobites Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to: Religion * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include: ** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometimes ...
(supporters of
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
King James II) and
Williamite A Williamite was a follower of King William III of England (r. 1689–1702) who deposed King James II and VII in the Glorious Revolution. William, the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, replaced James with the support of English Whigs. O ...
s (supporters of
Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Prince William of Orange William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the ...
) over who would be
King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Baili ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
and Ireland. It is also called the Jacobite War in Ireland or the Williamite–Jacobite War in Ireland. While James II was unpopular in England, he had widespread popular support in Ireland, and following the
Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
, in which he was overthrown by William of Orange who became William III of England, William landed a multi-national force in Ireland, composed of
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
, Scottish,
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
, Danish and other troops, to put down Jacobite resistance. James left Ireland after a reverse at the
Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ga, Cath na Bóinne ) was a battle in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and J ...
in 1690, but the successful resistance at the Siege of Limerick gave the Irish Jacobites time. However they would be decisively defeated following the
Battle of Aughrim The Battle of Aughrim ( ga, Cath Eachroma) was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the largely Irish Jacobite army loyal to James II and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691 (old style, equivale ...
in 1691. Prior to that, in late 1690 and early 1691, while the main armies went into winter quarters, an area east of the Shannon became a zone of contention which was ruinous to the local population caught between the two forces. The Williamites established small garrisons around which irregular Irish forces,
rapparees Rapparees or raparees (from the Irish ''ropairí'', plural of ''ropaire'', whose primary meaning is "thruster, stabber," and by extension a wielder of the half-pike or pike), were Irish guerrilla fighters who operated on the Jacobite side du ...
, and raiding troops from the Jacobite positions operated in small-scale actions. Ballymore however remained the principal forward position for the Jacobites and Sarsfield showed particular concern for its retention as covering the approach to Athlone. In the lead up to what was to become the Battle of Aughrim,
Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmeath ...
was fortified by the Dutch-born
Godert de Ginkell, 1st Earl of Athlone Godard van Reede, 1st Earl of Athlone, Baron van Reede, Lord of Ginkel, born in the Netherlands as Baron Godard van Reede (14 June 1644 – 11 February 1703), was a Dutch general in Williamite service who rose to prominence during the Williamite ...
, Viscount of Aughrim and Baron of Ballymore, who in the spring of 1691, on William's instructions, took command as Lieutenant General of the Williamite forces in Ireland. Mullingar thus became the principal point of concentration of the Williamite forces, with Ballymore the first place in their sights as they moved towards Athlone. With a large force of mounted and infantry troops, de Ginkell left Mullingar in early June for Ballymore, where, in a fort on the shores of Lough Seudy, a thousand adherents of James II were encamped. There was a smaller force, consisting of a sergeant only and a few men in a castle "on an eminence at some distance from the village", and it was this location that de Ginkell attacked first. The sergeant and his small band resisted, and when eventually they were captured, de Ginkell hanged the sergeant before turning his attention to the fort. "The ort which stands on the verge of Lough Seudy, was defenceless towards the lake, and as the besiegers not only battered it with their artillery on the land side, but approached it on that of the water by boats, the governor, Colonel Ulick Burke deemed it right to surrender on the following day". The Williamite forces lost just eight men in the siege. De Ginkell remained at Ballymore for a further ten days, enabling his troops to prepare for their next engagement, which was to be at
Athlone Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midlands Region with a population of ...
. At Ballyburn-Pass, between Ballymore and Athlone, de Ginkell and 20,000 troops were joined by the Duke of Wurtemberg and Count Nassau with 7,000 mercenaries before proceeding on to Athlone. Before leaving Ballymore, de Ginkell placed Colonel
Toby Purcell Toby Purcell or Tobias Purcell was an Irish soldier in the Williamite War in Ireland. He served in the forces of William III of Ireland, William of Orange during the conflict. Purcell was in command of the garrison of Newry in 1689, when it was ...
in charge of the captured garrison, with, under his command, "but 4 companies of foot or no more than 240 men, exclusive officers" and the 51 officers, 780 soldiers and 220 raparees captured there were transported to
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
, the officers to Dublin Castle, and the rest to Lambay Island, off the coast of Dublin, as internees. Meanwhile, for the native population of Ballymore at the time, there was little joy in existence. An account from an eyewitness from the Williamite camp reported that the fort was "haunted by wretched people in the lowest stage of suffering, from the famine caused by the waste of both parties." He reported that while the English army had supplies, they "could afford nothing to the crowd of forlorn and famishing outcasts whom danger collected around the camp; to these, so dreadful was their destitution that a morsel of garbage was a feast, and they flocked as ravens round the putrifying and blackened carcasses of dead horses which lay rotting in the summer sun".


Significant buildings

The Roman Catholic "Church of the Most Holy Redeemer" in Ballymore was built around c.1845 and is described in the
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) maintains a central database of the architectural heritage of the Republic of Ireland covering the period since 1700 in complement to the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, which focuses on ar ...
as having been built in a Tudor-Gothic style with, circa 1870, early English Gothic-style alterations. It comprises a six-bay nave with an attached three-stage tower on square-plan to the north with a slated pyramidal roof, flanked to the east and west by advanced gable-fronted bays containing the main entrances. There is a single-storey flat-roofed sacristy to the rear. At the end of Church Lane, at Market Hill, Ballymore, can be found the ruins of St Owen's Church of Ireland, erected in 1827 using a loan of £1200 from the Board of First Fruits. It comprises a three-bay hall to the east and a three-stage tower on square plan to the west end, having crow-stepped parapets and corner pinnacles. The churchyard contains a graveyard with mainly nineteenth-century grave markers, and there are the remains of single-cell chapel on rectangular plan to the east, built c.1625.


Demographics

In the 2006 Census, the village had a population of 485, a 6% increase above the 2002 Census.


Festivals

Ballymore Country Music Festival, which had run for around ten years in the late 1970s and early 1980s, was revived in 2013 by Ballymore GAA and Fr Dalton's Hurling Club. The 2015 festival took place on 3 August with performances from
Nathan Carter Nathan Kane Tyrone Carter (born 28 May 1990) is a British-born Irish country music singer based in the UK and Ireland. He has released thirteen studio albums and six live albums as of December 2022, five of which peaked at number one, and fou ...
,
Brendan Shine Brendan Shine (born 2 June 1947) is an Irish folk and country singer, television presenter and accordion player from Athlone. He has achieved 40 chart singles in Ireland and 5 Irish number one singles, and is best known for his songs about every ...
, and Johnny Brady.


Sport

Ballymore is home to Ballymore GAA Club, which was founded in 1884. The club enjoy some success at intermediate level, and were Senior Finalists in 1965. Fr Dalton's Hurling Club shares facilities with Ballymore GAA. There is a ''Gaelic 4 Mothers & Others'' (G4M&O) club in the town. Ballymore G4M&O participated in the 2019 ''Gaelic 4 Mothers & Others National Blitz''. Ballymore has a
bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gr ...
club that meets in Ballymore Community Centre on Wednesday nights. Within the community centre, there is also a handball court and a squash court. Ballymore Pitch and Putt course is located 1.5 km south of Ballymore, on Moate Road.


See also

* List of towns and villages in Ireland * Alison Spittle


References


External links


Ballymore Country Music Festival
on
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{{Authority control Towns and villages in County Westmeath