placenamesEast Barrs
Na Barraí Thoir
Census records and local postal history document East Barrs within the Glenfarne district of north Leitrim.
The name
A reliable full-name meaning has not been established here. The recorded Irish and English forms are given without an unsupported translation.
Recorded forms
- Na Barraí Thoir · Irish · main form · validated name
- East Barrs · English · main form
- East Bars · English · main form · local name
Place & story
The townland in the census
The 1851 census recorded Barrs East as a townland of just over 436 acres in Cloonclare parish. Its population fell from 201 in 1841 to 168 in 1851. There were twenty-eight inhabited houses at the earlier census and twenty-seven a decade later, alongside two uninhabited houses. These figures describe the wider townland rather than a separately enumerated village. [2]
A post office with a lasting name
Local postal historian Raymond Evans records that East Barrs post office occupied more than one location before moving to Cullentra in 1961. It kept the East Barrs name after that move. Gerry Keaney served as postmaster until 1989, when Tessie Keaney became postmistress. The office closed in 2002, although an An Post agency continued until 2012, extending the name's association with the service. [3]
Mail travelling through Glenfarne
The same history distinguishes the post office from the district's delivery arrangements: mail was neither sorted nor dispatched for delivery from East Barrs. While trains served Glenfarne station, the morning mail arrived by rail and continued towards Kiltyclogher by horse and trap, driven by Peter McHugh. Cars later replaced the horse-drawn service. The account preserves a sequence of changing transport within the local postal network. [3]
Saint Michael’s in neighbouring Barrs West
The neighbouring townland of Barrs West contains Saint Michael's Catholic church, built in 1832. Its modest nave and chancel have pointed windows, limestone dressings and a group of three lancets in the eastern gable. Sandstone entrance gates added in 1852 form a later feature of the site. The church overlooks a wooded valley, providing a surviving nineteenth-century landmark in the wider locality. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Leitrim
- Barony
- Drumahaire
- Civil parish
- Cloonclare
- Within
- Barrs East
- Coordinates
- 54.29967, -8.06145 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 131524 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — East Barrs. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Census of Ireland1851,Leitrim,p93 · Census Commissioners
- Glenfarne:AHistory,HistoryofthePostOffice,p61 · Raymond Evans,Leitrim Local Studies
- SaintMichael’sCatholicChurch,30912005 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.