Beginning at Ballentra or Ballentrave where the Shannon bursts forth from Lough Allen Ballentra is in the townland of Mahana. Thomas Callaghan of Dowra Road Drumshanbo says that the old people divided the townland into three parts
Ballentra the northern portion
Cornageerac the western portion on the banks of the Shannon (The final sound of CornaGEER is like the sound of Beer + ac).
and Mahana the eastern part on the shores of Lough Allen.

The French crossed the Shannon at Ballentra in 1798. The Bridge has long since disappeared.
John Mahon a blind man living beside Ballentra says he heard his grandfather say that the old bridge was a very heavy and high construction.
There was only one arch over the old Shannon. The parapets were six feet high and three or four feet in thickness. On each parapit was an opening or blind door as he called it where a man could