Local Roads
Tavanagh Road which is east of this school is 1,000 years old. It leads from Bohola to Balla. It was the only approach to Balla from this direction until the famine years when the Prizon Rd. running from Ballyvary to Balla was made.
It was on the Tavanagh Road that funerals went to Balla. The coffins were carried on ropes. This road is still used.
Beside this road there were many boreens, which were very very bad namely:- the bun-buide boreen
Drum Machra "
Tavanagh "
Prizon "
Cregg "
There was no boreen on the Comderra mountain except the bed of the mountain stream when it ran dry.
People used to cross the river by means of "Clocháns". A crowd of men would get together and place big boulders in the shallowest part of the river. There is such a clochán across Sean- Muileann over near the ruined prison. People were often drowned crossing such stones in bad weather and would be found clinging to the stones with "greim na fir báidhte".
Cross-roads. People had to pay a little tax at the cross-roads which went towards the upkeep of the roads.
Leachta: If ever a person was killed or died by the road-side or in the field people passing the way used to take a stone and put it on the spot, in this manner the leachtaí grew. There is one Loryhill, Straidhe barony of Gallen and one in Bun- buide in Balla parish.
“INFORMANT: Patsy Ansbro, Age 84, Address, Prison, Balla Co. Mayo”