Ballina, County Mayo
Ballina is a town in north County Mayo, Ireland. It lies at the mouth of the River Moy near Killala Bay, in the Moy valley and civil parish of Kilmoremoy, with the Ox Mountains to the east and the Nephin Mountains to the west. The town occupies two baronies; Tirawley on the west bank of the River Moy, and Tireragh, a barony within County Sligo, on its east banks. At the 2022 census, the population of Ballina was 10,556.
History
Pre-history
The Dolmen of the Four Maols is located on 'Primrose Hill' behind Ballina railway station. This Bronze Age cist is sometimes dated to ca. 2,000 BCE and is locally known as the 'Table of the Giants'. Legend suggests that the megalithic tomb is the burial place of the 'Four Maols' — four brothers who murdered Ceallach, a 7th-century bishop of Kilmoremoy. Hanged at Ardnaree, the "hill of executions", tradition says that their bodies were buried under the dolmen. The structure is approximately 5 feet high with three upright stones supporting the capstone. Nearby is a fourth supporting stone.Medieval period
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, the first signs of settlement on the site of the town date from around 1375, when an Augustinian friary was founded. Belleek, now part of the town, predates the town's formation, and can be dated back to the 16th century. Ballina was founded as a garrison town in 1723 by O'Hara, Lord Tyrawley.Belleek
The lands at Belleek, along with the ecclesiastical settlements at Rosserk, Strade, Moyne and Rathfran, were purchased by Charles O'Hara, 1st Baron Tyrawley on 17 March 1704/5 from the trustees overseeing the sale of various Irish estates belonging to the recently deceased Charles Boyle, 2nd Earl of Burlington and 3rd Earl of Cork.The Belleek demesne once stretched for over three kilometres along the left bank of the Moy estuary, from the gate lodge on Castle Road as far as Knockatinnole Wood in the north. From here, the demesne extended westward to the Killala Road, where there was a secondary entrance at a place known as "The Black Woods". During the Irish Rebellion of 1798, a small column of French soldiers advanced through the estate, as part of a reconnaissance group. This gave title to the avenue known as "The Old French Road".
Most of the land of the Barons Tyrawley was let on long leases or for lives 'renewable forever' to the Knox and Gore families. The manor house of the estate, Belleek Manor, was constructed between 1825 and 1831 for Sir Francis Knox-Gore, 1st Baronet, a former Lord Lieutenant of Sligo, with designs attributed to the Irish architect John Benjamin Keane or possibly Frederick Darley Junior. Belleek and some of the original demesne lands remained within the ownership of the Knox-Gore family descendants until the early 1940s, when it was sold by Col. William Arthur Cecil Saunders-Knox-Gore D.S.O. to Isaac Beckett and Co. Ltd., Ballina, who later sold the property to the Mayo County Council in the 1950s. The Doran family acquired the Belleek Manor, adapting it into a hotel. The Belleek Woods remain public, under the management of Coillte and the Belleek Woods Enhancement Group, and its 200 acres of forest make it one of Europe's largest urban woodlands.
Ardnaree
Ardnaree, also known as Shanaghy, is a townland to the east of the town. Formerly a separate village, Ardnaree has been considered a suburb of Ballina since at least the 19th century. The River Moy forms the traditional border between County Mayo and County Sligo. However, the Local Government Act 1898 made the right bank of the Moy, including Ardnaree and Crockets Town, part of the administrative county of Mayo. The Battle of Ardnaree was fought there in 1586 and Ardnaree Sarsfields GFC is based there.18th and 19th centuries
1798 rebellion
The Humbert Memorial Monument was unveiled in Ballina in 1898 by Maud Gonne MacBride for the centennial commemoration of the 1798 landing of French expeditionary forces at Killala Bay led by revolutionary General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert. The monument commemorates the military triumph over the English garrison at Ballina by a joint Franco-Irish army composed of French soldiers and Irish rebels under the command of General Humbert during the 1798 rebellion of the Society of United Irishmen. Sculpted by Thomas H. Dennany of Monumental Marble Works in Glasnevin, the monument is topped by a statue depicting the 'Maid of Erin' or 'Mother Ireland', with a sword in hand and an Irish Wolfhound by her side. The monument was commissioned and "erected by the voluntary subscriptions of the priests and people of Mayo and Sligo". The monument was moved to its current location on Humbert Street in 1987, where it was re-dedicated by Maud Gonne's son, Seán MacBride.Great Famine
In the first half of the 19th century, the rural areas around Ballina were heavily dependent on the potato as a primary source of food. When a potato blight struck in 1846, widespread starvation occurred. The Ballina workhouse served the entire northwestern coast of County Mayo. As the famine took hold in the rural areas, huge numbers of starving peasants requested admission to the overcrowded facility. In February 1847, people were dying of fever at the rate of almost ninety persons a week. There were attempts at mitigating the crisis by some local citizens. Francis Kinkead, the local Church of Ireland curate, who came to Ballina in 1837 and died on 27 January 1847, played a role in organising funds to help relieve the suffering of both the Catholic and Protestant populations. A marble memorial tablet on the wall of the Church of Ireland in Ballina is dedicated to Kinkead.20th century
Irish language
Until the early 1900s, the Irish language was the primary language spoken in Ballina. As Irish began to decline in other parts of Ireland during the colonial period, it remained strong in County Mayo and in Ballina. By the 1920s, however, English had become the dominant language in Ballina. In the 1926 Census it was found that although many adults in Ballina had Irish as a first language, it was no longer known by young people or used in the community. Ballina was one of the only parts of County Mayo not designated status as a Gaeltacht or Breac-Ghaeltacht, a status given in 1929 to regions where more than 80% or 25% respectively of people spoke Irish as a first language.Ballina and Westport were among the first urban areas in County Mayo to adopt the English language. Records from the surrounding then Irish-speaking rural areas in Mayo and in neighbouring County Sligo suggest that Irish-speakers from those areas felt pressure to use English when in Ballina town. Today only Ceathrú Thaidhg, 70 km to the west of Ballina remains a majority Irish-speaking area in County Mayo.
War of Independence
During the Irish War of Independence, a number of violent incidents occurred in Ballina. In April 1920, a group of armed men targeted the houses of income-tax collectors living in the town. They forcibly entered the homes, held the occupants at gunpoint, and seized important books and papers related to tax collection. This event was part of a larger, coordinated series of attacks across Ireland, focusing on disrupting the administrative functions of income tax collection. In July 1920, a Royal Irish Constabulary police patrol was held up by armed men about a hundred yards from Ballina's barracks. The raiders demanded the surrender of the police's arms. The police opened fire, and the raiders returned fire, killing a sergeant and wounding a constable. Two other policemen escaped unharmed.In January 1921, auxiliary police arrested and humiliated several local merchants, reportedly forcing them to march through the town, holding Union Jacks, dragging an Irish flag, and kneeling to kiss the Union Jack. This incident reportedly caused outrage throughout the town. During the evening of 3 April 1921, the IRA attacked a police patrol travelling between Ballina and Bonniconlon, wounding one constable. A cache of ammunition was later found in the grove where the attack took place. The police subsequently raided a local dance hall and arrested all men present.
Michael Tolan, a tailor and IRA member from Ballina, was the victim of a murder marked by torture and mutilation. After a raid on his mother's house, Tolan was forced into hiding. On 14 April 1921, Crown forces captured him while he was staying at a friend's home, after which he was detained in a barracks. Despite efforts by his mother and friends to trace his whereabouts, all contact ceased. In June 1921, his mutilated body was discovered in Shraheen bog near Foxford, bearing bullet wounds, a bayonet injury, and amputated feet. He was identified by his distinctive feet. The manner of his death caused widespread outrage.
In May 1921, two men, Thomas Jordan and William Leydon, were court-martialed at Renmore Barracks in Galway, and found guilty of carrying firearms. During the trial, it was alleged that, on 23 November 1921, seven masked men attempted a raid on a house in Ballina. Four of the raiders entered the house, and during a scuffle, residents managed to unmask two of them, identifying Jordan and Leydon. Despite Leydon's refusal to recognise the court's authority and the testimony of witnesses who provided alibis placing him at a different location at the time of the raid, both he and Jordan were sentenced to one year of hard labour.
On 14 July 1921, the body of RIC Sergeant Anthony Foody was discovered on a road near Bonniconlon, with a card around his neck reading "Remember Dwyer and The Rag". Foody, who had been posted to The Ragg in Tipperary and was on leave when he was shot dead, had been visiting a farm he had purchased with plans to settle there with his family. The card found with Foody's body may have referred to the controversial killing of the Dwyer brothers in Tipperary, allegedly by other RIC members, though accounts of that event vary.