Ballydonoghue Parish is the fourth biggest parish in the county stretching from Urlee to Dromerin, Mweevoo to Tullamore and covering an area of approximately eight miles in length and six miles wide.  Currently, there are close to 550 houses inhabited in the parish with Lisselton Cross being the village in the parish.  Industry is predominately of a farming nature but there are a variety of vibrant industries (too numerous to mention) operating successfully here. Currently, there is a church (St. Theresa’s), two shops (Ryan’s Daybreak & Richard Behan’s), one Post Office (in Ryan’s Daybreak shop), three public houses (Cantillon’s, Tomáisín’s and the Thatch) which are all within the vicinity of Lisselton Cross.  There are now two primary schools thriving (Lisselton and Coolard) and a football pitch in Coolard.  Ballydonoghue has many and varied organisations in the parish, examples include, the Parish Magazine, GAA, Community Games, Pastoral Council, LB Rovers, Comhaltas (dancing, music and song), Pioneers and Community Alert.

Places/People of Interest

These include Cnoc an Fhómhair, The Leacht, Lisselton Cemetery with the remains of the Church Steeple, Galey Cemetery, The execution site of the Gabha Beag for whiteboy activity, Ringforts at Lyre, South and North Guhard, Lacca, Farranstack, Ballydonoghue, Kilgarven, Killomeroe and Ballyloughran.  We have loads of flora and fauna in our bogs located in Ballegan, Ahascra, Toohana, Tullamore, Kiltean and Killarda. There is also St. Batt’s Well and Ballyloughran House.  Children burial grounds include Lisselton Cemetery, Kilgarven, Killomeroe and Ballyconry.  There are many bridges in the parish including Gale Bridge and the Ferry Bridge.

Fr. Dowling heading home to Coolard so as to start this year’s article

Joseph Linnane smiling broadly after reading “Cranky Dick’s” article in the magazine

Ballydonoghue is the birthplace of Maurice Walsh in 1879, the renowned author and writer, Fr. Kissane who wrote the book on Cnoc an Fhómhair and the poet Robert Leslie Boland who wrote “Thistles and Docks”.  Hannie Purtill from Lower Ballydonoghue was the mother of celebrated author and playwright John B Keane.  (We believe that the ability to write is immersed in the waters that people drink in Ballydonoghue so the BPM should stay strong for years to come!!!)  Our latest author is Maurice O’Mahony who is after writing the definitive history of Coolard National School from 1846 – 2016.  Coolbeha House was the birthplace of Herbert H. Kitchener and Paddy Walsh who was shot dead by the Black and Tans was also born in the parish.

A flavour of noted footballers in the parish included Gus Cremin (RIP), Johnny and Robert Bunyan, Liam O’Flaherty, Mick Finucane (RIP), Eddie Dowling (RIP), Jer D O’Connor and Ger Browne.  Recent additions to this list include Jason Foley, Brían Ó’Seanacháin, Micheál Foley and Dara O’Sé.  We can’t forget our ladies footballers who played for Kerry such as Kay Carr and Sophie Lynch.  Comhaltas has produced numerous winners included Katie and TP McNamara, Nelius Carr etc.  Down through the years, the Pioneers won three All Ireland’s in a row and helped to keep the lights of Ballydonoghue shining brightly.

John ‘Bosco’ McMahon waiting patiently for this year’s magazine to be on sale in Lisselton

Mick Walsh (Guhard) guiding the next generation of writers for the BPM

Ballydonoghue is also noted for the friendliness of its people and the characters and craic evident throughout the parish.

This is a just a brief flavour of Ballydonoghue Parish – Get in touch and provide us with more interesting details of Ballydonoghue so that we can add to the great things happening in Ballydonoghue by using the “Contact Us” section of the website.

Click on the button to read about Ballydonoghue Parish Life from 1871 to 2016. Here we record a list of events that happened in Ballydonoghue over the years.