placenamesRoscommon
Ros Comáin
Strokestown’s nineteenth-century streets and commerce form part of the wider barony’s history.
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
- Ros Comáin · Irish · main form
- Roscommon · English · main form
Place & story
Streets shaped around an estate entrance
Samuel Lewis’s 1837 account placed Strokestown in Bumlin parish within Roscommon barony. He described two streets crossing at right angles, with the principal street running between the estate entrance and a church on higher ground. Some stone houses were roofed with Welsh slate brought overland from Sligo. His description links the town’s broad layout with the materials and transport connections used to build it. [2]
Grain, textiles and food from Sligo
The weekly market sold linen, yarn, stockings and flannel, with some fabrics dyed and finished in the town. Lewis also recorded wheat bought for Sligo’s flour mills and grain sent towards Richmond Harbour for the Royal Canal and Dublin markets. Sea fish and edible seaweed arrived from Sligo. The market thus connected surrounding farms and household production with distant consumers. [2]
A recorded political meeting
An Elphin Street house built in 1877 carries a plaque recording Charles Stewart Parnell addressing a meeting there in 1891. The architectural inventory notes the association alongside the building’s decorated doorway, stained-glass fanlight and sidelights. This is a specific meeting-place connection, rather than a claim that Parnell lived in Strokestown. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Roscommon. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Strokestown, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland1837 · Samuel Lewis
- ElphinStreet house1877,NIAH31811024 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Elphin Street in Strokestown, County Roscommon, as photographed in August 2026 illustration: based on a Elphin Street, Strokestown by Marathon. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2017-02-07. How this page was prepared.