New Inn, County Tipperary

New Inn Loch Cheann
—  Town  —
New Inn Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 52°15′45″N 7°31′31″W / 52.2625°N 7.52528°W / 52.2625; -7.52528Coordinates: 52°15′45″N 7°31′31″W / 52.2625°N 7.52528°W / 52.2625; -7.52528
Country	Ireland
Province	Munster
County	County Tipperary
Population (est.)
- Urban	150
- Rural	500
Time zone	WET (UTC+0)
- Summer (DST)	IST (WEST) (UTC-1)
Irish Grid Reference

The R639 (i.e. the former N8) through New Inn.

New Inn on the N8 (2007)

New Inn (Irish: Loch Cheann) is a village in the barony of Middle Third, South Tipperary in Ireland. It is also part of the parish of New Inn & Knockgraffon in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly.

Location and access

It is located in the Golden Vale midway between the market and tourist towns of Cahir and Cashel. Bypassed in October 2007 by the M8, the main road through the village is a section of the R639. Two other roads, the R687 to Clonmel and the L3121 road to Golden, 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 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, a prestigious private secondary school run by the Holy Ghost Fathers, is situated 3 km (1.9 mi) from the centre of the village.

History

The village lies within the townland of Loughkent and the village was formerly known by this name. It is derived from Irish: Loch Ceann meaning "lake of the head". Older anglicisations include Lochken and Loghkean. Another old name for the village was Graigkent (likely from Irish: Gráig Ceann meaning "hamlet of the head").^[1] 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'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.^[2][3] 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).^[4] It is probable that the present settlement developed after the turnpike road-building drive of the 18th century was substantially complete by the early 19th century, when Charles Bianconi ran regular coach services throughout the region from 1815, establishing several inns along popular routes in the process.

New Inn, 1940

In November 1940 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 television programmes have documented the event.^[5]

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 Motte at Knockgraffon

Knockgraffon Castle.

The parish of New Inn also includes Knockgraffon (Irish: Cnoc Rafann), 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, the Irish historian Geoffrey Keating was appointed Parish Priest of Knockgraffon. Interesting features include a fine Motte, a church and a castle. The motte 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, 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.

Knockgraffon was the centre of the O'Sullivan 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, Chamberlainstown, Derryclooney, Garrandea, Garranlea, Lagganstown, 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.^[6]

References

1. ^ Placenames Database of Ireland (see archival records)
2. ^ Taylor and Skinner's Maps of the Roads of Ireland (Dublin, 1778)
3. ^ http://www.swaen.com/zoom_map_large.htm?zoomifyImagePath=/os/zoom/02976/&zoomifyFadeInSpeed=10
4. ^ J.H Andrews, Shapes of Ireland : Maps and Their Makers, 1564-1839 (Dublin, 1997), p. 269.
5. ^ http://www.geographypublications.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=36
6. ^ Eileen Bell, "Lena Rice of New Inn", Tipperary Historical Journal (1988), pp. 13-14.

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland