placenamesRoscrea
Ros Cré
Charitable schools and medical institutions formed a substantial part of Roscrea’s nineteenth-century community life.
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 Cré · Irish · main form · validated name
- Roscrea · English · main form
Place & story
Land supporting a school
Lewis’s 1837 account records three public schools teaching about 260 children in Roscrea parish. One was supported by Erasmus Smith’s trustees and endowed with two acres by Lady Caroline Damer, who also contributed £300 towards its schoolhouse. Seven private schools taught roughly another 200 pupils. The figures show several forms of provision operating together before the Famine. [2]
Dispensary and fever care
Doctors Smith and Powell established a dispensary in 1809. In 1830 the Earl of Portarlington supplied a site and £50 towards a suitable building. A subscription-funded fever hospital and recovery house had opened in 1824, and a separate cholera hospital followed in 1832. Lewis’s account records successive additions to local medical care rather than a single institution founded at one date. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Roscrea. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Roscrea — A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.