Bunclody

History

Although a hamlet already existed here, Bunclody was raised to the status of a post town in 1577 by alderman James Barry, sheriff of Dublin. The town was the scene of the Battle of Bunclody during the 1798 rebellion. In the 19th century, a small canal was made, drawing water from the Clody river, to provide drinking water for the town. The canal still flows along the middle of the town's main street. During the Tithe War, 1830–1836, 'Newtownbarry' was the scene of a clash between locals and the officials of the Crown. Locals had become enraged by the seizure of property by the police and army to pay for the Protestant Episcopal polity. According to James Connolly, "twelve peasants were shot and twenty fatally wounded". In 1884, a metal bridge was built across the River Slaney upstream from today's bridge. It was built of iron from New Ross, and assembled in the bridge meadow beside where the bridge stood. This bridge was washed away in 1965 by a flood. The remains of the bridge were visible from the bank of the river for some years, until it was removed in 2007, during the building of Bunclody Golf and Fishing Club beside the River Slaney. Notable residents included the travel writer Mabel Hall-Dare (1847–1929), who grew up in the town before her marriage, in 1877, to the explorer J. Theodore Bent (1852–1897). At nearby Ballyrankin House lived the mother and daughter writers Moira O'Neill (1864–1955) and Molly Keane (1904–1996). The town was a site of three fatalities during the Irish Civil War. The first was James Roche, a member of the Anti-Treaty IRA, who died in a car crash on 4 July 1922. The second person killed was Lieutenant Ignatius "Nacey" Redmond, a local member of Sinn Féin, who held the post of secretary. He had overseen pro-treaty meetings in…