Ballymacoda, Co.Cork

Site of former alley on Ballymacoda fairgreen, Co. Cork. Photographed by Á. Ryan in July 2023 and in October 2011 At the north end of the fairgreen is the entrance to the former Ballymacoda Castle. The fairgreen was also connected by path to the Kilmacdonagh Churchyard (see OSI 1841 survey). Possibly a double back-to-back alley originally, one single alley remained until the 1980s. The alley had fallen out of use by the 1980s and the site was used to store sugarbeets while Irish sugar factories were still in operation (Tuam closed in 1986, Thurles in 1989, Carlow 2005 and Mallow in 2006). Having become " a kip" (words of local person encounted at site), in the 1990s the local county council decided to turn the site into playing fields. Memorial plaques and memorial trees were erected to members of the United Irishmen hung for killing governement spy in 1798 (plaque erected in 1998) and to the centenariy the 1916 Uprising respectively.