Ballinafad
village in Sligo, Ireland
Ballinafad (Irish: Béal an Átha Fada, meaning 'mouth of the long ford') is a village in the south of County Sligo in the west of Ireland. The village overlooks Lough Arrow, and is itself overlooked by the ruins of Ballinafad Castle. The Most Rev. Dr John Healy, Lord Archbishop of Tuam from 1903 to 1918, was also born and raised in Ballinafad.
Ballinafad is in the south of the Barony of Tirerrill. There is also a village called Ballinafad in County Galway, and a large house called Ballinafad House in County Mayo which featured on The Great House Revival on RTÉ in 2018.
“Ballinafad” enters the record as village in Sligo, Ireland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ballinafad, village and Sligo can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ballinafad” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ballinafad, village and Sligo provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1863414. Authority coordinates are 54.028, -8.337. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1903, 1918 and 2018.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ballinafad”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ballinafad primary sources, Ballinafad archive and Ballinafad research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ballinafad”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ballinafad” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.