Ballymore Eustace (Irish: An Baile Mór, meaning 'the big town')[2] is a small town situated in County Kildare in Ireland, although until 1836 it lay within an exclave of County Dublin. It lies close to the border with County Wicklow. The town is in a civil parish of the same name.[2]
The town's name, which is frequently shortened to "Ballymore" in everyday usage, derives from the Irish An Baile Mór ("the big town") with the addition – to distinguish it from several other Ballymores in Ireland – of the family name (Fitz)Eustace. A fuller version of the town's official name in Irish is Baile Mór na nIústasach ("big town of the Eustaces").
History
Ballymore Eustace in the 13th century (at the time simply known as Ballymore) was the site of a castle, which in 1244 was granted an eight-day fair to be held on site by Henry III.[10] The parish and the town were part of a manor owned by the Archbishop of Dublin.[11] Thomas Fitzoliver FitzEustace was granted a salary of £10 by the Archbishop for his work as constable and the upkeep of the castle in 1373, and his family came to be associated with the town, lending it its present name.[12][1]
Several of Thomas' descendants also held the office of Constable, including his grandson Sir Richard FitzEustace (appointed 1414) and his great-grandson Sir Robert FitzEustace (appointed 1445). No trace of the castle exists today, but the importance of Ballymore then is underlined by the fact that Parliament was held there in 1389.[10] It was a border town of the Pale, giving it strategic importance in the area, but also leading to its raiding by local Gaelic clans such as the O'Tooles and O'Byrnes.[13]
The first reference to a church is in 1192, but the existence of two granite high crosses and early medieval grave slabs in St. John's church graveyard indicates a pre-Norman church site.[14] The larger of the two crosses dates to the 10th or 11th century. It is over two metres tall and consists of a solid ring with short arms on a narrow shaft on a large undecorated rectangular base. The head and shaft were carved from a single block of granite. There is an inscription commemorating the re-erection of the cross in 1689 by Ambrose Walls.[14] The smaller of the high crosses also likely dates to the 10th or 11th century and is in poor repair as most of the head has been broken off.[15]
Ballymore was a key location on the Woolpack Road, along which woolpacks from the Curragh and from west Wicklow were transported to Dublin, via Rathcoole, from a very early date. The Manor of Ballymore had been involved in this trade, including in that of wool weaving. The earliest tuck mill in Ireland that has been definitively dated lay on the lands of Ballymore Manor, at Ardenode, and is dated to 1276–7.[16] Ballymore acted as a wool collection and trading centre for vast mountain areas to its east, including the King's River valley which fed into the Liffey.
The town and surrounding lands formed for centuries one of three adjacent exclaves of the barony of Uppercross, County Dublin. These lands, originally part of Dublin because they belonged to religious foundations there, were among the last such exclaves in Ireland, being merged into Kildare only in 1836.[10]
The town was the scene of one of the first clashes of the 1798 rebellion when the British garrison were attacked by United Irish rebels on 23 May but managed to defeat the attack in the Battle of Ballymore-Eustace. Several buildings including the Protestant church were burnt during the attack.[12]
In the 19th century, the town's largest source of employment was a cotton mill (owned by the Gallagher family), the ruins of which still stand by the river at a spot known as the "pike hole".[citation needed] Although the woollen mill building complex dates to 1802, there has been a history of milling since the 12th century as Archbishop John Comyn was recorded to receive income from a mill in the town as well as other areas.[17] This mill employed approximately 700 people and a row of single-storey houses were built nearby to accommodate a number of their families – this terrace today known as "Weaver's row", running alongside and down the hill from the local Roman Catholic parish church.