placenamesBohermore
An Bóthar Mór
Bohermore developed along a principal approach to Galway. Its school, later housing terraces and Victorian cemetery preserve different stages in the growth of the city beyond its old centre.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- An Bóthar Mór · Irish · main form · non-validated name
- Bohermore · English · main form
Place & story
A road into Galway
Tom Kenny’s local history traces Bohermore on the 1651 map from the Green, now Eyre Square, towards the present Cemetery Cross. It was a principal route into and out of Galway. By 1812 the street contained 378 occupied houses accommodating 432 families, with a recorded population of 2,044. These figures describe a substantial residential district long before the twentieth-century terraces reshaped parts of the neighbourhood. [2]
Schooling and new terraces
Registration of Bohermore’s boys’ school was submitted in December 1852. Kenny describes premises leased from James Davis, with an enclosed green behind the building and an enrolment of about thirty pupils. A surviving 1916 school photograph records a later generation with their teacher, Mr Lohan. Housebuilding brought another change from 1934, when work began on the terraces whose names included Connolly’s, Mellows and Lydon’s. [2]
The cemetery’s carved stonework
Bohermore Cemetery’s paired mortuary chapels give the burial ground a distinctive architectural character. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage records the western chapel’s limestone bellcote, carved crosses, pointed windows and ornamental stone surrounds. Fish-scale bands enliven the slate roof. Inside, timber roof beams rest on stone corbels, while pews, an altar and an oratory survive. The small building combines elaborate masonry with the intimate scale of a cemetery chapel. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Bohermore. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Bohermore and some of its people · Tom Kenny
- Bohermore Cemetery: mortuary chapel, registration 30310003 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.