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 · validated name
Roscommon· English · main form
Place & story
Churches and a county town
Lewis’s 1837 account distinguishes the early religious foundation associated with Comán from the later Dominican house. He describes the town chiefly along the eastern and southern sides of a hill, with a main street opening into a broader space. Religious property, the castle and the public business of an assize town all formed part of this landscape.[2]
People & connections
Felimid’s stone memorial
Felimid Ó Conchobair, king of Connacht, founded the Dominican friary in 1252 and was buried there after his death in 1265. His carved effigy is one of only two surviving Irish royal effigies of its period, according to the OPW. Eight warrior figures from the tomb chest are now displayed in the chancel’s north wall. The surviving sculpture gives a named medieval patron an unusually vivid presence within the ruined church.[3]
Nicholas Malby’s alterations
The castle became a residence of Tudor status as well as a stronghold. Granted it in 1578, Sir Nicholas Malby spent heavily on modernisation. Large rectangular windows, especially in the northeast, reflect that transformation. He also created a walled garden, fishponds and a tree-lined avenue leading towards the town. After later sieges and destruction, a severe fire in 1690 left the building to deteriorate.[4]
Folklore & tradition
Fergus beside Loughnaneane
The OPW records a tradition that Fergus Mac Róich, the legendary Ulster king known from the Táin Bó Cúailnge, was buried beside Loughnaneane. The lakeshore was also associated with an entrance to the Otherworld. These stories belong to the lake’s legendary landscape. The same locality held an Ó Conchobair crannog before the Anglo-Norman castle was established nearby, joining remembered kingship and a real centre of power in one setting.[4]
Both counts use the 2016 settlement boundary, allowing like-for-like comparison. CSO supplies the 2022 count on this older boundary for comparison only. The official 2022 Built Up Area has different boundaries.
View population figures
Roscommon — Census 2016 settlement footprint — census population
These figures use different area definitions. Read the boundary note before comparing them.
Roscommon, Roscommon
Published census settlement populations
5,876people · 2016
Settlement boundaries changed during this period. Differences may reflect boundary changes as well as population change. Where a 2011 legal-town-and-environs count is shown, it has not been recalculated onto the 2016 settlement boundary.
placenames