Ballyclare

Ballyclare (Bealach Cláir in Irish) is a small town in the Six Mile Valley, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. People have lived here for five thousand years. Invaders included Vikings and Normans. At the same time as the Pilgrim Fathers landed in America it was finally settled by Scots planters. Jonathan Swift preached here and it was from here the families of Mark Twain, Sam Houston and General Alexander Macomb left for America.

Archibald McIlroy's novel "When Lint Was In The Bell" is a light-hearted, lightly fictionalized chronicle of life in 19th-century Ballyclare.

See also: List of towns in Northern Ireland