New Inn is a village in the barony

Barony (Ireland)

In Ireland, a barony is a historical subdivision of a county. They were created, like the counties, in the centuries after the Norman invasion, and were analogous to the hundreds into which the counties of England were divided. In early use they were also called cantreds...

 of Middle Third

Middle Third (South Tipperary)

Middle Third is one of the baronies of Ireland, a historical geographical unit of land. Its chief town is Cashel. It is one of 14 baronies in the old county of Tipperary between Eliogarty to the north , Iffa and Offa East to the south , Clanwilliam to the west and...

, South Tipperary

South Tipperary

South Tipperary is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Munster. It is named after the town of Tipperary and consists of 52% of the land area of the traditional county of Tipperary. The county was established in 1898 and has had a county...

 in Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. It is also part of the parish

Parish

A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

 of New Inn & Knockgraffon in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly

The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly is a Roman Catholic archdiocese in mid-western Ireland. The diocese is in the secular province of Munster. The Diocese of Cashel was established in 1111 by the Synod of Rathbreasail and promoted to the status of a Metropolitan Province in 1152 by the...

.

Location and access

It is located in the Golden Vale

Golden Vale

The Golden Vale is an area of rolling pastureland in the civil province of Munster, southwestern Ireland. Covering parts of three counties, Limerick, Tipperary and Cork, it is the best land in Ireland for dairy farming....

 midway between the market and tourist towns of Cahir

Cahir

Cahir is a town in South Tipperary in Ireland. The town is best known for its castle and the Swiss Cottage. It is in the barony of Iffa and Offa West.-Location and access:...

 and Cashel

Cashel, County Tipperary

Cashel is a town in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 2936 at the 2006 census. The town gives its name to the ecclesiastical province of Cashel. Additionally, the cathedra of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly was originally in the town prior to the English Reformation....

. Bypassed in October 2007 by the M8

M8 motorway (Ireland)

The M8 motorway is an inter-urban motorway in Ireland, which forms part of the road from the capital - Dublin - to Cork city. The 149 km motorway commences in the townland of Aghaboe, County Laois and runs through the counties of Kilkenny, North Tipperary, South Tipperary and Limerick,...

, the main road through the village is a section of the R639

R639 road

The R639 road is one of Ireland's regional roads. Once designated the N8 national primary road , it was reclassified in stages as the R639 following the progressive opening of sections of the M8 motorway, which rendered the single carriageway N8 redundant as a national primary road...

. Two other roads, the R687 to Clonmel

Clonmel

Clonmel is the county town of South Tipperary in Ireland. It is the largest town in the county. While the borough had a population of 15,482 in 2006, another 17,008 people were in the rural hinterland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian army which sacked both...

 and the L3121 road to Golden

Golden, County Tipperary

Golden is a village in South Tipperary in Ireland. The village is situated on the River Suir. It is located between the towns of Cashel and Tipperary on the N74 road. In older times the village was known as Goldenbridge...

, begin at the centre of the village.

Amenities and facilities

A small community, New Inn has three pubs, two schools, one shop, a convent and Church, a Community Centre, a Tennis Club, where the renowned player Eamon Walsh plays and a GAA

Gaelic Athletic Association

The Gaelic Athletic Association is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders...

 pitch, which is home to Rockwell Rovers GAA Club . To the south of the village is Outrath Co-op, which serves the large agricultural hinterland of the village. Rockwell College

Rockwell College

Rockwell College, founded in 1864, is a private Catholic secondary school near Cashel, South Tipperary in Ireland. It offers day as well as full boarding. Rockwell is run by the Holy Ghost Fathers.-Politics:...

, a prestigious private secondary school run by the Holy Ghost Fathers

Holy Ghost Fathers

The Congregation of the Holy Spirit is a Roman Catholic congregation of priests, lay brothers, and since Vatican II, lay associates...

, is situated 3 km (1.9 mi) from the centre of the village.

History

The village lies within the townland

Townland

A townland or bally is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. The townland system is of Gaelic origin—most townlands are believed to pre-date the Norman invasion and most have names derived from the Irish language...

 of Loughkent and the village was formerly known by this name. It is derived . Older anglicisations include Lochken and Loghkean. Another old name for the village was Graigkent (likely ). A local legend holds that Loch Ceann pertains to a great battle fought in the area in antiquity, or during the early medieval period. According to this tale, the heads of the vanquished warriors were severed by the winners, and cast into a lake.

The Whiteboys

The area around present-day New Inn was a hotbed of agrarian unrest and Whiteboy activity in the late 1700s.

The road through New Inn

It is not known when the present settlement of New Inn was founded. It is not listed on either Herman Moll

Herman Moll

Herman Moll , was a cartographer, engraver, and publisher. Moll moved to England in 1678 and opened a book and map store in London...

's 1714 map of Ireland, nor is it depicted in Taylor and Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland, published in 1778. While New Inn does not appear to have existed in the 18th century, the road now known as the R639 between Cashel and Cahir clearly did. At that time the R639 was not the main Dublin to Cork route (it did not exist north of Cashel until 1739, nor south of Cahir to Fermoy until after 1811). It is probable that the present settlement developed after the turnpike

Turnpike trust

Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...

 road-building drive

History of Roads in Ireland

There have been routes and trackways in Ireland connecting settlements and facilitating trade since ancient times and the country now has an extensive network of public roads connecting all parts of the island.-Early history:...

 of the 18th century was substantially complete by the early 19th century, when Charles Bianconi

Charles Bianconi

-Life and work:Born Carlo Bianconi in Costa Masnaga on September 24, 1786, he moved from an area poised to fall to Napoleon and travelled to Ireland in 1802, via England, just four years after the 1798 rebellion. At the time, British fear of continental invasion resulted in an acute sense of...

 ran regular coach services throughout the region from 1815, establishing several inns along popular routes in the process.

New Inn, 1940

In November 1940

1940 in Ireland

-Events:*January - The Irish Naval Service acquires the first of its six Motor Torpedo Boats, M1.*January 17 - Enid of neutral Norway sailing from Steinkjer to Dublin, 10 miles north of Shetland, goes to assist SS Polzella which had been torpedoed by . U25 then shells and sinks Enid.*February 7 -...

 a local woman, Moll MacArthy, was murdered in field at Marlhill. An unmarried mother of seven, MacArthy was shot in the face at close range. Her neighbour, a man named Harry Gleeson, was arrested, charged and convicted of her murder, and hanged in Dublin. The Murder of Marlhill, as the event has become known, continues to spark controversy both in the local community and historiographical circles, with many maintaining Gleeson's innocence. A book and two RTE

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

 television programmes have documented the event.

Rockwell Rovers

The local GAA club Rockwell Rovers was the first ever club of its kind set up in Ireland. It was originally located in Rockwell College but moved to the village in 1932. Since 1946 the club has competed in senior competitions both football and hurling. In 1955, Rockwell Rovers won the Tipperary Football Championship beating the club's 'B' team in the final 5-26 to 30 points. The following six years the club retained the title, losing it in 1962 to rival club Golden/Kilfeacle. The club won the hurling championship four times in its lifetime 1924, 1956, 1983 and 2010. The GAA pitch has under gone major transformation in recent years. There is also a 100ft hurling wall was erected and is used regularly.

Knockgraffon

The parish of New Inn also includes Knockgraffon

Knockgraffon

Knockgraffon is a townland in the civil parish of same name in South Tipperary, Ireland The civil parish lies in the barony of Middle Third. It is also part of the ecclesiastical parish of New Inn & Knockgraffon in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly...

 , a rural locality which is home to a ruined medieval church and graveyard. Knockgraffon was once a village in its own right, but the settlement was abandoned some time in the eigteenth century. Around 1610

1610 in Ireland

-Events:* The Irish historian Seathrún Céitinn, known in English as Geoffrey Keating was appointed Parish Priest of Knockgraffon, near Cahir, County Tipperary-Births:...

, the Irish historian Geoffrey Keating

Geoffrey Keating

Seathrún Céitinn, known in English as Geoffrey Keating, was a 17th century Irish Roman Catholic priest, poet and historian. He was born in County Tipperary c. 1569, and died c. 1644...

 was appointed Parish Priest of Knockgraffon. Interesting features include a fine Motte

Motte-and-bailey

A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...

, a church and a castle. The motte

Motte

Motte may be:*Motte-and-bailey, a type of construction used in castles*Isaac Motte, an 18th century American statesman*La Motte , various places with this name-See also:* Mote * Mott...

 was built by the English of Leinster beside the River Suir when they were on a raid against Donal Mor O'Brien, King of Thomond

Thomond

Thomond The region of Ireland associated with the name Thomond is County Clare, County Limerick and north County Tipperary; effectively most of north Munster. The name is used by a variety of establishments and organisations located in , or associated with the region...

, in 1192. It was given by the King to William de Braose, but later taken from him and granted to Philip of Worcester. Nearby is a ruined 13th century nave-and-chancel church with an east window inserted in the 15th century. A few hundred yards further away is a 16th century tower built by the Butlers

Butler dynasty

Butler dynasty refers to the several branches of the Butler family that has its origins in the Cambro-Norman family that participated in the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century. Variant spellings include le Boteler and le Botiller. The surname has its origins in the hereditary office of...

.

Knockgraffon was the centre of the O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan

O'Sullivan or simply Sullivan is an Irish surname, associated with the southwestern part of Ireland, originally found in County Tipperary before the Anglo-Norman invasion, then in County Cork and County Kerry, which due to emigration is also common in Australia, North America and Britain...

 clan's ancestral lands, until that family was displaced by the Normans in the early 13th century. In 1998, the Knockgraffon motte was purchased by an O'Sullivan (Gary Brian Sullivan of Statesboro, Georgia, USA) from its Norman-Irish owner (Donal Keating of Cahir, Ireland). It is the first time that Knockgraffon has been back in O'Sullivan possession for nearly 800 years. Other townlands include: Ardneasa, Boytonrath

Boytonrath

Boytonrath is a townland in the barony of Middle Third , Ireland. It is completely rural today and the nearest town is New Inn. It is also part of the Roman Catholic parish of New Inn & Knockgraffon in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. In the past though, it was a parish in its own...

, Chamberlainstown, Derryclooney, Garrandea, Garranlea

Garranlea

Garranlea is a townland of the Roman Catholic parish of New Inn and Knockgraffon in County Tipperary, Ireland. Like almost all Irish townlands, Garranlea is very old, and almost certainly dates to the Early Christian period, if not before...

, Lagganstown

Lagganstown

Lagganstown is a townland of the Roman Catholic parish of New Inn and Knockgraffon, in South Tipperary, Ireland. The area is predominantly agricultural, but there is also a Roadstone quarry in the locale. In addition to New Inn, the village of Golden serves the townland....

, Lough Kent, Masterstown, Marlhill, Outrath.

People

Marlhill outside New Inn is also the birthplace of Lena Rice, the only Irish woman to win Wimbledon singles title in tennis.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland