Ballinakill () is a small village in

County Laois County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

on the R432 regional road between

Abbeyleix Abbeyleix (; ) is a town in County Laois, Ireland, located around south of the county town of Portlaoise. Abbelyleix is in a civil parish of the same name. Abbeyleix was formerly located on the N8, the main road from Dublin to Cork. At one p ...

Ballyragget Ballyragget () is a small town on the river Nore in the north of County Kilkenny in Ireland. Ballyragget is on the N77 road (Ireland), N77 road, north of Kilkenny. As of the 2016 census of Ireland, 2016 census, it had a population of 1,082 peo ...

and

Castlecomer Castlecomer (,Castlecomer/Caisleán an Chomair
Placenames Database of Ireland. 'castle at ...

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the City status in Ir ...

. As of the 2016 census, there were 445 people living in Ballinakill.

History

In 1606, Sir Thomas Coatch was granted the right to hold a market and fair in the village. The Ballinakill Cattle Fair continued until 1963. In 1611, Ballinakill was acquired by Sir Thomas Ridgeway who invested heavily by building a castle and developing the local area. From 1613 until the Acts of Union, the town was a

parliamentary borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...

, electing two members to the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

. The town was besieged and plundered by Irish rebels, including the

Earl of Castlehaven Earl of Castlehaven was a title in the Peerage of Ireland, created on 6 September 1616. It was held in conjunction with the Baron Audley, Barony of Audley (created 1312 in the Peerage of England), the Barony of Audley of Orier (created with the ...

and Lord Mountgarret, during the 1641 Rebellion. When the castle and town surrendered much was robbed, including cattle, sheep and cloth. Remarkably, this information survives to us through an account from a native American Patagonian from present day southern Argentina/Chile 'but now a Christian' who had been a servant to Captain Richard Steele for twenty years and lived in Ballinakill.

Landmarks

The town square features a monument to men who died in the

1798 rebellion The Irish Rebellion of 1798 (; Ulster-Scots: ''The Turn out'', ''The Hurries'', 1798 Rebellion) was a popular insurrection against the British Crown in what was then the separate, but subordinate, Kingdom of Ireland. The main organising force ...

. The monument was erected in 1898. In 1998 a ceremony was held in Ballinakill to mark the bicentenary of the deaths. Heywood House Gardens, located just north of Ballinakill, is a formal garden on the former Heywood Estate which was designed by

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

and

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British Horticulture, horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United Sta ...

in the early 20th century. The gardens are now managed by the

Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) (; legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Government of Ireland, Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of owned and ren ...

and open to the public.

Sport

Ballinakill GAA Ballinakill GAA is a hurling and Gaelic football club in Ballinakill, County Laois, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The club colours are maroon and white and the club grounds are in Ballinakill village near the border with County Kilkenny. Hist ...

and Spink GAA are local

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...

clubs.

Transport

A daily Town Link service, operated by Slieve Bloom Coaches, routes through the village between Portlaoise and

Borris-in-Ossory Borris-in-Ossory (, or the ' Burgage of Osraige') is a village in west County Laois, Ireland, close to the Tipperary border and the M7 motorway. Features The village has facilities such as a school, churches, community hall, convenience reta ...

. There is also a daily

TFI Local Link TFI Local Link, or simply Local Link, is a set of local bus services in Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided ...

service, route 822, from Mountrath to Carlow.

Recreation

Ballinakill has an outdoor swimming pool which is operated seasonally from June to September, Masslough lake on the edge of the village, and a playground which opened in 2022.

History

Landmarks

Sport

Transport

Recreation

See also

References

Further reading