Belleeks has a Gaelic Athletic Club, Laurence O'Toole's (Cumann Lorcáin Uí Thuathail), which competes in underage and senior men's and ladies' football as well Scor and other Armagh GAA competitions.

The area in which Belleeks is situated has been populated for many thousands of years but contains less in terms of easily discernible pre-historic remains than is widely evident in other parts of south County Armagh.

The area which was to become the village was held in the estates of Hugh Boy O'Hanlon in 1641, one of the few Catholic gentry retaining substantial landholdings in County Armagh following the Plantation of Ulster, prior to the Rising of that year.

Prior to the Irish Land Acts, the Earls of Gosford retained a large Deerpark on the outskirts of the village, whose impressive 18th century walls still bound the settlement to the east.

[7] During the 19th century, however, the settlement acted as the commercial centre for the surrounding region, with residents of outlying districts and nearby villages bringing butter, cheese, and other produce to Belleeks for sales and export to Belfast, and beyond.