Ballinrobe (Irish: Baile an Róba, meaning 'town of the (river) Robe')[2] is a town in County Mayo in Ireland.

[4] A Royal Patent granted to the people of Ballinrobe on 6 December 1606 by King James allowed the town to hold fairs and markets.

Obtaining a market charter was an important step in the economic development of a town and required having a spokesperson who was in the king's favour.

[7] The first court under the direct authority of the Dail sat at Ballinrobe, on 17 May 1920 and was reported with some pride in the national press.

He was the minister to both Ballinrobe and Partry for a number of years and was responsible for negotiating permission, with a Colonel Knox to construct St. Mary's Catholic Church on Main Street.

Vaitkus fought terrible weather conditions and was helped considerably by hourly broadcasts from an Irish radio station.

He knew that he could not make it to Kaunas in Lithuania due to his low fuel supply, and being exhausted after a 23-hour struggle fighting the elements, he felt it was best to land somewhere in Ireland.

When tested with dye, it was established its mother source was the Bulkaun River that runs through part of Ballinrobe town.

He leased the land on which the house was built from Colonel Charles Nesbit Knox of Castle Lack, County Mayo.

The ruin of the house is not open to the public due to its poor condition, but forest walks and fishing is possible on Lough Carra.

[citation needed] In 1698, it was the site of a Commission of Inquiry which among other things, relocated property from Catholic to Protestant landlords.

[21] Saint Mary's Catholic Church contains eight low light windows by Harry Clarke which were commissioned by Monsignor d'Alton in the autumn of 1924.

[22] Ballinrobe has one of the largest collections of Harry Clarke stained-glass panels in St. Mary's Church, with the first four inserted in 1924.

The windows form part of the Ballinrobe Heritage Walk which covers 30 historic sites in the town.

On 29 November 2019, a sculpture was unveiled by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring, which serves as a reminder of Ballinrobe's history.

The plaque beside the sculpture states the following:In the past, people from the country side put on their shoes / boots at this spot before walking into Ballinrobe.

In fact, this building is one horrible charnel house, the unfortunate paupers being nearly all the victims of a fearful fever, the dying and the dead, we might say, huddled together.

The master has become the victim of this dread disease; the clerks, a young man whose energies were devoted to the well-being of the union, has been added to the victims; the matron, too, is dead; and the respected, and esteemed physician has fallen before the ravages of pestilence, in his constant attendance on the diseased inmates.

This is the position of the Ballinrobe house, every officer swept away, while the number of deaths among the inmates is unknown; and we forgot to add that the Roman Catholic chaplain is also dangerously ill of the same epidemic.

Now the Ballinrobe board have complied with the Commissioner's orders, in admitting a houseful of paupers and in striking a new rate, which cannot be collected; while the unfortunate inmates, if they escape the awful epidemic, will survive only to be the subjects of a lingering death by starvation!Ninety-six people died in just one week in April 1849.

In 1922, during the Irish Civil War, a great deal of the structure was burned, although the main portion remains to this day.

[citation needed] Ballinrobe railway station opened on 1 November 1892, the terminus of a branch line from Claremorris.

The station closed to passengers on 1 June 1930, but remained open for goods traffic, particularly livestock, until final closure on 1 January 1960.

[30] Flanagan Park, which has a floodlit pitch, is the home of Ballinrobe Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) club.

The World Cup fishing competition takes place each year at the August bank holiday weekend.