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Bellanagare

*Béal Átha na gCarr*
Bellanagare Béal Átha na gCarr
Village
	The N5 road passes through Bellanagare
	Bellanagare Location in Ireland
	Coordinates: 53°50′15″N 8°23′17″W / 53.83740°N 8.38808°W
Country	Ireland
Province	Connacht
County	County Roscommon
Elevation	60 m (200 ft)
Population (2016)	153
Time zone	UTC+0 (WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-1 (IST (WEST))
Irish Grid Reference	M745876

Bellanagare (Irish: Béal Átha na gCarr, meaning 'ford-mouth of the carts'^[2]) or Ballinagare, is a village in County Roscommon, Ireland. The N5 national primary road passes through it as of 2008^[update], though a by-pass is planned. The village is located between Tulsk and Frenchpark on the Dublin to Castlebar/Westport road.

History

Built heritage

Evidence of ancient settlement in the area includes several ringfort, enclosure, standing stone and Ogham stone sites in the townlands of Bellanagare, Drummin and Kilcorkey.^[3] Bellanagare Castle, located in Bellanagare townland and historically associated with the O'Conor family, was surrounded by a bawn wall and was the site of a later house.^[4]^[5]

O'Conor Don

The O'Conor Don ancestral lands were in County Roscommon centred on Clonalis House near Castlerea in County Roscommon.^[6] When Alexander O'Conor Don died in 1820 without a male heir, the title was inherited by the O'Conors of Bellanagare. In 1828, O'Conor Don of Belanagar was a member of the Grand Panel of County Roscommon. At the time of Griffith's Valuation (1860s), Charles Owen O'Conor was one of the principal lessors in the parishes of Kilcorkey and Kilkeevin, barony of Castlereagh.

Charles O'Connor

Charles O'Conor, of Belanagare, was a scholar and antiquary who was born in 1710.^[7] In 1754 he published a work on Irish mining, and in 1766 he published the work for which he is best known, Dissertations on the History of Ireland.^[7] O'Conor died at Belanagare on 1 July 1791, and his collection of manuscripts (containing the only then known original of the first part of the Annals of the Four Masters), passed into the hands of the Marquis of Buckingham.^{[citation needed]}

Hermitage House

Hermitage House was built by Charles O'Conor circa 1760, and the former O'Conor family residence at Bellanagare Castle subsequently fell into ruin. Hermitage House, built some distance away, was a smaller Georgian house which O'Conor referred to as his "hermitage". At Hermitage House, he devoted his time to the collection and study of Irish manuscripts, the publication of dissertations, and the cause of Irish and Catholic emancipation.^{[citation needed]} His great-great-grandson, also Charles O'Conor, was leasing the property at Ballaghcullia, valued at £10, to Honoria O'Conor at the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1868. As of the 21st century, Hermitage House is still extant though not occupied and a modern bungalow has been constructed in front of it.^{[citation needed]}

Sport and community

Ballinagare Community Centre, a community-run centre for the village and surrounding area, runs leisure activities and has a gym, and astro turf pitch.^{[citation needed]}

Ballinagare Football Club, an association football club which was established in 2004,^[8] plays its home games at Ballinagare Community Pitch beside the community centre. The club colours are orange with a black trim

Other sports clubs in the area include the Western Gaels GAA Club. This Gaelic Athletic Association club was formed in Fairymount Hall in 1962. The club's catchment area consists of the parishes of Frenchpark and Fairymount in West Roscommon, close to the towns of Castlerea and Ballaghaderreen.^{[citation needed]} The club's crest includes images of several landmarks from the area, including Mount Druid House near Ballinagare.^[9]

Ballinagare Horse and Pony Racing club was established in 2012.^{[citation needed]}

People

Pádraig Ó Caoimh (1897–1964), soldier and secretary of the Gaelic Athletic Association^[10]
Charles O'Conor (1710–1791), antiquarian and activist for Catholic Emancipation^[11]
Douglas Hyde (1860–1949), the first President of Ireland, was from the area and attended fairs in Bellanagare^[12]

References

^ "Sapmap Area - Settlements - Bellanagare". Census 2016. Central Statistics Office. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
^ Mills, A. D. (2003), A Dictionary of British Place-Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780191002038
^ Record of Monuments and Places - County Roscommon. Dublin: National Monuments and Historic Properties Service. 1997.
^ "NMS mapping data - RO015-048001-" – via heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com. RO015-048001- [..] Castle [..] Bellanagare [..] Described as Bellanagare Castle on the 1837 ed. of the OS 6-inch map, and situated on a slight S-facing slope. Denis O'Conor received a partial return of O'Conor Don lands in 1720 [..] Bellanagare is the location of Bealach Coille recorded in 1489 [..] which may have been a castle
^ "NMS mapping data - RO015-048002-" – via heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com.
^ "Estate Record: O'Conor Don". landedestates.nuigalway.ie.
^ ^a ^b Webb, Alfred (1878). "Charles O'Conor". A Compendium of Irish Biography – via libraryireland.com.
^ "Ballinagare Football Club website". bfc.ie. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013.
^ "Club History - Our Crest". westerngaels.com. Archived from the original on 16 August 2018.
^ Coleman, Marie (October 2009). "Ó Caoimh, Pádraig (Paddy O'Keeffe)". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006290.v1. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
^ Ó Catháin, Diarmaid (October 2009). "O'Conor, Charles". Dictionary of Irish Biography. doi:10.3318/dib.006652.v1. Retrieved 15 October 2024.
^ Dunleavy, Janet Egleson; Dunleavy, Gareth W. (1991). "Douglas Hyde: A Maker of Modern Ireland". University of California Press. p. 24. Sometimes in the shop in Ballaghaderreen or at the fair in Bellanagare, he would eavesdrop on other Irish speakers, testing his comprehension