New Birmingham (known locally as Brimigim or Glengoole) is a small village of approximately 20 houses, in the parish of Kilcooly,[1] 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'),[2] and is in the barony of Slievardagh.

New Birmingham Gleann an Ghuail
Village
New Birmingham Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 52°37′05″N 7°38′16″W
Country	Ireland
Province	Munster
County	County Tipperary
Elevation	172 m (564 ft)
Time zone	UTC+0 (WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-1 (IST (WEST))
Irish Grid Reference	S245519

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. New Birmingham was a landlord-inspired creation whose location was chosen due to the site of a catholic chapel. This new town was said to be very different from those established in Ulster in the early seventeenth century.[3] In his entertaining diary, he records having laid out the street pattern in person.[4] 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, due to not having the financial necessities to build this town.[5] As a result of this failure, the village was captured by the Catholic church through the parish priest, and the landlords were withdrawn from ownership of this city, although it must be remembered that New Birmingham is neither a landlord or chapel village.[3]

See also

• List of towns and villages in Ireland

References

External links

• http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/census2006_Table_7_and_12.pdf