Béal an Átha Móir, corrupted Bellanamore, means "town at the mouth of the big ford", so named because it was a main crossing of the Yellow River. The gaels called the baile Átha na Chuirre because a hospital-house stood near the bridge in the 13th century.
After the 5th century, the Conmaicne settled this area, displacing and absorbing an older tribe named the "Masraigh". These Conmhaícne ancestors were called the "Cenel Luachán". This is the origins of Ballinamore. In 1244, the town was named Ath na Chuirre because, according to the Irish Annals, a hospital dedicated to Saint John the Baptist stood beside the ford. Saint Bridget's church, and holy-well, stood on a high hill one kilometre north of present-day town. In 1256, the Battle of Magh Slecht occurred nearby, leading to the division of Bréifne between the O'Rourkes of North Leitrim and the O'Reillys of East Bréifne. In 1621, the name 'Ballinamore' is first mentioned, when under the Plantation of Leitrim, the "Manor of Ballinamore" was granted to Sir Fenton Parsons with of arable land. Around 1693, Ballinamore Iron works was established, and in production until circa 1747 when the business was put up for sale, the assets including a furnace, forge, slitting mill, mine yards, coal yards, large quantities of pig iron, mine and coals. The native Irish forests bounding the parish were exhausted for this mining. In the 18th century, dispossessed Catholics from County Down settled in the area. In 1860, the Ballinamore and Ballyconnell Canal was opened, but declined in use after 24 October 1887, the date Ballinamore railway station opened. The railway station was part of the narrow gaugeCavan and Leitrim Railway and was the hub of the line, with the locomotive depot and works. It was the point where the line from Dromod through Mohill and Ballinamore to Belturbet branched to Kiltubrid, Drumshanbo and Arigna. The railway line was used until closure on 1 April 1959. In the 19th, and early 20th centuries, annual fairs were held at Ballinamore on- 12 May, and 12 November. In 1925, Ballinamore town comprised 163 houses, approximately 28 being licensed to sell alcohol. In 1994, the Ballinamore and Ballyconnell Canal was reopened as the Shannon–Erne Waterway and marketed as a tourist/cruising waterway.
Annalistic references
Various Irish Annals mention the baile of Ath na Cuirre, i.e. Ballinamore, in 1244AD. A Connachta army marched from Fenagh, County Leitrim towards the baile, presumably along the R202 route. At the Yellow river ford, today's bridge into main street, the soldiers vandalised the nearby Hospital of Saint John the Baptist, accidentally killing one of their own, a important leader of Clann Murtagh O'Connor named Mhaghnusa mic Muircertaig Muimnigh.
"Do imdhigh in slúag iarsin ass an mbaile amach,... co h-Ath na Cuirre forsan nGeircthigh, & do bhí an tuile tar bruachaib di, & ni rancotar tairrsi condernsat tech sbidél Eoin Baisde do bhái a nimeal in átha do scaoiled, da chur tarsan abhuinn do dhul tairsi dont slúaig; condechaid mac Muircertaig Muimnigh,.i. Maghnus, isin tech, & Concobar mac Cormaic Mic Diarmada; condubairt Maghnus risin bfer do bhí thúass ag scaoiled an tighe, ag sínshépe a cloidem uadha súas, agsin an tairrnge chongbhus an maide gan tuitim; leisin comrádh sin do thuit airrghe an tighe a gcend Mhaghnusa mic Muircertaig Muimnigh, gonderna brúligh día chinn, gur bhó marbh dhe ar an lathair sin" "The host went afterwards out of the town,... to Ath-na-cuirre on the Geirctech; and the flood was over its banks, and they did not pass over it until they pulled down the hospital-house of John the Baptist, which was on the margin of the ford, to place it across the river, that the host might pass over it. The son of Muirchertach Muimhnech, i.e. Maghnus, and Conchobhar, son of Cormac Mac Diarmada, went into the house, when Maghnus, pointing up his sword, said to the man who was overhead throwing down the house, ‘there is the nail which prevents the beam from falling.’ At these words the rafter of the house fell on the head of Maghnus, son of Muirchertach Muimhnech, and fractured his skull, so that he died on the spot;".
Notable features
The local Church of Ireland church is the oldest building in Ballinamore in the 1780s from the ruins of the local Roman Catholic Church demolished during the reformation and penal laws. The nearby Ballinamore Estate was granted to the Ormsby family in 1677. Elizabethan settlers located at first in County Sligo, from where they spread into Counties Mayo, Roscommon and Galway. The Ballinamore branch were descended from the Ormsby of Comyn or Cummin in County Sligo. There is a monument to the IRA Chief of Staff, TD, and local councillor John Joe McGirl on the bridge crossing the Shannon-Erne Waterway.
released a song called The Ballad of Ballinamore in 1984, giving the writing credits to Fintan Vallely. Later compilations have referred to the song as simply Ballinamore. The song was a parody of an earlier Irish rebel song called The Man from the Daily Mail. It was written after an RTÉ investigation in the Ballinamore area for evidence of the abducted racehorse Shergar found several locals refusing to say anything other than "no comment".
