Qualla: Ballinasloe https://qualla.com/ballinasloe en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/p/ballinasloe-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ballinasloe https://qualla.com/ballinasloe Ballinasloe: Introduction https://qualla.com/ballinasloe/ Photo credit Sarah777 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. The Irish name is the giveaway: Béal Átha na Sluaighe, 'the ford-mouth of the crowds.' The river is the Suck, which forms the border between County Galway and County Roscommon. The crowd has been gathering here since before Ireland had a written language. Bronze Age sites are scattered through Garbally Demesne on the eastern edge of the town. A castle was built on the eastern bank of the Suck in the twelfth or early thirteenth century to control the crossing. Around it, in the early thirteenth century, Richard Mór de Burgh formally founded the town. Eight hundred years later, every October, 80,000 people still come to Ballinasloe for the horse fair that has run, more or less continuously, since the 1700s.

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Image: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/p/ballinasloe-wp/gc6p-ballinasloe-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ballinasloe: The Oldest Horse Fair in Europe https://qualla.com/ballinasloe/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Ballinasloe Horse Fair began in the eighteenth century—exact origin contested, but the 300th anniversary in 2022 fixes one plausible reckoning at 1722. For most of its history it was a major agricultural market: cattle, sheep, hops, hides. The horses came to dominate in the n...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/p/ballinasloe-wp/gc6p-ballinasloe-the-oldest-horse-fair-in-europe.mp3 0:06 2 full Ballinasloe: Famine and the Workhouse https://qualla.com/ballinasloe/ Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. A workhouse opened in Ballinasloe in 1842 at a cost of £9,500, designed for a maximum of 1,000 inmates. The 1851 census found 2,487 people inside—the institution at more than double its intended capacity in the closing phase of the Great Famine. A 64-bed fever hospital had to be ...

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Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/p/ballinasloe-wp/gc6p-ballinasloe-famine-and-the-workhouse.mp3 0:06 3 full Ballinasloe: The Canal and the Stout https://qualla.com/ballinasloe/ Photo credit Martin Dawes, CC BY-SA 2.0. From 1828 to the 1960s, Ballinasloe was the terminus of the Grand Canal—the great waterway that linked Dublin to the Shannon and made the Irish midlands navigable. The Guinness Company used the town's canal stores to hold and distribute its stout across Connacht, with the famous ...

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Image: Martin Dawes | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/p/ballinasloe-wp/gc6p-ballinasloe-the-canal-and-the-stout.mp3 0:06 4 full Ballinasloe: The Three Kings at Aughrim https://qualla.com/ballinasloe/ Photo credit Martin Dawes, CC BY-SA 2.0. Seven kilometres west of Ballinasloe lies Aughrim, where on 12 July 1691 the largest battle ever fought in Ireland brought together the armies of three rival European kings: William of Orange, James II, and Louis XIV (whose troops fought for James). The Battle of Aughrim killed a...

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Image: Martin Dawes | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/p/ballinasloe-wp/gc6p-ballinasloe-the-three-kings-at-aughrim.mp3 0:06 5 full Ballinasloe: Population, Place, Persistence https://qualla.com/ballinasloe/ Photo credit Jonathan Thacker, CC BY-SA 2.0. As of the 2022 census, 6,597 people lived in Ballinasloe, making it one of the largest towns in County Galway. The economy that once depended on cattle and canal barges now runs on hospitals (Portiuncula University Hospital, opened in 1943, still anchors the town), pharmaceutical...

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Image: Jonathan Thacker | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/6/p/ballinasloe-wp/gc6p-ballinasloe-population-place-persistence.mp3 0:06 6 full