Bullaun, County Galway

Bullaun (Irish: An Ballán) is a village in east County Galway, Ireland. It lies 6 km northeast of Loughrea on the R350 regional road. It shares its parish with a village called New Inn.

There are many ancient land features scattered throughout the village, as exemplified by placenames such as Ballyara and Turoe. The townland of Lakafinna, to the South of Bullaun, contains an old castle and the local water scheme. It is local folklore that an unused tunnel exists between this castle and close to a house in Ballyara formerly of Paddy Finnerty. There is also a river which flows through Bullaun which used to have vast quantities of fresh water salmon of high quality. A well known place for fishing this quality fish was down behind Mick Brophys turf shed. There are no salmon there nowadays as over fishing and pollution has caused them to be virtually extinct in East Galway.

Bullaun had its own yearly festival called the "tribes of the Village". This was a number of events which all contribute towards the eventual winner. The last few years produced some close finishes between the "Gorta boys" and the "Bally boys". In the past teams such as the "Carra boys" and the "Benmore boys" were victorious but have been shy of success since the turn of the millennium.

The village also contains St.Patrick's church, a pub called the Harbour Bar and is home to the Turoe stone.The village is well-known for its hurling as it played its part with new-inn in the two time All-Ireland succes with sarsfields in 1993 and 1994. It is home to one of the greatest hurlers of all time Joe Cooney who won five All-stars. The club also has 3 other All-star winners in Joe's brother Jimmy, Michael "hopper" McGrath and Padraig Kelly.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland