Ballyconnell (Irish: Béal Átha Conaill, meaning 'entrance to the ford of Conall')[2] is a town in County Cavan, Ireland.

The ford was caused by silt and gravel washed down from the nearby Slieve Rushen mountain by the Tanyard Stream, which flows into the Grainne about 20 yards upriver from Ballyconnell Bridge on the western outskirts of the town.

[citation needed] The earliest inhabitants lived by fishing, hunting wild game and foraging for berries and nuts.

[citation needed] In ancient times, Ballyconnell lay on the eastern part of Magh Slécht named Maigin ("the little plain"), so called because it was a narrow strip bounded on the north by Slieve Rushen mountain and on the south by the River Graine.

Ballyconnell was situated in one of the ballybetoes of Tullyhaw named Calmhagh (Calva), which basically means almost the same as Maigin, the narrow plain.

As it was on the border between Fermanagh and Breifne, Ballyconnell was a flash-point for the wars between the Maguires, O'Rourkes, O'Reillys, McGoverns, McKiernans and their allies.

[8] About 1606, Captain Richard Tyrrell, of Tyrrellspass Castle, County Westmeath, bought the Derryginny and Snugborough parts of the Calva ballybetagh from Cormac Magauran.

However, in the launching of the Plantation of Ulster in 1609, Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, allowed Talbot to keep his estate as he had begun bringing in settlers and building houses.

Culme and Walter Talbot, there are 3 or 4 handsome Irish houses by them built, and some provision made towards the building of a castle in a most convenient place for occasions of service, being near a special ford or passage, by which in times past that county was much infested.

In 1617 Connor and Terence O'Sheridan were granted a licence to make and sell spirituous liquors in Balliconnell and throughout Tullagha barony.

[18] By 1619 Pynnar's Survey of Land Holders found that Talbot had built a strong defensive wall called a bawn, which was a square measuring 100 feet (30 m) along each side and 12 ft high, with two flanking towers.

Within the bawn was erected a strong castle of lime and stone three stories high which "stands in a very good and convenient place for the strength and service of the country".

[19] In August 1622 another survey found that- Walter Talbot has 1,500 acres called Ballyconnell, upon which there is builded a strong castle of stone and lyme, with two flanckers at each cross corner.

This castle and ye flanckers are three stories and a half high and standeth in a very good place and convenient for the strength and defence of that parte of the country which is an obscure and bordering corner of the countie.

[23] Gwyllym's name first appears in the area as the owner of the Ballyconnell Estate in the 1652 Commonwealth Survey and as a Commissioner (Thomas Guilliams) for the 1654 Assessment of Tax.

In 1687 they built an extension to Ballyconnell Castle at a cost of £500 but when King James II came to the throne of England on 6 February 1685, the Catholics began to take power and in 1688 they occupied Ballyconnell Castle and burned it to the ground, causing the Gwyllyms to go and live in Cloverhill (also known as Drumcassidy), County Cavan, until the war was over.

[30] The estate was split up amongst different purchasers including George Roe (who bought Ballyconnell House, a few houses in the village and a few townlands including Annagh, Corranierna and part of Rakeelan) and The 4th Earl Annesley (who purchased the townlands of Carrowmore, Gortoorlan, Moher, Mullanacre and Snugborough).

In the Cavan Poll Book of 1761, there were twenty people registered to vote in Ballyconnell in the Irish general election, 1761.

[31] Another well-known family in the town were the Benisons of Mount Pleasant and Slieve Russell who owned a flax mill in Ballyconnell.

[33] Correspondence from the Benisons to Lord Belmore about the weather and farming in Ballyconnell and Fermanagh around 1900 is viewable on the PRONI website.

[34][failed verification] An 1835 statistical report on Ballyconnell and Tomregan by Lieutenant Greatorex on behalf of the Ordnance Survey is in the PRONI.

After an incident in which two civilians were shot dead in Ballyconnell by the anti-Treaty IRA in February 1923, a large Irish Free State column was sent to the area to suppress the republican guerrillas operating in the nearby Arigna Mountains, leading to further loss of life and disruption until the ceasefire of May 1923.

[40] Bus Éireann local route 465 serves the town on Tuesdays only providing a link to Cavan, Arvagh, Ballinagh, Killeshandra and Carrigallen.

Tourism is an important part of the town's economy with cabin cruisers using it as a stopping place when navigating the Shannon-Erne Waterway.

In the 18th century lead, silver, coal, limestone, granite, marble, gravel, sand and iron were all mined from Slieve Rushen mountain.