Tom Ruane Park — Attraction in County Mayo

Lovely park. On the Sligo road in Ballina in North Mayo is the Municipal Park dedicated to the memory of one Tom Ruane,  but do the younger generations realise who he was?

Tom played a significant role in the life of the nation and the town in the 20th Century from the early days of the Revolution to the affairs of the new State.

He came from Castle Road, Ballina where he was born in 1894 to a family of painters; he himself would become a house painter’s assistant and a draper in later life. He was an Irish volunteer and Commandant of the Ballina brigade or battalion in the 1917 to 1918 period when he was imprisoned in Sligo Gaol for illegal drilling at Gurteen cross on the Crossmolina road in March 1918. He held the rank of Battalion Commandant until the formation of the North Mayo Brigade in September 1920 when he was appointed O/C. He was captured in Late November 1920 in a round up following the events of Bloody Sunday in Dublin and interned in Ballykinlar camp in Co. Down after having spent time incarcerated in Galway Gaol. He was released in January 1922 after the ratification of the Treaty.

He took a full and active part in the Civil war and was O/C during the Civil war along with Seamas Kilcullen from Corballa. He took part in the takeover of Ballina in September 1922 under the command of Michael Kilroy and was seriously wounded at Glenamoy a few days later. He was nursed back to recovery but was captured and interned for a short period until his escape and he was O/C North Mayo brigade during 1923. He was a member of the standing committee of the 4th Western Division and also a member of the Army Council of the Volunteers and he was at the Knockmealdon Mountains meeting of the Council when the Chief of Staff Liam Lynch was shot and fatally wounded in April 1923.

He was one of the founding members of the Fianna Fail Cumann in Ballina in 1926. Ruane was elected to the Ballina Urban District Council in the local elections of May 1920 representing Sinn Fein. It was Tom who suggested at a meeting of the Urban District Council in 1922 that the street names in Ballina be called after patriots from the area and beyond who gave their lives for Ireland and this was accepted and the process begun. It is fitting then that the park be named after him.

Tom reached a further phase in his political life in 1934 when he joined the Free State Senate and he was on the Board of Mayo VEC also and played football for Mayo and was a member of the County Board GAA. He served in the senate for some 26 and half years from the 6th December 1934 to the 28th April 1965. Tom Ruane was also responsible for a good number of the housing developments in the town places like Healy Terrace and Morrison terrace and the housing developments in the west of the town at Lord Edward Street and Ferran Terrace. Tom was also a founding member of the Ballina Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Mayo Board of Health and a member of the Moy Harbour Commissioners.

Tom Ruane died on the 7th June 1969 and his large funeral was attended and addressed by An Taoiseach Jack Lynch, T.D. whilst he was on the election campaign in North Mayo at the time. Mr. Lynch paid tribute to Tom Ruane for his work at local and national level. The Tom Ruane Fianna Fail Cumman was named in his honour in the town and then there was Tom Ruane Memorial Park a fitting tribute to one who lived a life of service to the area and the country both as an active Volunteer and...

Is Tom Ruane Park what this place is called? Who would ever know? I had no idea who he was till I saw another reviewer has given the info. No signage, no seats, just a kind of car park with a barrier across an unnecessarily wide bland road that leads towards Breaffy Castle I think. It's not exactly a park here, more a wide road beside a river that has a decided smell of sewage and dangerous inaccessible banks. I see most reviews refer to a children's playground - I never saw any but then I wasn't looking for one. I had my dog and wanted to throw a ball for her to fetch - the banks are too steep and the river edges so weedy and dangerous it was not an easy task. It should be a pleasant place, the river bank has half of its grass cut, but it just isn't. I see no wildlife, not a single waterbird on the river here, it's all very dead. I came here to relax as I had a few hours to wait before collecting something in Ballina but without any benches to sit on or anything nice about it, I soon got fed up and went off to Lidl instead. The Lidl car parks have some nice landscaping, some interesting plants and flowers. There is nothing friendly, relaxing or nice about this 'park'. No flowers, no shrubs, no seats, little of interest and that dodgy smell .........!! It has a slight feeling of menace about it - a dangerous feeling, definitely unwelcoming for both man and dog! I felt that if they ever put seats here, they would probably be immediately vandalised. Very few people and those I did see were not in a friendly mood despite the glorious sunshine. It could and should be a nice place, it just...

This is a particularly attractive public park within east walking distance from the town centre. There is adequate off-road parking too for those who prefer to drive there. It has something for all ages - plenty of kiddies swings, climbing frames, even a zip wire!!, and so on. There are tennis courts, a basketball court and a netball court too. There are spacious green areas with loads of trees and paths and there are two viewing areas looking directly onto the river Moy. A delightful place in...