Ballylongford (historically Bealalongford, from Irish: Béal Átha Longfoirt, meaning 'ford-mouth of anchorage')[2] is a village near Listowel in northern County Kerry, Ireland.

For centuries, Ballylongford shared the political, military and religious fate of the castle and the nearby Franciscan Lislaughtin Abbey.

[9] The castle, now a listed National Monument, stands 100 feet (almost 30 m) high and its battlements provide views of the estuary and the monastic Scattery Island in County Clare.

The O'Connors of Kerry held political sway from this strategic base which allowed them to "inspect" ships passing to and from the port of Limerick.

[9][10] The Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle by Elizabethan forces under Lord Justice Sir William Pelham began on Palm Sunday.

Towards the end of the Nine Years War, taking advantage of the distraction of the English, Chieftain John O'Connor briefly re-occupied the castle only to be put out again in 1603 by George Carew, the Governor of Munster.

[citation needed] The village in its present form dates from the end of the eighteenth century, though a bridge over the ford existed long before then.

Photographs taken at the turn of the century show the village to have been largely made up of thatched houses, but many of these were burned by the Black and Tans during the War of Independence.

Constructed in 1940, it is the only such fortification built by the Irish Defence Forces during World War II, termed the Emergency in Ireland.