Ballysadare (), locally also Ballisodare, is a town in County Sligo, Ireland. It is about south of Sligo town. The town developed on an important crossing of the Owenmore River. Ballysadare is in a townland and civil parish of the same name. Ballysodare appears to been used for the railway station and there is evidence of its use on a map of 1887 and indexing of parish registers at the National Library of Ireland.
Early history
Ballysadare is a possible location for the town noted as Nagnata on Claudius Ptolemy's 2nd century CE co-ordinate map of the world. Ballysadare was anciently a major gathering place for all surrounding districts.
St. Columba visited Ballysadare in 575 AD at which "Before the Saint (Columba) returned to Britain he founded one church in the district of Carbury, and proceeded from thence to a place called Easdara, where all the prelates of the neighbouring regions, and vast numbers of holy men and women had come to meet him ; and, to say nothing of the rest of the multitude, which was almost beyond counting, a great many distinguished saints of the race of Cumne are recorded to have been present." This extract is from Colgans Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae.
The O'Hara were the lords of Lúighne.
Saint Féichín
St Féichín was born in the townland of Billa in the parish of Ballysadare. He is said to have studied under St. Nath Í of Achonry further to the south in the same territory. The word Bile means a sacred tree or grove. The townland is the location of the Leaba St. Féichín or St. Feichins bed. The town developed near a church founded by St. Féichín, some time before he died in 664 AD (O’Rorke 1878, 1–4).This monastic site is in Kilboglashy townland and the remains consist of a stone church known as the Great Temple of St. Féichín (Teampal mór Féichín), with a later Romanesque style carved doorway, two small buildings and a graveyard. The O'Duillenain, were erenachs of Ballysadare.
The Canons Regular of St. Augustine built a new priory a short distance to the west in Abbeytown Townland in the 13th century.
Ballysadare was mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters 15 times between 1158 and 1602, in 1188, 1199, 1228, 1230, 1235, 1239, 1249, 1261, 1267, 1285, 1360, 1444, 1595 and 1602. In 1360, the Annals of the Four Masters note: A bridge of lime and stone was built by Cathal O’Conor across the river of Eas-dara. In 1588, all monastery lands around Ballysadare were seized by the Dublin Castle government on behalf of the Crown.
Mines
Ballysadare is the site of an ancient silver and lead mine, re-opened and worked in the 19th and 20th century. It is now the site of a quarry.
Recent history
thumb|Modern apartment development
Ballysadare was the location of a Pollexfen Mills, since demolished. There is also a hydro electric power station in the vicinity.
The area experienced rapid development during the 'Celtic Tiger' boom, with the population almost trebling in the period between the 1996 and 2022 census (from 612 to 1,747 people). During this period several new housing estates were developed, several of which subsequently remained empty, creating ghost estates.