Ballyspitteen was a city in Ireland where the Shrine of Saint Floradora was located before it was demolished (Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies, 83).
Inspiration[]
Many Irish place names begin with "bally" (or "baile", Gaelic for a place where people live)[1]; add to that the Gaelic diminutive ending "-ín" which is usually spelled "-een" in English. As for what comes in between, we assume Bellairs is playing with an echo of spittoon.