Heywood Gardens, Ballinakill.

BALLINAKILL AC COMPETITION  SUNDAY 9TH 2000
Dry but cold, blustery weather prevailed for the Ballinakill members competition on gillspond on Sunday last with the usual good
turnout of competitions at this new well documented Angling waters in the county of Laois if not even the Midlands. Two competitors shared the first prize Carol Woodhouse Image Triana, Naas and Mark Ring, Stradbally, 3rd Seamus Martin Image Triana
Dublin, 4th Joe Delaney Abbeyleix and 4th Sean McEvoy, Ballyroan. Next compitition takes place on Easter Sunday 23rd and this event is sponsored by Guinness. The Draw takes place at 12 noon in drurys pub fishing from 1-6pm.
                                                                                BALLINAKILL LAKES
Ballinakill is a small village located in the midland County of Laois in Ireland.  First impressions on your approach is that of any small sleepy village but as they say in Ballinakill, it's the lasting impressions  that matter. A short drive or walk around its three lakes will endear you to the natural beauty that brings visitors from all over the world to this scenic spot.  Ballinakill Angling Club was founded in 1999 but only after locals had observed the destruction caused by visitors who were taking large Pike out of the Mass Lough. Sadly, in the end they took them all.  The Mass Lough was the top fishing lake in Ballinakill before "catch and return" became a phrase that those who destroyed it were accustomed to. For those who went to school in Ballinakill in the fifties and sixties the only "speed" and "ecstasy" was the quickness of getting there and the joy and rapture when you got into a large pike with a cane and cat gut on a knitting spool.

The Mass Lough or Masslough was so called because of its island which is a central feature and in what were known as "Penal" days, (when a priest would be shot for saying mass) it was common for the priest to provide his service from the refuge of an island.  I am not sure if this ever happened in Ballinakill but there are plenty of people around who will tell you that it did.

By now visitors to this page will be thinking that you have been duped into something that is not about angling at all.  I am sorry, it is just not possible to relate anything about Ballinakill without describing its history and its people, or should I say, its characters.  The imortal words of William Butler Yeats  when he penned the line  "there is no such thing as strangers, only friends who never met" 
still ring loud and clear in Ballinakill. All are welcome here.  
                                        GILL'S POND
We are being modest when we say "Gill's Pond" because it is in fact a nice sized lake containing nice sized fish, and no, it wasn't named after one of their gills, it was named after an old woman who lived in a gate lodge type house at the entrance to the lake.   The lake contains good sized roach and perch and some fine tench up to three pounds in weight.  The angling club is by no means restricted to local residents and annual membership can be obtained from as little as £3 up to a maximum of £10 per annum.  Of course if you feel like donating £20 then that is fine as well.   The Lake has just undergone a major overhaul.  It has been cleaned and had all its banks landscaped with proper facilities provided to assure you of an excellent days fishing.

                                                               MASS LOUGH
The Mass Lough is one of the most beautiful and scenic lakes in the country.  No doubt when the Fisheries Board and the people of Laois come to appreciate the wonderful achievements and the subsequent enjoyment that has been provided at Gill's Pond, they and the Tourist Board along with the politicians and indeed the people of Ballinakill will see fit to restore the Mass Lough as well.

The skyline of most towns and villages throughout Ireland are renowned for their church spires.  Ballinakill is unusual in that both the Catholic and Protestant churches are built side by side on practically the same grounds.  The town is overlooked by Ballymartin Hill from where Cromwell fired a few cannons on his march along Cromwell's Pass. The laneway beside Drury's Pub is called Brewery lane so even in the early days the boys from Ballinakill were taking no chances with regard to having a regular supply of Porter.  Drury's is now the only pub in Ballinakill that has remained in the family name. 

The Story of "The One That Got Away" can never be told properly unless you are in a real good pub.  Pictured above are Michael Drury, (Left) Drury's Pub, and Chairman of Ballinakill Angling Club along with Mr Paddy Delany, Delany's Pub at the first senior competition of the new millennium.  The above picture has prompted me to instigate a competition between Drury's Pub and Delany's Pub with a live broadcast to both locations where bets can be placed on the bar counters for overall winner, first pub to catch a fish and of course the inevitable "hooley" afterwards.