placenamesAbington
Mainistir Uaithne
A local account written in 2016 recalls the shops, hall and water supply of the Tipperary village in the 1960s.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Mainistir Uaithne · Irish · main form · validated name
- Abington · English · main form
Place & story
A hall remembered for dancing
Dermot Hammersley’s account of Rearcross in the 1960s recalls Mick Carey’s dance hall near Kennedy’s premises. Community organisations held fundraising dances there, and the local drama group staged plays. Hammersley remembered soap flakes being spread on the timber floor before dances, a specific recollection of how the hall was prepared for an evening’s entertainment. [2]
Services gathered around village shops
The same account places the manual telephone exchange with the post-office business at Packie Collins’ former grocery premises, later run by Dan and Kathleen Kennedy. Hammersley dates the telephone system’s automation to the 1980s. He also recalled a dispensary visited weekly by a doctor from Newport, illustrating the combination of local premises and services arriving from a nearby town. [2]
Water brought to households
Hammersley dates the Rearcross Water Scheme to 1968, recalling that residents had previously collected water from local wells. Bill Duggan supervised the workers installing its pipe network. This dated infrastructure change belongs to the village’s later history alongside its better-known nineteenth-century metal church. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Abington. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- A Stroll through Rearcross in the 1960’s, written July 2016 and published 5 September 2022 · Dermot Hammersley, Rearcross FC
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.