Ballinasloe

Name and history

The town developed as a crossing point on the River Suck, a tributary of the Shannon. The Irish placename – meaning the mouth of the ford of the crowds – reflects this purpose. The latter part of the name suggests the town has been a meeting place since ancient times. The patron saint of Ballinasloe is Saint Grellan, whom tradition believes built the first church in the area at Kilcloony. A local housing estate, a GAA club, the branch of Conradh na Gaeilge, and formerly a school are named after him.

Richard Mór de Burgh is credited with founding the town.

October Fair and Festival

Every October, Ballinasloe is host to the ancient annual October Fair. Chiefly agricultural in the past, it is now focused on the horse. Ballinasloe Fair is one of the oldest horse fairs in Europe; bathed in history it dates back to the 18th century. Today the ever popular fair is still held, along with a festival that attracts up to 100,000 visitors from all over the world creating great revenue for the town

Economy

The biggest local employers are Aptar - a manufacturing company - and Surmodics - a medical company as they announced that they plan to create 100 new jobs in the town in the next five years. Between 2000 and 2004, the town's economy took a hit with the closure of Square D, AT Cross and Dubarry. Supermacs opened their first store there and there is now four stores open in the town.

As of 2016, employment in the town centres around its hotels, hospital and factories.

Notable people

Transport

Ballinasloe railway station opened on 1 August 1851, and is served by the Dublin–Galway railway line. The town can also be accessed by public bus, with Bus Eireann and CityLink serving the town on their Limerick to Galway and Dublin to Galway routes. Once a notorious bottleneck on the old Galway to Dublin road, on 18 December 2009, the town was officially bypassed for the first time, when the M6 motorway opened as an upgrade to the N6. From 1828 to the 1960s, Ballinasloe was the terminus of the Grand Canal. Guinness Company used the town's canal stores to store and distribute the Guinness to the midlands. Grand Canal provided an easy route for Guinness barges to travel from Dublin to Shannon Harbour. A new public marina has been developed on the river in recent years that allows traffic from the Shannon navigation to access the town.

Local media

A number of newspapers circulate in the Ballinasloe area, such as Ballinasloe Life magazine, the Connacht Tribune, Galway Advertiser, Athlone Topic and the Roscommon Herald. As Ballinasloe sits on the border between two counties it is served by 2 local radio stations, Galway Bay FM and Shannonside FM. Local radio from other neighbouring counties such as Midlands 103 and Tipp FM are well received in the area. National stations in the area include RTÉ Radio 1, 2FM, RTÉ Lyric FM, Today FM and 4FM. Local website, www.ballinasloe.ie, is great for finding out information about upcoming events and local news.

Sport

Ballinasloe itself harbours historically rich soccer, golf, and rugby clubs, alongside Duggan Park Gaelic Athletic Association grounds. The local GAA clubs are Ballinasloe GAA (incorporating St Grellan's Gaelic football club and the Ballinasloe Hurling Club), Derrymullen Handball Club and Ballinasloe Camogie Club. The Soccer Club Ballinasloe Town AFC is one of the most successful association football clubs in the area, playing its games at The Curragh Grounds in the town. Ballinasloe has a boxing tradition as well, and two resident boxing clubs. There is also a Tennis Club and Athletics Club. The sporting facilities in the town have improved significantly over the last number of years with an estimated €20 million having been invested locally.

The top quality facilities in the town include: a golf club, GAA grounds, tennis club, two swimming pools, rugby grounds, soccer grounds, driving range and a running track.

Schools

In Ballinasloe there are four national schools (Scoil Uí Cheithearnaigh, Creagh National School, St Teresa's Special School and Scoil an Chroí Naofa) and two secondary schools (St Joseph's College, Garbally and Ard Scoil Mhuire).

Twin towns