Ballinamore (Irish: Béal an Átha Móir, meaning "mouth of the big ford")[3] is a small town in the south-east of County Leitrim in Ireland.

The gaels called the baile Átha na Chuirre ("homestead of ford of the afflictions") because a hospital-house stood near the bridge in the 13th century.

[7] In 1621, the name 'Ballinamore' is first mentioned, when under the Plantation of Leitrim, the "Manor of Ballinamore" was granted to Sir Fenton Parsons with 600 acres (2.4 km2) of arable land.

At the Yellow River ford, today's bridge into the Main Street, the soldiers vandalised the nearby Hospital of Saint John the Baptist, accidentally killing one of their own,[a 2] an important leader of Clann Murtagh O'Connor named Mhaghnusa mic Muircertaig Muimnigh.

[16][17][18] Irish: "Do imdhigh in slúag iarsin ass an mbaile amach, ... co h-Ath na Cuirre forsan nGeircthigh, & do bhí an tuile tar bruachaib di, & ni rancotar tairrsi condernsat tech sbidél Eoin Baisde do bhái a nimeal in átha do scaoiled, da chur tarsan abhuinn do dhul tairsi dont slúaig; condechaid mac Muircertaig Muimnigh, .i.

Maghnus, isin tech, & Concobar mac Cormaic Mic Diarmada; condubairt Maghnus risin bfer do bhí thúass ag scaoiled an tighe, ag sínshépe a cloidem uadha súas, agsin an tairrnge chongbhus an maide gan tuitim; leisin comrádh sin do thuit airrghe an tighe a gcend Mhaghnusa mic Muircertaig Muimnigh, gonderna brúligh día chinn, gur bhó marbh dhe ar an lathair sin" "English: The host went afterwards out of the town, ... to Ath-na-cuirre on the Geirctech; and the flood was over its banks, and they did not pass over it until they pulled down the hospital-house of John the Baptist, which was on the margin of the ford, to place it across the river, that the host might pass over it.

[19] [text: Annals of Lough Ce https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100010A/text010.html][19] In 1983, members of the Provisional IRA kidnapped Quinnsworth managing director Don Tidey, holding him captive in Derrada Woods, outside of the town.

[21][22][23][24][25] Historians believe local Sinn Féin politician John Joe McGirl assisted the kidnappers in holding Tidey at the location.

[citation needed] There is a monument to the IRA Chief of Staff, TD, and local councillor John Joe McGirl[28] on an island on the Shannon-Erne Waterway.