placenamesBallingarry
Baile an Gharraí
An industrial building and a resident’s memoir record work and recreation in the Slieveardagh community.
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
- Baile an Gharraí · Irish · main form · validated name
- Ballingarry · English · main form
Place & story
The creamery built in 1886
Ballingarry Lower, within the electoral division, contains the creamery built in 1886. Its long, rendered front has a pedimented central projection with raised lettering, an unusually formal feature for a working building. The 2005 architectural survey records the premises serving both creamery and cooperative functions, including later display windows in part of the frontage. [2] [4]
Michael Barron’s record of village life
Michael Barron recorded his recollections of Ballingarry in the late 1970s. He had trained as a dispensing chemist before working for the local coal company, eventually driving its delivery lorry for twenty years. His son Billy later read the memoir for the Tipperary Coalmines heritage project, which published the written account in 2022. [3]
Making places for a dance
Barron remembered the creamery’s egg store becoming a dance venue once or twice a year. Volunteers cleared the building, erected a band platform and prepared an upstairs supper room. His account also recalls house dances prompted by departures or returning relatives, with musicians gathering locally. These are one resident’s memories of twentieth-century social customs, rather than evidence of an unchanged or ancient tradition. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Ballingarry. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Ballingarry Creamery, NIAH 22205505 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- The Social Scene: Village Life in Ballingarry from the 1920s to the 1970s, August 2022 · Michael Barron, memoir; introduction and publication by Tipperary Coalmines
- Ballingarry electoral division: constituent townlands · Townlands.ie / OpenStreetMap contributors
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.