Welcome to Frenchpark

A village with deep roots and a growing community spirit.
This site is built by local volunteers and serves Frenchpark and the wider community, including Fairymount, Tibohine, and surrounding townlands.

About Us

Frenchpark is a village in north County Roscommon, located in the middle of the ancient land between Rathcroghan and Lough Gara. Once the seat of the DeFreyne family and home to Douglas Hyde, the first President of Ireland, the village carries a long and important history.Today, Frenchpark is a close-knit community with active clubs, parish life, and a growing interest in celebrating our local area. This site is volunteer-led and is the place to share upcoming local events & classes, highlight our businesses & groups, and spread the word of our rich heritage - created by and for Frenchpark.

Local Directory

Our website is new.

We’re building a simple directory of Frenchpark’s clubs, groups, and businesses. From shops and services to sports and parish life — this directory will help neighbours connect and visitors know more about our area.

Want to be included? Just get in touch here.

Events

and Announcements

This page shares news, activities, and updates from across the Frenchpark community. From club meetings to local fundraisers, cultural events, or public notices, it’s a central space for keeping informed about what’s happening in the area.Listings are free for all community groups, organisations, and residents. To submit an event or announcement, please use the form on our Contact page.

Our local History

The village of Frenchpark, or in Irish Dún Gar (the Fort of Favour) stands at a crossroads in north Roscommon, but its history stretches far beyond its size. From prehistoric ritual landscapes to the struggles of the Land Wars and reform, Frenchpark’s story mirrors and deeply contributes to the wider story of Ireland — a place shaped by faith, power, hardship, and resilience.Archaeology tells us that people have lived here since at least since the Bronze Age. Fulachtaí fia, ringforts, souterrains, and standing stones are scattered through the surrounding fields and bogs. Just to the south east lies Rathcroghan, the royal seat of Connacht, and to the north lies the ancient Lough Gara - making Frenchpark part of one of the island’s most important ceremonial landscapes. This was a place where myths were told, rituals performed, and communities rooted themselves for millennia. The area is even named as the site of the final battle resulting from the Táin Bó Cúailnge.With the coming of Christianity, the area became known as Crích Enna Airtigh. Cloonshanville, on the edge of Frenchpark and mentioned in the Life of St Cormac as founded by a Bishop Connedus under St Patrick's direction, was a sacred site from early times and by 1385 housed a Dominican friary under the patronage of the MacDermot lords. Even after its official suppression in the 16th century, friars kept the faith alive here for generations, ministering quietly to the people of Airtigh. The ruined tower and chancel that remain are silent witnesses to centuries of devotion and upheaval.The upheaval came hardest in the 17th century. Gaelic lordship collapsed under Tudor and Cromwellian conquest, and lands across Roscommon were confiscated. Into this new order came the French family, merchants from Galway who built their house at Dún Gar in the 1660s on the site of Dún Gar Castle. From this seat, the family reshaped the parish: building markets, sponsoring fairs, and turning Frenchpark into a recognised centre of trade. Their estate, among the largest in Connacht, became renowned for its cattle and dairy, drawing merchants from Sligo and beyond.The 18th and 19th centuries were years of both prosperity and hardship. The estate prospered, but tenants lived with uncertainty. The Great Famine hit Frenchpark hard: hunger, fever, and emigration left their mark. Yet even amid such loss, seeds of renewal were planted. Douglas Hyde, who grew up here in the 1860s and 70s, learned Irish from local farmers and storytellers. From these lanes and fields he carried a love of language that would help fuel the Gaelic Revival and lead him to the Presidency of Ireland. Even after assuming the presidency, he always considered Frenchpark home.As the century closed, unrest grew. Tenants resisted rack-rents and demanded the right to own the land they worked. In the early 1900s, rent strikes on the de Freyne estate brought Frenchpark into international headlines. The struggle here was part of the wider Land War that reshaped rural Ireland and became a flashpoint for lasting change. With the Wyndham Land Act of 1903, spurred in part by the de Freyne strikes, the great estate was finally broken up, its lands purchased by the Congested Districts Board and redistributed to local families.

Frenchpark entered the 20th century transformed. The French family eventually sold their remaining estate, the great house was dismantled and sold piece by piece, and many of the village’s older buildings fell into ruin. But the history they represent is far from forgotten. From prehistoric mounds to monastic ruins, from fairs and markets to political rallies, this has always been a place where the wider story of Ireland is written small and local. Today, community efforts, heritage groups, and online projects continue that tradition — keeping the past visible, and giving it back to the village it belongs to.

For more information on our local history:Frenchpark Historical SocietyWikipediaLiving Thread of Dún Gar

Resources

This page gathers useful information for Frenchpark and the wider community — from local services and support contacts to practical guides and links. It is intended as a reference point for residents and will be updated regularly as new material becomes available.If you know of a resource that would benefit the community, please get in touch through the Contact page to have it included.

Types of resources to be added:

Contact

Listings for local businesses, clubs, and events are free of charge. Submissions are published in a simple, consistent format and updated regularly by volunteers. If your details change, just send us a note — updates or removals can be made at any time.

Submission Guidelines

Who Can Submit?
We welcome submissions from anyone in the Frenchpark area — including registered businesses, community clubs, and local organisations. Listings are intended to showcase established services and groups that contribute to village life. Please note we cannot publish informal or unregistered services.

Privacy & Consent
By submitting details for a business, club, or event, you consent to their publication on this website. Information will only be used for this purpose and will not be shared with third parties. Listings are managed by volunteers and can be updated or removed at your request at any time. To make a change, please contact us here or at [email protected]

About

This website is a volunteer-run initiative developed by the Frenchpark Community Alert Group.
In line with our objectives — crime prevention, neighbourliness, self-sufficiency, community safety and well-being, accident prevention, and the promotion of social inclusion — we’ve created this site to help strengthen those aims and keep residents informed and connected.Frenchpark is a wonderful, close-knit place to live — a village where people look out for one another. While we’re fortunate to enjoy a safe and peaceful community, the Community Alert scheme exists simply to help keep it that way: offering reassurance, connection, and a quick way to share information when needed. It’s not about alarm or worry, but about care, awareness, and peace of mind — supporting our neighbours, especially those who may be more vulnerable, and helping Frenchpark remain the kind, watchful village we’re all proud to call home.

Community alert text

Apart from select community projects such as this website, our primary function is running The Community Alert Text scheme: a simple, friendly way to stay informed and connected within our community. Run entirely by volunteers in partnership with An Garda Síochána, the scheme helps keep communication open, neighbours connected, and peace of mind close at hand.A small annual fee keeps the system running smoothly — helping Frenchpark remain the safe, caring, and well-connected village we’re proud to call home.

Privacy & Consent
By submitting your personal information to join the Community Alert Text Scheme, you consent to its use solely for this purpose. Your details will be handled securely and will not be shared with any third parties.
If you have any questions or concerns about how your information is used, please contact us using the form above or by email at [email protected].