| Bellanagare Béal Átha na gCarr
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| — Town — | |
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Bellanagare
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Connacht |
| County | County Roscommon |
| Elevation | 60 m (197 ft) |
| Time zone | WET (UTC+0) |
| • Summer (DST) | IST (WEST) (UTC-1) |
| Irish Grid Reference | M745876 |
Bellanagare (Irish: Béal Átha na gCarr, meaning "ford-mouth of the carts"[1]) is a village in County Roscommon, Ireland. The N5 national primary road passes through it as of 2008[update], though a by-pass is planned. The village is located between Tulsk and Frenchpark on the Dublin to Castlebar/Westport road.
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The O'Conor Don ancestral lands were in County Roscommon centred on Clonalis House near Castlerea. Alexander O'Conor Don died in 1820 without male heirs and the title was inherited by the O'Conors of Bellanagare. Some members of the O'Conor family of Bellanagare were distinguished antiquarians, see the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. In 1828 O'Conor Don of Belanagar was a member of the Grand Panel of county Roscommon. At the time of Griffith's Valuation, Charles Owen O'Conor was one of the principal lessors in the parishes of Kilcorkey and Kilkeevin, barony of Castlereagh. In the 1870s the O'Conor of Clonalis estate amounted to over 12,000 acres (49 km2) in county Roscommon with another 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) in county Sligo. At the same time Dennis O'Connor of Kingstown, county Dublin, brother of the O'Conor Don held 751 acres (3.04 km2) in county Roscommon and 287 in county Meath. In 1879 Charles Owen O'Conor offered for sale lands at Drimina, barony of Lyney, county Sligo. By March 1916 a final offer from the Congested Districts' Board for 1,368 acres (5.54 km2) belonging to Charles W. O'Conor, nephew of Charles Owen O'Conor Don had been accepted. A similar acreage (1,382) the estate of his mother Ellen I. O'Conor was vested in the Congested Districts' Board on 10 Feb 1916. The estate and family records are still held at Clonalis House. See www.clonalis.com for more information.
Bellanagare was the home of the O'Conor family including the well-known historian Charles O'Conor. He later built Hermitage House some distance away and Bellanagare Castle is now in ruins.
Built by Charles O'Conor (1710-1790) the antiquarian and head of the family circa 1760. His great great grandson Charles O'Conor was leasing the property at Ballaghcullia, valued at £10, to Honoria O'Conor at the time of Griffith's Valuation. In 1749 the Census of Elphin records Denis O'Conor as being of "Ballinagar". The house at Hermitage is still extant though not occupied and a modern bungalow has been constructed in front of it.
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage