Ballyhale
| Ballyhale Irish: Baile Héil | |
| County Kilkenny | |
|---|---|
| File:Ballyhale Village.jpg Main Street | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | S544354 |
| Location: | 52°28’2"N, 7°12’2"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 174 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Callan |
Ballyhale is a village in the south of County Kilkenny, south of the city of Kilkenny and roughly halfway to Waterford city. It is in the Barony of Knocktopher.
A small stream flows through Ballyhale before joining the Little Arrigle River in Kiltorcan.
The village gives its name to the wider townland.
Name
The name Ballyhale is from the Irish Baile Héil, meaning 'Hale's Town or Howel's Town: it has been suggested that it is derived from the Walsh family, among whom Hale or Howl is known to have been a Christian name. However, John Howell is recorded in the barony in 1411,> and "Edmund Howling of Ballyheale" forfeited the townland of Ballyhale in 1653 and was transplanted to Connaught.
Historically the name have been spelt in a variety of ways including; 'Howelleston', 'Ballyhaele', Ballihowell, and Baile Haeil. In 1802 Tighe recorded ballyhale as a small village with "little more than twelve houses", permission of a fair, and a ruin of Roman Catholic chapel. By 1851 the town is recorded as Ballyhale town. By 1985 the post office address was Ballyhale, or Baile Héil. The village gives its name to the wider townland of Ballyhale.
History
In 1832, around 200,000 people from surrounding counties gathered at an anti-tithe meeting at Ballyhale in July 1832, in part to intimidate jurors at the murder trial in Ballyhale,[1] for the trial of those charged in aftermath of the Battle of Carrickshock, otherwise known as the Carrickshock incident; one of the most deadly incidents of the Tithe War.[2] The event marked the beginning of the end of tithes in Ireland. Those charged were successfully defended by Daniel O'Connell, who addressed the gathering in Irish. It was the first 'monster meeting' of that time. Such peaceful gatherings were to become the hallmark of the Young Ireland and Repeal Movement that was founded in 1839 and which peaked with Daniel O’Connell's oration at Tara, 1843, where c.750,000 gathered. Michael Davitt's Museum records show that the Land League campaigns, co-founded in 1879, followed that path too to ensure that it enabled tenant farmers to be able to own the land on which they worked.
,_County_Kilkenny_(geograph_6348519).jpg)
Ballyhale railway station, on the Dublin-Waterford railway line, opened on 20 May 1853, but finally closed on 1 January 1963.[3]
About the village
Ballyhale's main tourist attraction is the Jack Nicklaus designed Mount Juliet Golf & Spa Hotel golf course at nearby Thomastown. It was the venue for the 2002 and 2004 WGC-American Express Championships, having previously hosted the PGA European Tour Irish Open on three occasions between 1993 and 1995. Other tourist sites in the area include the mediæval Ballyhale Castle & Chapel (also protected since 2002), and two protected ringforts (Rath/ Castle) which are located to the east of the town.
Ballyhale is known locally for its Kiltorcan Old Quarry,[4] a sandstone quarry and a site claimed to be of international importance. It is reputed to be 400 million years old, and known internationally for its discovery of fossil ferns since 1853, some pieces of which are on display in The Natural History Museum in Dublin and Rothe House Museum, Kilkenny. The Quarry was opened commercially in the 1980s. According to by local authorities, in Kilkenny County Council's Plans for Ballyhale, Kiltorcan Old Quarry of sandstone was designated as an "area of specific interest" in 2002.
Sport
- Gaelic sports: Ballyhale Shamrocks GAA
- Golf: Mount Juliet Golf Course
The Treacy Clan records show that Ballyhale had a well-known Cricket Team in 1884.
References
- ↑ Kilkenny: History and Society by William Nolan & Kevin Whelan. Dublin 6: Geography Publications. 1990. p. 501. ISBN 0906602130.
- ↑ "The Carrickshock Incident,1831: Social Memory and an Irish cause celebre". The Tracey/ Tract/ Treacy Clan. http://www.traceyclann.com/files/carrickshock.pdf.
- ↑ "Ballyhale station". Railscot - Irish Railways. http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf.
- ↑ "Kiltorcan Quarry website". http://kiltorcanquarry.com/.
- Hogan, John (1860). "Topographical and Historic illustrations of the suburbs of Kilkenny" (in en). The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society (Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society) 2-3: 377. https://books.google.com/books?id=2sNJAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA377. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
- Hogan, John (1867). "Topographical and Historic illustrations of the suburbs of Kilkenny" (in en). The Journal of the Kilkenny and South-east of Ireland Archaeological Society (Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society) 8: 192. https://books.google.com/books?id=j25EAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA192. Retrieved 1 October 2020.