Our Place
Gerry Mulhall
Source: Laois Nationalist – 21st
August 1999:
![](BB_ballylinan_main_st_small.jpg)
Ballylinan
village in the Parish of Arles, is situated on the main Athy
/ Kilkenny road to the South East of County Laois. The
ancient and more proper title for this parish is Killabban.
In the immediate vicinity of this village
are the ruins of an ancient church. No remarkable
inscriptions are observable in the adjoining graveyard but
in June 1786, an earthen urn was dug up in a field beside
these ruins, containing a great number of silver coins.
These were probably coined between the
years AD. 862 and 870. The inscription on one shows it to be
of the O’Mores of Leix——”O’ Laoghis king”—On the reverse
“Dunagh-magh-riada” ——i.e., Dunamase. Others belonged to the
O’Conors Faly. Some of these coins are now preserved in the
Museum of Trinity College, Dublin.
To-day inhabitants of Ballylinan are not
depending on finds in fields, rather, Ballylinan depends on
their own reserve, its people.
Ballylinan currently has a population of
750-800 which is set to change as in the Autumn , 93 new
houses will be built. With it’s proximity to Dublin there
could very well be a new influx of “Dubs” to enjoy what
residents have taken for granted.
Panto in Ballylinan has a long tradition in
Ballylinan with this their tenth year. The first weekend in
February will see Jack and the Beanstalk staged with a cast
of 60 in all. Bernie Dunne has to be the most
enthusiastic Producer ever because she finds it easy to
motivate a dedicated group every year without fail.
They make all their own costumes. Bernie
considers Panto a springboard for The Passion Play. 1998 was
a good year for the Panto Group as they came first in the
heritage with their 1798, production., and second in Tullow,
Tops of the Town.
Champion Irish Dancer Patrick McHugh,
Tullamoy, has progressed from performing in Ballylinan to
Jury’s Hotel, America, and has just returned from China.
Plans are afoot to extend the present St
Anne’s Hall to accommodate dressing room facilities for the
cast of the Passion Play according to Tony Lacey,
Chairman of the Community Council. The Council are going
strong since 1970. They also look after the Tidy Towns and
he is a little worried this year as SIPTU objected to the
Fas workers working on the roads and with Fas themselves
prevented from working on the graveyards things are not
going too well.
Once again a committed team with Anna
May McHugh, President, Bridie Kaye, Secretary
well known Public Health Nurse, Breda Hovendon, as
Treasurer and Josephine Leahy, PRO, the community are
in good hands.
Three years ago the Wynne Family
donated a site to the Community Council with the intention
that a park should be provided. With the help of a grant
under The Village Renewal Scheme to the value of £20,000 and
a lot of voluntary Labour a veritable quarry was transformed
into an award winning park. The Park received a special
award in ‘98 from Laois County Council.
Irish dancing is looked after by Mary
Gohery, Wolfhill who runs the Gohery School of Dancing.
Mary has been teaching Irish dancing for over six years in
Ballylinan, with pupils from three years of age to 16. Her
pupils have been successful at the many Feiseanna they
attend with plenty of All Ireland medals to show for their
work.
The children also dance for Charities
like Crumlin Hospital for sick Children in Dublin, and the
refugees in Kosovo. Mary’s daughter Fiona keeps the family
tradition going as she also teaches Irish Dancing in Arles.
Ballylinan Ploughing, founded in ‘92, is known as one of the
strongest ploughing societies in the County. J.J. Brennan
is the Chairman and can depend on the assistance of 30
committed members.
They have a ploughing match in February
each year an it is very successful. They are the only one to
have a juvenile section.
Pat Brandon from Ballylinan is the reigning County
Champion and is one of five locals who will compete in the
All Ireland Ploughing Championship in September this year.
Joining him will be DJ McHugh, Francis Brennan, Alan
Davis and Ann Marie McHugh.
The Ploughing Society are very fortunate
to have land offered from local farmers for their Ploughing
matches and are very grateful.
The National Ploughing Championship will
take place in Cork, September 28-30., and Anna May McHugh
is delighted that the event will be held in Ballacolla,
Laois for The Millennium.
Ballylinan ICA
are in existence since October 1964, and still have three
founder Members, Bridie Kaye, Maura Mulhare and Anna May
McHugh.
Bridie thinks that ICA is a wonderful
organisation which is not appreciated at all. Bridie often
thinks what it was like for country women before ICA came
along when the only outing women got was to Mass on Sunday.
In those days once you married you stayed at home and looked
after your children.
The organisation liberated women living
in rural Ireland, a member was guaranteed at least one night
out a month. Women to day are more spoiled, 35 years ago
membership of ICA was valued.
Ballylinan Guild will host the Laois ICA Federation
meeting in September so they are still a force to be
reckoned with.
Ballylinan can justly lay claim to a very
extraordinary woman, Anna May McHugh, Managing
Director, National Ploughing Association. Anna May’s career
has spanned 25 years as MD. of the National Ploughing
Association but her activities are many and varied. She
found time to be a founder member of Ballylinan ICA, a main
mover in The Passion Play and crowning it all was when Anna
received “People of the Year Award, 1998, for her
Outstanding Contribution to Society in Ireland”.
The Passion Play has come a long way since it
started in ‘92. During the original discussions about
staging the play it is rumored that well known local man
Tom Whelan said that “one thing was certain that he would
not play Christ anyway as the last fellow that did it, got
terrible cruel hardship”.
Passion Play 2000, Ballylinan will be
staged in April next and is planned as a main feature of The
Millennium Celebration in the local Community.
The GAA
were established in 1926. Current President J.J. Brennan,
Secretary Anne O’Sullivan and Vice Chairman
Mattie Leonard
were optimistic about football and hurling in Ballylinan.
J.J. Brennan said that football peaked in the 50’s.
They won the Minor in 1955,and the Intermediate in ‘57 . At
the moment they are into the quarter finals in the senior
Championships with Joe Hayden from Eire Óg to train them and
will meet The Rock soon. It is 1987 since they contested the
senior final
Kieran Kelly captained the All Ireland winning Minor
team of ‘97 and Pauraic Leonard and
Mark Hovenden also
played and received their All Ireland Medals.
1998 saw Ballylinan contest the final in
hurling. The team is in a special category Junior C for
football areas and will meet Slieve Bloom in the first
round. They have contested two County Finals in hurling.
Sheila Graham is Vice Principal of St Patrick’s
National School which caters for approximately 120 children.
Fran Moloney is Principal and there are five teachers in
total. Sheila is very proud of the fact that last year they
won The Tidy Towns, Public Building, All Ireland, Award.
The amazing thing was that the staff were
totally unaware that the school was entered and it happened
that when they were inspected not a paper or a crisp bag was
anywhere in evidence.
The Village is made up of many organisations which
help to hold a community’s interest and spirit together. One
such group of people constitute this requirement and they
are the Folk Group who play and sing at Mass and weddings.
The idea of forming a group was
Margaret Brennan’s who with her father John Joe is
famous for singing as a duo.
There are about 10 members in the group
aged from 22 to 55. The talent is good and the group have
performed at concerts locally and in Dublin. Current members
include Martin Kinsella, Kevin Hovenden, John Bambrick,
Shirley and Janet Lenon, Olive Fitzpatrick, Veronica
Lattimer, Geraldine Behan, Michelle McLoughlin, George
Hutchinson, and Noel Burke. They are always on the lookout
for new singers.
Margaret Brennan would like people to know that there is
a bereavement Group operating in the village. The group was
set up to meet the needs of those who are finding life
difficult after the death of a loved one.
They are in existence for the last three
months and offer support in an informal environment where
people can come and talk about their feelings and how they
are coping.
Meetings take place in the Parish office
every Thursday at 8pm.
Mary Kehoe
always had a dream and that was to promote and teach
physical fitness/ aerobics and now she has at last realised
that dream. Mary went back to school to study and
obtained her NCEF, National, Certificate Exercise and
Fitness, in Limerick. Mary is originally from Monaghan but
is living in Ballylinan for the past 16 years.
In September every Wednesday Mary will
start a body conditioning and toning class. It will not be
strenuous and is for all age groups, male and female
welcome.
Eugene Davis,
Treasurer, St. Anne’s soccer Club said that there is a
tremendous interest in the sport in Ballylinan. The Club was
formed in 1985 and are in the Carlow and District League.
They have progressed to winning the League in the ‘95/’96
season and can feel justly proud of that achievement.
The Club has approximately 55 adult
members with four under-age teams, u/11, u/12, u/13, and
u/14. At the moment dressing room facilities are a converted
container but you can’t do everything as the Club purchased
their own field three years ago at a cost of £45,000 which
is almost paid for. They levelled it, re-seeded it with a
special seed for sports fields, re-graded it and are very
appreciative of the help received from Fas who maintain the
pitch for them.
The next venture facing Club Chairman,
Frank Brennan, Secretary, Eamonn Doyle and their
Committee is the prospect of funding their new Clubhouse.
It seems like there are very few
organisations that exist without the input of Margaret
Brennan. Another group which Margaret is involved in is
The Parish Pastoral Group.
This group is made up of representatives
from each area in the Parish, Arles, Ballylinan and Killeen.
Pastoral work and all the Liturgical celebrations are
catered for. Meetings are held in the Parish office on the
fourth Tuesday of the month at 8.30pm.
The Passion Play was for Fr. Tommy
O’Shea, P.P. a happening in his time in Ballylinan. From
Borris, in Carlow, Ballylinan has been home to Fr. O’Shea
since 1984.
The Passion Play was a huge undertaking
and what Fr. O’Shea liked about it was the fact that
it was central to everyone in the Parish. The Play was
performed in ‘92 and ‘93 with 139 involved both on stage and
behind the scenes and was a tremendous success, with people
travelling from all parts of the country to see this unique
play.
An open air pageant is planned for the
Millennium and will tell the story of “Pentecost”. The venue
will be particularly suitable as it will take place amidst
the ruins of the Old Court Abbey.
Slieve Margy Way - Towns & Villages
Ballylinan Castle was said to belong to
the O'More's but it fell to the Grimes or Grahams after the
Battle of Agharoe (the field of blood).
The landlords of Ballylinan were the
Weldon's who came during the reign of King James I, and they
remained landlords up to the 1920s.
On the 16th of May, 1921, two of a group
of eight IRA volunteers were shot dead during an ambush on
the Black and Tans, who regularly passed through the area
going to Ballylinan.
Ballyadams & Tankardstown (Co. Laois / East)
Ballyadams, formerly aka Kilmakedy, is a
district with a violent history.
First recorded as Kylemehyde, it was the
site of a late
c.12th Norman castle, taken in 1346 by the O’Mores, O’Connors and O’Dempseys and destroyed in
retaliation by the Justiciar of Ireland Sir John D’Arcy de
Knayth and Thomas FitzJohn FitzGerald, 2nd Earl of Kildare.
Ballyadams Castle
Ballyadams Castle is believed to have
been built around the end of the C15th by one Adam O’More,
after whom the district was subsequently named.
In 1546 the O’Mores and O’Connors
burned the town of Athy. A large army headed by the Lord
Deputy, Sir William Brabazon, and the Earl of Desmond
marched into Leix and took Ballyadams Castle.
In 1549 a Welshman was appointed
constable of Ballyadams. John Thomas ap Owen, later called
John Thomas Bowen (d.1569), was famous for his cruelty, and
was known as “Shane-a-pika” or John of the Pike, because he
always carried such a weapon when he ventured out.
He was succeeded by his son Robert, who
notoriously participated in the Mullagmast Massacre of 1577,
became Sheriff of Queens County in 1579 and died in 1621.
The monument in the old church of Ballyadams was erected to
his memory in 1631.
Robert’s son, Sir John Bowen, was
knighted in 1629 and was Provost Marshal of Leinster and
Meath.
In 1643, when the Kilkenny Confederates
were attacking castle at Ballylinan, their commander Lord
Castlehaven “went with a party of horse to Ballyadams, a
Castle about a mile distant belonging to Sir John Bowen,
Provost Marshal an old soldier, and my long acquaintance. I
went to speak with him and after some kind expressions, told
him I must put a garrison into his Castle.
He flatly denied
me and calling for his wife and two very fair daughters, he
had desired only one favour, that in case I was resolved to
use violence, I would show him where I intended to plant my
guns and make my breach. I satisfied his curiosity and asked
him what he meant by this question. Because saith he
swearing with some warmth, I will cover that, or any other
your Lordhship shoots at, by hanging out both my daughters
in chairs. ’tis true the place was not of much importance,
however this conceit saved it.” This incident inspired a
popular poem.
The remains of the five storey castle has
two tall rounded towers, the highest measuring 75ft; both
date from around the late c.15th and are the oldest part of
the present structure. The tower on the left contains a
winding stone stair-case that leads right up to the turret,
which is approx. 65ft high; the one on the right contains
many small rooms. The wing on the right appears to be the
oldest and was built towards the end of the c.17th by the
Bowen family. The one on the left was built at a later date
by the Butler family, who abandoned the castle after the
1798 Rebellion.
Two ancient Holy Wells near the castle
were supposedly blessed by Saint Patrick.
Lewis (1837) mentions Cobler’s Castle, a
hilltop folly built as a famine relief work project.
Ballyadams is on the Slieve Margy Way.
Tankardstown
is located on a scenic stretch of the River Barrow.
Tankardstown Castle became the seat of the Hovenden family
in 1550, and remained in their ownership for many years.
Barrowhouse
is the location of Dunbrin Fort, a Viking construction where
ancient coins were once found.
In 1921 eight IRA men mounted an ambush
here on the Black and Tans. Two volunteers, William Connors
and James Lacey, were shot dead, and have a memorial
dedicated to them.
Ballylinan (Co. Laois / East)
Ballylinan / Ballylinan (Baile Uí
Laigheanáin - “Linan’s Town”, though who Linan was is not
known) (pop. 800), formerly a rural district, has a rapidly
growing commuter community. The local GAA club is renowned
for its prowess at Gaelic Football.
The single street village has five pubs,
the most famous being The Horse And Coach. (Photo by William
Muldowney – Ballylinan on the
Brennan Family History
website)
Ballylinan’s location on the Athy –
Castlecomer road provided access to the local coalmines. The
district saw Rockite (”Whitefoot”) disturbances and
government repression in the 1820s.
Ballylinan Gentry
The Weldon family arrived during the
reign of King James I and remained as principal local
landlords until the 1920s. Their main residence was Rahin,
described by Lewis (1837) as “a handsome mansion surrounded
by thriving plantations”.
Another Big House in the vicinity was
Gracefield Lodge, seat of the Grace family, “whose old
mansion has been taken down and replaced by an elegant villa
in the later English style, from a design by Mr. Nash,
completed in 1817; the grounds have been tastefully
embellished” and had “luxuriant woods”.
This was the birthplace of William
Russell Grace (1832-1904), who made a fortune harvesting
guano in Peru, founded the chemical conglomerate W.R. Grace &
Co. and became the first Roman Catholic mayor of New York.
Both Rahin and Gracefield are now modern
housing estates.
Ballylinan Castle was said to belong to the O’More clan,
but “it fell to the Grimes or Grahams after the Battle of
Agharoe (the field of blood)“. Lord Castlehaven’s
Confederacy troops successfully laid siege to it in 1643.
In the village are the ruins of an old
church, near which it is claimed that ‘an earthen-ware urn
was found in 1786 containing a great number of silver coins
dating from 862 to 870AD inscribed “O’Laghis King” (the
O‘Mores) and “Dunamaise”.
Lewis also writes of a nearby “extensive
earthwork consisting of a vast mound, the summit of which is
130 yards in diameter, enclosed by a high bank …..occupied
by a party of the insurgents in 1798“, called Dundrom.
Comerford (1886) wrote “In the townland
of Clonpierce, adjoining Ballylinan, an extensive
ruin exists, called in the neighbourhood, the Abbey of
Shanecourt, or Old Court [referred to] in the Annals of
the family of Grace, as a monastery stated to have been
built by the O’Mores, …….. It was an Episcopal Residence of
the Bishops of Leighlin,” Other c.19th authorities also
mention the ruin as an abbey.
Ballylehane Castle, about a mile from Ballylinan village,
was one of several taken by the O’More, O’Connor and
O’Dempsey clans in 1346, 31 years after about 300 O’Mores
were killed locally in a “great slaughter” by Crown forces.
The castle came into the possession of the Hovenden family
in the mid c.16th. John Hovenden was the landlord in 1829 when
the building was attacked by Rockite (”Whitefoot”) activists
searching for arms. The castle is now in ruins.
Ballylinan hosts the annual Day of Darkness weekend Heavy
Metal rock music festival every July?
Sources: Laois Nationalist – 21st
August 1999: /
Irelandbyways.com / NationMaster.com