BALLYMENA  , a

town of Co . Antrim, Ireland, in the mid parliamentary division, on the Braid, an affluent of the Maine, 2 M. above their junction . Pop. of urban district (,co,) 10,886 . It is 33 M . N.N.W. of Belfast on the Northern Counties (Midland) railway . Branch lines run to Larne and to Parkmore on the east coast . The town owes its prosperity chiefly to its linen trade, introduced in 1733, which gives employment to the greater part of the inhabitants . Brown linen is a specialty . Iron ore is raised in the neighbourhood . Antiquities in the neighbour-hood are few and the present buildings of Ballymena Castle and Galgorm Castle are modern . Gracehill, however, a Moravian settlement, was founded in 1746 .