BallySteen

St. Patrick's Church

St. Patrick's Church, BallySteen was built in 1860, some 10 years after St. Mary's Church, Askeaton.

The site for the church and the school beside it was donated by the Earl of Dunraven who was then the owner of the whole Townland of Ballinvoher, in which the church stands.

St. Patrick's Church is built of BallySteen limestone, quarried locally, and consists of a nave and chancel. it runs east-west with the belfry, surmounted by a cross, at the western end and the sacristy at the eastern end. Formerly there was also a limestone cross on the roof at the eastern end, but this was blown down in a storm and never replaced.

Before the building of the new church in its present site, the BallySteen 'chapel'  was a thatched building, capable of accommodating four hundred people located in Moloney's  field near Culhane's cross. This was built in 1799 and was a notable building in its time.

Beagh church & Castle

In the Townland of Beagh are the ruins of an old church of which the walls are almost perfect with the exception of the southern part of the east gable. which is slightly damaged.

We can safely assume that the church on Beagh hill was the local parish church for Iverus (BallySteen) in pre-reformation days. A previous bishop of limerick had earlier bestowed Beagh and some other churches under his control on kenysham, of course there were lands going with there churches which made ownership of them profitable.

This bestowal of churches and church lands in Ireland on their counterparts in England was a common practice of the early Norman invaders.

Beagh cemetery is situated with a clear view of the river Shannon, there is and old tradition in BallySteen that a secret underground passage links Beagh church to Beagh castle about a half a mile away, this has not been proven.

Though Beagh castle may be of Danish origin, it was rebuilt by the knight of Glin around the year 1260 and was one of his fortified castles for several hundred years.

The BallySteen Silver mine

The BallySteen silver mine is marked on the older ordnance survey maps. It was located in part of the Westropp estate known as the "mine field" in the Townland of Ballycanana.

The shaft was sunk into a rich pocket of metallic ore, including silver, in a "lode" that ran east and west. the main shaft was 106 feet deep and there were also shallow diggings extending nearly five hundred feet in length.

the mine was operated by Edmund O'Dell - Westropp early in the 19th century. by 1838, however, when the geologist, Weaver, was writing, it had been worked out and abandoned.

The story is told locally that one day, when the miners stopped work for their mid-day dinner break, they felt so thirsty that they retired en-masse to the local tavern at BallySteen. during their absence the mine shaft caved in and the collapse was so great the Mr. Westropp decided to abandon it.

PIRATES AT BALLYSTEEN   

Around 9.00p.m. on a Summer's night in 1847 a large sailboat was beclamed and at anchor just off BallySteen. it was the property of a timothy mulcahy of ballylongford and that day had picked up a cargo of flour in limerick city.

while at her moorings a boat put out from the shore which soon came alongside and, having made fast to the flour smack, six armed men jumped on board and cried out "we want your meal and will have it".

there were only two men and a boy on deck who were ordered down. the flour was then plundered and loaded onto their boat which was said to be worth about "seventy pounds".

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