Qualla: Balbriggan https://qualla.com/balbriggan en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Balbriggan https://qualla.com/balbriggan Balbriggan: Introduction https://qualla.com/balbriggan/ Queen Victoria wore Balbriggans under her royal dress. So did the Czarina of Russia. In John Wayne westerns, when a cowboy puts on his long underwear, the word for it - balbriggans - had travelled all the way from a small cotton mill on the Dublin coast to American slang. The lightweight knitted cotton fabric perfected here in the 19th century was so fine and so warm that for half a century the town's name became the word for the garment, the way Champagne became the word for sparkling wine. The mills are mostly gone now, redeveloped into apartments and offices, but the harbour wall the local judge built in 1763 still curves around the shipping that brought the cotton in.

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/8/balbriggan-wp/gce8-balbriggan-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Balbriggan: Town of the Little Trout https://qualla.com/balbriggan/ The name Balbriggan probably comes from the medieval personal name Brecan - there are several Brackenstowns across Ireland - and possibly also from the River Bracken that flows through town, which would make the name mean something like "town of the little trout." Locals long pre...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/8/balbriggan-wp/gce8-balbriggan-town-of-the-little-trout.mp3 0:06 2 full Balbriggan: Baron Hamilton's Town https://qualla.com/balbriggan/ Balbriggan as a manufacturing town is essentially the work of one family. George Hamilton, Baron of the Court of Exchequer, owned Hampton Hall on the southern edge of the village. In 1763 he completed a stone pier - paid for partly by parliamentary grant - that turned the inlet i...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/8/balbriggan-wp/gce8-balbriggan-baron-hamiltons-town.mp3 0:06 3 full Balbriggan: The Stocking That Made the Word https://qualla.com/balbriggan/ Around 1797 a stocking-frame industry took root in Balbriggan, and within a few decades the village was producing cotton stockings so fine they were marketed across Europe under the place name. By the 19th century Smith's Stocking Mill was knitting both stockings and men's underw...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/8/balbriggan-wp/gce8-balbriggan-the-stocking-that-made-the-word.mp3 0:06 4 full Balbriggan: The Sack of Balbriggan https://qualla.com/balbriggan/ On the night of 20 September 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, RIC Deputy Inspector Peter Burke was shot in a pub in Balbriggan. The killing triggered an immediate reprisal. Black and Tans - the British paramilitary force recruited mainly from First World War veterans i...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/8/balbriggan-wp/gce8-balbriggan-the-sack-of-balbriggan.mp3 0:06 5 full Balbriggan: The Commuter Town https://qualla.com/balbriggan/ The Drogheda-Dublin railway, which Lewis's 1837 directory predicted would pass close to the village, opened the Balbriggan station on 25 May 1844. The line - now the Belfast-Dublin Enterprise route - carries roughly 2,200 daily commuters today. The M1 motorway bypass opened in 19...

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]]> Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/e/8/balbriggan-wp/gce8-balbriggan-the-commuter-town.mp3 0:06 6 full