New Birmingham

New Birmingham is a small village in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located approximately 15 kilometres from Thurles and also on the R689 regional road between Urlingford and Fethard. It is within the townland of Glengoole (from Irish: Gleann an Ghuail, meaning "glen of the coal"),[1] and is in the barony of Slievardagh.

This article is about the village in Ireland. For the town in the United States, see New Birmingham, Texas.
New Birmingham

Gleann an Ghuail
Village
New Birmingham
Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 52°37′05″N 7°38′16″W
CountryIreland
ProvinceMunster
CountyCounty Tipperary
Elevation
172 m (564 ft)
Population
 (2006)
 • Rural
481
Time zoneUTC+0 (WET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-1 (IST (WEST))
Irish Grid ReferenceS245519

History

New Birmingham was founded by Sir Vere Hunt (1761-1818), a wealthy and eccentric Anglo-Irish landowner, with the help of Fr Michael Meighan, the local parish priest, in the early 1800s, for the workers in his coal mine at Glengoole. In his entertaining diary, he records having laid out the street pattern in person.[2] He also obtained a charter giving him the right to hold one or two markets, and several fairs every year. Hunt evidently hoped to turn New Birmingham into a major manufacturing centre, but he failed in this aim, as he did in most of his business ventures.[3]

See also

References
  1. Placenames Database of Ireland
  2. Lenox-Conyngham, Melosina Diaries of Ireland Lilliput Press Dublin 1998
  3. Lewis, Samuel A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland 1837


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