Ballyconnell () is a market town in County Cavan, Ireland. It is on the N87 road at the junction of four townlands: Annagh, Cullyleenan, Doon (Tomregan) and Derryginny, and is in the civil parish of Tomregan, in the historical barony of Tullyhaw.
Ballyconnell won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1971 and 1975. According to the 2022 census, the population of the town was 1,422.
Name The earliest surviving mention of the name Ballyconnell is an entry in the Annals of the Four Masters for the year 1323 A.D., which states "Rory Mac Mahon, son of the Lord of Oriel, Melaghlin O'Seagannain, and Mac Muldoon, were slain by Cathal O'Rourke at Bel-atha-Chonaill". Before being named Ballyconnell, it was named Maigen which means 'the little plain' with the local ford called which means 'ford of the miners'. It was also named Gwyllymsbrook between 1660 and 1702 by its then owner, Thomas Gwyllym.
Ballyconnell is an anglicisation of which means 'entrance to Conall's ford'. The ford was a shallow crossing over the River Gráinne ( Grainne was the wife of the Fianna warrior-god Fionn MacCumhaill) now called the Woodford River part of the Shannon–Erne Waterway canal, which once was the ancient border crossing for travellers going between Ulster and Connacht. The ford was caused by silt and gravel washed down from the nearby Slieve Rushen mountain by the Tanyard Stream, which flows into the Woodford River about 20 yards upstream from Ballyconnell Bridge on the western outskirts of the town.
Conall Cernach was the legendary hero of the Ulaid in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, probably the second greatest warrior after Cuchulainn. In his old age, according to legend, Connall left Ulster and stayed at Croaghan with the Connacht royal couple Ailill and Medb. He killed Ailill at Medb's behest and was pursued and slain near the fording point of the River Gráinne (Woodford River) by the three Ruadhcoin sent by the people of Connacht to avenge the slaying of Conall.
History
Prehistoric
The area was settled as early as BC as evidenced by a double-court tomb in the town and a ring barrow in the same field.(Sites number 31 & 107, Doon townland, Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan, Patrick O’Donovan, 1995, pp. 7 & 22)
The area, at a fording point of the nearby Woodford River, was thickly wooded and had no roadways. The easiest way to travel would have been by boat via the river and the lakes and streams in the area. The only other known megalith in the parish is a wedge tomb dating from 2000 B.C. on the side of Slieve Rushen mountain in Aughrim townland.(Site number 7, Aughrim townland, Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan, Patrick O’Donovan, 1995, p. 2) However, the megalithic wedge tomb was dug up in 1992 to facilitate stone and sand quarrying to take place by the Quinn Group from the mountain and was relocated to the grounds of the Slieve Russell Hotel, to serve as a tourist attraction.
Ballyconnell historically lay on the eastern part of Magh Slécht named ("the little plain"), so called because it was a narrow strip bounded on the north by Slieve Rushen mountain and on the south by the River Graine. Maigin was the birthplace, in the 6th century, of Saint Dallán Forgaill.
Medieval A small market town on the River Woodford beneath Slieve Rushen, close by the ancient border between Breifni and Fermanagh. Ballyconnell first emerges in the medieval period as a centre of the territory of the Magauran clan, whose chiefs had a ring fort and a burial place there. Ballyconnell was situated in one of the ballybetoes of Tullyhaw named Calmhagh (Calva), which basically means almost the same as Maigin, the narrow plain. The province border regions between Ulster and Connacht was throughout ancient history a flash-point for tribal clan wars between the Ulster Maguires, O'Rourkes, O'Reillys, McGaurans, McKiernans of Connacht and their allies. From the ninth century the Kingdom of Breifni included all modern day Cavan, Leitrim and parts of Fermanagh, Longford, Meath and Sligo. was ruled over by the O'Rourkes. The Annals of Ireland record significaant incidents at the Battle of Magh Slecht plains near Ballyconnell. These include, in 1256 the break up of O'Rourke's rule in a conflict with O'Reilly clans for control of the kingdom. The result left the Breifni kingdom permanently divided, creating West Breifni (O'Rourke) and East Breifni (O'Reilly). Later in 1323 a note that Rory MacMahon, Mel O'Seagannain & MacMuldoon were slain at Ballyconnell by Cathal O'Rourke. According to the annals, in 1457, Brian Maguire fought with Lochlann O'Rourke, the McGaurans & McKiernans at Ballyconnell. In 1470, O'Donnell and O'Rourke fought with O'Reilly, the English and the McKiernans at Ballyconnell. And, in 1475, Hugh Roe O'Donnell went to Ballyconnell to make peace with the O'Reilly. The annals suggest that O'Donnell camped at Ballyconnell after raiding the town of Cavan in 1595.
Post-1600
In 1606 Cormac Magauran sold the surrounding lands comprising the manor of Calva. Captain Richard Tyrrell, of Tyrrellspass Castle, County Westmeath, bought the Derryginny and Snugborough parts of the Calva ballybetagh from Cormac Magauran. He then exchanged his lands at the start of the Ulster Plantation for more property in Tullygarvey barony where he lived.
Walter Talbot, a recusant servitor and a burgess of Cavan Corporation, whose parents were James Talbot and Margaret Brett of Agherskeethe (now Augherskea), County Meath, purchased another part of the Calva ballybetagh before 1609 but the title was defective. However, in the launching of the Plantation of Ulster in 1609, Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, allowed Talbot to keep his estate as he had begun bringing in settlers and building houses. In the Plantation of Ulster by grant dated 23 June 1610, King James VI and I granted the lands forming the 'Manor of Calva' to English servitor Captain Hugh Culme. Captain Hugh Culme was constable of Cloughoughter castle of which with its lands he received a twenty one year lease in November 1610 later to become provost marshal for Cavan and Monaghan. Hugh Culme the original patentee in the barony of Tullyhaw entered a partnership agreement with Walter Talbot in Balllyconnell, whereupon when Hugh Culme died in 1630 it became owned entirely by Talbot's son James. It was officially regranted by 1638 to James Talbot as the 'Manor of Calva'. The lands granted were the town of Ballyconnell and a number of surrounding townlands.
It was Walter Talbot, described as Old English, together with Hugh Culme who promoted the Plantation settlement here, raising a strong castle and bawn at Annagh on the east side of the river built of stone and lime, it was over three storeys tall with two flankers, described in 1622 : 'located in a very good place and convenient for the strength and defence of that part of the country'. Other notable buildings in the Pynnar survey were recent built wooden houses. The ruined Catholic church at the top of Church Street (Site number 1815, Doon townland, Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan, Patrick O’Donovan, 1995, p. 230) and an old McGovern fort. The rest of the buildings were mud huts belonging to the Irish natives. In September 1611, a survey by Lord Carew (later created 1st Earl of Totnes) found that Talbot had built a strong timber house and two other wattled houses (Site number 1798, Annagh townland, Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan, Patrick O’Donovan, 1995, p. 228). He had also felled 40 trees but did no other work. By 1613, Talbot had progressed with building work. Sir Josias Bodley reported on 6 February 1613 that: "Proportion No. 29: 1,500 acres. On the proportion undertaken by Capt. Culme and Walter Talbot, there are 3 or 4 handsome Irish houses by them built, and some provision made towards the building of a castle in a most convenient place for occasions of service, being near a special ford or passage, by which in times past that county was much infested. The quarry of limestone and building stone is on the place, good store of lime already burnt, and of building stone digged, much timber and planks drawn thither already, and the rest provided in a wood not above a mile off, so that this next summer the whole work, I suppose both of castle and bawn will be perfected".Survey of Undertakers in Co. of Cavan 6 Feb 1613- Tullaghagh Servitors, in Report of Manuscripts of Reginald Rawdon Hastings, Historical Manuscripts Commission, London 1947, vol. IV, p. 164
There was no bridge at Ballyconnell in 1613, but it appears on the 1656 Down Survey map so the first bridge must have been built between 1613 & 1656. The present bridge was erected in the 1830s. In 1617 Connor and Terence O'Sheridan were granted a licence to make and sell spirituous liquors in Balliconnell and throughout Tullagha barony.
By 1619, Pynnar's Survey of Land Holders found that Talbot had built a strong defensive wall called a bawn, which was a square measuring along each side and 12 ft high, with two flanking towers. Within the bawn was erected a strong castle of lime and stone three stories high which was described as being "in a very good and convenient place for the strength and service of the country".
In August 1622, another survey stated that: "Walter Talbot has 1,500 acres called Ballyconnell, upon which there is builded a strong castle of stone and lyme, with two flanckers at each cross corner. This castle and ye flanckers are three stories and a half high and standeth in a very good place and convenient for the strength and defence of that parte of the country which is an obscure and bordering corner of the countie. Mr Walter Talbott, his wife and familie are now dwelling there. There are severall Palemen estates, some in fee farm, some for lives and some for yeares, upon part of the land. The rest are leased to natives of the country. The said Walter Talbott and all his tenants are recusants. Armes in the castle are 11 pikes, 3 callivers, 5 head peeces, 3 targetts and 1 halbert".'1622 Survey of Cavan' in Breifne Journal 1958, p.60 P.O'Gallachair The castle was destroyed in a fire in 1688 and Ballyconnell House was erected on its site in Annagh townland. Some of these ruins are still visible and a section of the bawn wall was uncovered in an archaeological excavation.
Walter Talbot died at Ballyconnell on 26 June 1625, his son James Talbot succeeded to the Ballyconnell estate aged just 10 years. James Talbot married Helen Calvert (born 1615), the daughter of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, in 1635 and had a son, Colonel George Talbot. He owned an estate in Cecil County, Maryland, which he named Ballyconnell in honour of his native town in County Cavan. George Talbot was appointed Surveyor-General of Maryland in 1683. In the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, James Talbot's estate in Ballyconnell was confiscated because he was a Catholic and instead he was granted an estate in 1655 at Castleruby townland, Baslick parish, County Roscommon. He died in 1687. The Anglican Bishop of Kilmore William Bedell granted a sum of money £40 Sterling for the re-edifying of the Plantation Tomregan (Ballyconnell) church prior to May 1634.